Hi comrades, want to give you all an informal update on the discussions around the site’s misogyny problems that’ve been happening over the last several days. I wanna make sure you know that the admin/mod team has seen all of that discourse and we’ve been actively discussing solutions in the matrix mod chat. We’re taking this shit very seriously and acknowledge that we haven’t used a heavy enough hand on misogynistic rhetoric. As some of you saw we nuked that cheating thread from a couple weeks ago and handed out temp bans to the most egregious offenders. Idk how that was allowed to run it’s course but we apologize for that oversight. We’re going to do better.

We’ve come up with some ideas for how to improve this part of the site culture and we want to get suggestions from y’all as well, since the alarm was sounded on this by our beautiful c/traa posters to begin with. Our ideas so far include:

  1. A zero-tolerance policy towards any even remotely misogynistic/patriarchal posts or comments, as too much has slipped through the cracks on that, establishing a clear protocol for bans for violating rules against misogyny, and ideally tracking repeat offenders in a way that makes deciding a course of action easy when they reoffend.

  2. Uphold TC69 thought by starting up a book club (and hopefully more to follow) on feminist theory and encouraging mass participation, particularly from the he/him’s on the site. “The Will to Change” by bell hooks has been suggested by multiple people as a great starting point but please feel free to suggest any other works.

  3. Relaunching /c/menby with a trusted educated mod team and a specific focus on countering mainstream narratives about masculinity, relationships and sex that breed reactionary, patriarchal attitudes

  4. Encouraging [namely femme] participation in /c/womenby and taking steps to revitalize that sub as an excellent source of discussion on feminism and intersectionality

  5. Holding another mod drive to get more folks into mod positions in our communities who can help weed out reactionary attitudes

  6. Encouraging users to use the report button often on any post that seems even remotely sus, with the promise that no one’s going to be punished for “report abuse” for reporting posts in obvious good faith

Please let me know your thoughts on the above or any other ideas you have for making the site better, safer and more inclusive for our femme comrades. Once we’ve fully hammered out plans and updated policy we plan to make an announcement post highlighting these changes for the whole userbase. Thank you all for being here and being who you are feminism trans-heart

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    21·
    9 hours ago

    I just looked in the mod log.

    dead-dove-3

    Uncritical support for addressing the encroaching misogyny from misogynists that should have never come to Hexbear.

  • CantaloupeAss [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    13·
    9 hours ago

    The bigger and bigger dominoes meme where the small domino says “should I tell this woman’s husband that she’s cheating on him with me?” and the biggest domino is a Hexbear mod with a scalpel between my legs

  • AernaLingus [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    14·
    11 hours ago

    fidel-salute-big Uncritical support to our mods and admins, unlimited banhammers on all misogynists. May all comrades partake in self-reflection to identify and weed out misogynistic beliefs and attitudes within ourselves that lead us to hurt and exclude, intentionally or otherwise.

    As for the book mentioned (The Will to Change), I personally didn’t finish it the last time I read it after it was recommended here; I got about a third of the way through before I lost interest, mainly because it felt sort of basic to me. But we’re all at different points in our journeys, and I’m sure there will be still be things I can take away from it. Plus, if we’re having a large sitewide book club it’ll be easier to stick with so that I can participate in the discussion threads!

  • Angel [any]@hexbear.netM
    53·
    18 hours ago

    Personally speaking, to give my own insight into another subject that others have discussed in this thread, I am all for a neutral (meaning neither specifically masculine nor feminine-aligned) non-binary space.

    Seeing cisheteronormativity and binarism rife on every corner of the internet is deeply exhausting and honestly makes me feel like I’m “broken” for existing in a way that is far beyond any of it.

    Not all trans people are non-binary either, so I can’t say that I’m 100% confident that enbyphobia/transmedicalism would never “leak,” even if just a little bit, into this community.

    Truthfully, as inclusive as Hexbear can seem, I don’t give any unambiguous trust to anyone who is cis, hetero, white, or neurotypical. The fact that this thread needed to be made in the first place can show you why.

    “Leftists” will go mask off and spew hatred towards someone like me when it no longer benefits them to pretend that they’re not hateful bigots.

  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    33·
    17 hours ago

    I missed the cheating thread, just read some of this one and through the modlog, and it seems…so easy not to be like this. I’m both dissapointed that this even happened, and happy to be somewhere that gives a shit enough to go hard once it did.

  • niph [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    47·
    20 hours ago

    I just read the thread and even though most comments are deleted you can get the flavour of what people were saying. The way that some people are almost gleeful about the prospect of a woman being physically endangered is gross.

    I think there might be a difficult discussion to be had about whether there’s a link between some of the more general politically violent rhetoric / fantasising on here and an implication that any violence against perpetrators of perceived wrongs is justified. I would hope comrades are able to distinguish between supporting resistance movements and the violence that’s necessary for the overthrow of capitalism on the one hand, and violence against individuals perceived to have committed some personal moral infraction on the other. But Western and especially Anglo culture is extremely individualistic, and that has created the framework through which many users on this site see the world.

    I’m not sure what solutions there are to this, but some self-reflection is likely the place to start.