Facebook Activism?

So, on Thursday one of my (feminist) friends posted this picture on facebook:

She tagged the people she thought would appreciate the picture, and those people were duly appreciative. But between the combative tone of the picture, and one of the comments my friend made to someone else (my friend to a male feminist/supporter that he could "attack" from the inside), things went awry.  Essentially, one of my friends (let's refer to him as 'N'), posted a comment on the picture which essentially said "ooh, let's play girls against boys".  For some reason no one really recognized this as sarcasm, and the misunderstanding devolved into an argument, which probably could have been avoided with a simple apology, or explanation.  In the end 'N' got blocked from the conversation as the person who posted the picture (let's call her 'K') didn't want to continue with an argument that would only frustrate her.

Of course, after 'N' got banned, he posted a status saying "Blocked by [K]. Achievement? I think so. For having a legitimate argument? I think so." (For the record, 'K' is "infamous" in my school for being a "feminazi" who calls bullsh*t when she sees it [the latter is most definitely true, the former, not at all]).  Now, 'N's comment frankly seemed a bit petulant to me, but I wanted to focus on his "legitimate argument", and I did in fact address this on the comments.  The 'argument' he had first carried out on the picture didn't seem well formulated or coherent, but essentially boiled down to him believeing the picture was "inappropriately aggressive". When 'K's sister 'S' asked why he thought the picture was too aggressive, 'N' responded by saying:

[S], I say the picture is inappropriately aggressive because of the choice of words and the initial comments below the picture. I can't view the picture anymore, but I remember it using the word "fight" or something to that effect, which... may convey violent action. That, coupled with the comments below, such as your own -- "You can destroy them from the inside" (or whatever) were the cause of my disapproval, and as a result I sarcastically made my first comment. Which may have been distasteful, and/or taken seriously by others.

Another commenter 'M' added that "i completely agree with [N]. "you should be very, very afraid of me"... seriously? that's a threat that completely demeans the entire concept to be no better than what the cause is against." I posted a response in response to both of these posts, as well as my personal interpretation of the picture and the inciting incidence:

1) The top of the picture said "I fight back." and then listed things that the woman in the picture fight back against, some of which included violence, or a system that blames the victim, others which were simply gender biases. Between the two, I personally got the impression that The word "fight" was not necessarily meant in the violent sense, but rather in the protest sense of the word.  [This point was mainly a clarification for 'N', who could no longer view the picture/comments].

2) [K] said "attack" (just to correct your quotation), but I believe (hope) that she also meant this in a non-violent way, and what the substance of her comment was that [the male feminist commenter on the picture] (as a guy) can refute a misogynistic mindset.

3) The caption under the picture can seem over the top, but I took more of a "don't mess with me, because I can defend myself" rather than a threat to "attack" unprovoked. The unfortunate truth is that American society has some sort of perverse glee in victim-blaming and slut-shaming, which makes it a very dangerous world for women, because sometimes the victims are blamed to the extent that the perpetrator is not rebuked.

I think a lot of how both sides of this "argument" view the picture has a lot to do with the respective party's genders. Whereas you [N] and [M] viewed it as threatening or combative, I viewed as defensive. Why shouldn't men be afraid of me, when I'm supposed to be afraid of them? Of course the picture is abrasive, and it also seems to be divisive (as displayed in the comments here and the picture), which may be counter-productive. But it opened up a conversation, which, while full of misunderstandings, took place between people that *usually* respect one another. Anyway, that's my perspective. I commend whoever read through the whole thing. (Here's a cookie, and a smile :) [You can have a cookie as well, but I'm afraid I only have imaginary ones :/, the smile is real though :)]

The conversation continued beyond this, but I'm not going to regale you with the whole thing (at the moment its about 50 comments long...).  Though I believe I've always been a feminist, lately I've been doing a lot more reading, and talking to my friend 'S' a lot.  I think I'm still forming some of my opinions, but I appreciated this conversation, as mentioned above, because unlike most facebook conversations about sexism I've encountered, people were being civil and intelligent, something I strive to accomplish whenever I am engaged in a debate or argument, even if I feel passionately about the subject (maybe even especially).

So is this facebook activism?  I don't know, but I certainly hope that what I was saying made sense to the people on the opposite side of the argument, and that they accepted it.  The people engaged in the conversation weren't close-minded for the most part, and so I hope that my perspective may have helped to have them view the picture in a different way.  Their perspective certainly forced me to analyze how I felt about the picture, and how I responded to it, but everyone interprets things differently.

So, what issues (if any) are you passionate about?  What did you think of the picture?  Did you find you find it too aggressive (if so, why?) Or did it seem like a good message (again, if so, why?)? To the people following the blog please feel free to respond in the comments, but I ask that everyone remain civil and respectful of one another.

Recommendation: In keeping with the theme of this post, I recommend the blog Feministe, it's normally sharp, intelligent and sarcastic and is frequently witty and funny (in my opinion, I suppose)

P.S.  Hopefully the use of initials wasn't too confusing in the post, although, knowing me, I probably slipped up once and revealed someone's name. I was also wondering what people thought of the idea of me addressing the rest of the conversation next week (the "theme" could certainly be different from everyone else, though I would love to hear what you all think of the picture)?