A meme about girls keeping their breasts inside their shirts is making the rounds and some people are asking if it’s cyber bullying.
So here is the background and controversy according to Headline News:
“Last summer, on June 18, a Tumblr user posted the original four-pane image, seemingly innocuous amongst the typical flotsam of a teenage Tumblr page. Though it was deleted quickly, the picture had struck a chord that no delete button could erase. The “Hey girls, did you know?” picture went viral, and others followed. Some responses attacked the original message, including a popular copy that read, “Girls, did you know that, uhmm, your boobs can go wherever they want. Because it’s YOUR body.” Thousands of images cropped up on Facebook and Tumblr, ranging from the offensive (”Open books, not legs”) to the frustrated (”Hey girls, did you know? These pictures are really annoying.”) That’s the thing about memes. They never die, they simply evolve, folding over and into themselves in never-ending mutations and exchanges….”
So is this “slut-shaming” or just some good advice to keep your privates private?From Headline News:
“For those unfamiliar with the term, “slut-shaming” is a rather jarring umbrella term for any words or actions that seek to put down or guilt women and girls who, in some general court of opinion, act in perceived “slutty” or “promiscuous” ways. Rush Limbaugh chastising Sandra Fluke over issues of birth control? Slut-shaming. An Instagram question from Sweden asking for all “sluts” to be identified? Slut-shaming. And now, the once-innocuous picture of a girl advising other girls to cover up ranks among them….”
Some publications including The Daily Mail have called the trend alarming. From Headline News:
“A few things to note: Several voices have identified the term slut-shaming as self-defeating; bringing hurtful words and assumptions into conversations that may not have included them before. Also, if one were to scroll through the exhaustive tiles of “Hey Girls” pictures and their natural mutations, they would see several messages aimed at males, a fair amount fighting back against the shaming undertone of the original, and far more that veer off into predictably dadaist strains of parody.”
So my question is do you think this is cyber bullying or is this a message that girls needs to hear. Should other girls tell girls, hey you don’t have to reveal your private parts to draw attention or be validated?
I had a talk with my 11-year-old over the weekend about girls with low self-esteem and how they look to boys to lift their self-esteem and end up doing things they regret.
I think the message of being modest is a good one, but I guess it’s a question of how the message is presented and if girls feel intimidated by it?
What do you think?
Article source: http://blogs.ajc.com/momania/2013/01/15/hey-girls-breast-meme-cyber-bullying-or-reasonable-message-of-modesty/?cxntfid=blogs_momania
