> I am a 15-year-old girl.

[darwinwoodka@mastodon.social]

@osma @neil

How about we ban the abusers not the kids

[badambassador@social.vivaldi.net]

@neil @hedders I think this hints that the solution to this problem might not be of a legal nature.

OK, that reads like I'm suggesting something illegal would be the answer. Perhaps a better phrasing would be that there isn't a legislative answer to this question?

[cy@fedicy.us.to]

So women can't fix it? Not even with a shotgun? Just stand sadly by, while the white knights sweep in and save her?

I can't stop people from bitching that women are total hoes, nor would I. I'd stop people from feeling like that, by getting them into genuinely sweet relationships, if I could. Or at least getting their anger directed at oppressive rich fucks, and not sex workers. I don't have even that luxury though. So whatever.

[hedders@mas.to]

@badambassador @neil I think I agree with that. Or at least, not in the way Australia has done it and it looks like the UK will do it.

[passwordsarehard4@mastodon.social]

@PjpB @jima @neil that’s quite ableist of an outlook you have there. Not that you’ll care, you’ll forget about me as soon as you put your phone down it seems.

[renata@cosocial.ca]

@neil I have an easy fix no one wants to talk about:

Punish people who don’t treat women as humans

No buts. Just punish them.

[passwordsarehard4@mastodon.social]

@darwinwoodka @osma @neil that still means you need to identify everyone, though. A ban won’t work if they can just pick a different username and continue on.

[petermlittle@mas.to]

@neil Dreadful. I see this sort of thing professionally. I just can't understand how people treat each other like this. Then I see the examples set by trump et al . And grab them by the pussy. And people vote for him knowing that. We are, as a society, doomed. Lowest common denominator.

[finitum@mastodon.social]

@passwordsarehard4 @darwinwoodka @osma @neil when I ever modded anything and this popped up, that person would be on my radar & their life would be made more miserable one way or another. Ban, modify their text, delete aspects of their profile, go nuts.

Letting it skate bc oh well they'll just make a new account is just shit moderation. And Zucks promoting this behavior, not at a loss to prevent it, his sites have tools galore to stop it if they wanted.

[passwordsarehard4@mastodon.social]

@neil @cy when have the people with all the power just given it to the other side? Men won’t fix this because it’s not broken for men, it’s been working quite well for us for millennia.

[neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk]

@passwordsarehard4 @cy

> Men won’t fix this because it’s not broken for men

Some men might make no effort.

Some men may intentionally fight to keep the status quo.

Neither is really the audience of my toot (even if they might also benefit from it).

[arrowbearmoore@toad.social]

@neil The longer men fail to correct their problem, the bigger the problem gets.
I’m so glad my sisters didn’t have social media to deal with, the face to face misogyny & sexism was bad enough. My grandnieces will have to grow up even tougher. I hope they kick some asses.

[jbiserkov@mas.to]

@neil
Important article. I highly recommend the "Men who hate women" book by Laura Bates.
It shows how the hate towards women is not accidental, but the result of an highly organized political project that uses it to gain power. No ban on social media would accomplish anything unless that machine is stopped.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Who_Hate_Women_(Bates_book)

[cy@fedicy.us.to]

Well, that's what my father did when raising me, and look how I turned out!

CC: @osma@mas.to @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

[gilester45@twit.social]

@neil I wish I could say this article didn't read as I expected, that I was surprised by what it reports.

I remember some boys at school could talk like that. Everyone avoided them. Lads will be lads, we said. This was the nineties.

Decades on, that attitude has not only survived, it's been legitimised on an industrial scale, by algorithms, influencers and people in power.

Preparing my kids for this world, giving them the skills and fortitude needed to traverse it, is a helluva challenge.

[osma@mas.to]

Media is a service which exerts editorial control over its content. Relinquish that control, and it becomes a conduit for messages.
@hedders @neil

[osma@mas.to]

Nope. Social networks did that. Social media subverted it to sell advertising.
@CordiallyChloe @neil

[cordiallychloe@tech.lgbt]

@osma @neil

Great, can you name some active social network that you're referring to that would be viable still if we abolished social media?

[neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk]

@CordiallyChloe

Yes!

@osma

[nini@oldbytes.space]

@Colman @neil We have to dismantle the patriarchy.