domestic violence

Fascinating transformation

Jender6 Comments

We had an extensive and remarkably cordial discussion with the founder of a Facebook site devoted to jokes about punching women. That site has now been transformed. Those jokes are still there, but rather hard to find– what’s prominent, and all over the place, is anti-domestic-violence messages, and links to relevant resources. They now clearly see it as part of their mission to change the minds of people who think that domestic violence is acceptable.

It’s fine to tell a joke, and it’s fine to be offended by that same joke or to laugh, But it’s not fun to think it’s just a joke. Imagine this, If for every 3 people who joined this group 1 person thought it was real, then there are 10,000 people who believe domestic violence is acceptable, If just one of those people change their mind because of this group, then we’ve done more than ever imagined.

Admittedly, this is a somewhat unusual way to try to get an anti-domestic-violence message out. And many of us probably still have problems with it. But it is an improvement. (And maybe it *is* a good idea to have a site that offers domestic violence jokes then bombards the viewer with anti-domestic-violence messages. It may be a good way of reaching people who might not otherwise be reached.) However, I think it’s worth giving credit where it’s due: to Lekan, who made these alterations, and also to all of you who joined in the discussion that brought this about. (I say this even though I still think the jokes are hate speech. An interesting question is whether, in full context, surrounded by anti-violence messages, they can still be seen as legitimating violence.)

It’s worth noting also, though, that the some of the original site’s fans are not well pleased by this development and have set up a new version. (Thanks, T and Bakka!)

6 thoughts on “Fascinating transformation”

  1. Looks like there might be some infighting going on there now… Notice the description at the new version:

    This is a REPLACEMENT group for the original one “reasons when its acceptable to punch a woman in the face” which has now been turned into a domestic violence awareness group….(thanks very much John Bav) EPIC FAIL!!! which is not why i joined it and I’m sure I’m not the only one!!

    So back to the ironic comedy of reasons when its acceptable to punch a woman

    There’s also a lot of flack directed against John Bav on recent Wall posts (btw, you do not need to join the group to see all this…)

  2. Saw it too, Rachel. Pity that people don’t seem to get what it is about and all the more kudos to John Bav for taking the step to change the nature of his group.
    Considering the nature of the medium, I think it’s actually pretty brave.

  3. Unfortunately unless you saw the original group you may have no idea how appalling this group was. John came in under his own steam and cleaned it all up, including links to youtube video of women being beaten. This of course is a more serious matter. The guy who started the group did not take it down despite many days of reports and protests and only allowed John to clean it up, after the horse had well and truly bolted. Facebook have not taken the group down and have not commented on the fact that they links be posted on the site to criminal content where women had been filmed against their wishes being beaten. John took these links off, not the administrator or facebook.

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