I have had a lot of spare time over the last two days and SG has killed a lot of that time. A number of things have basically amazed/interested me but they are also just kind of concerning.
The first, mental health issues. Two different SG's in a short span of time on my feed displaying/sharing credible symptoms of serious mental health issues on their blogs, one of them putting out an entirely credible call for help/legitimately seemed like suicide potential given the circumstances. While there were a lot of good and supportive/non judgmental/non stigmatising responses there were a lot of "your beautiful" comments and very shallow "i send u love <3<3" comments. The latter comments really can't help and its a terrible time for that, if anything it may just compound body image issues they may have or be experiencing.
People in situations need to be encouraged to value their health, to seek out people they are comfortable with, and that there is nothing weak about seeking help. In my mind that is all you can really do. The extent some women feeling down/experiencing things seem to feel an 'obligation' to others on the website seems unhealthy. A number of feminist women I know have told me about the undue pressure put on women to be pleasant all the time, and I believe them. It makes me wonder if this community is one that some people get a little too attached to/lose perspective from sometimes (which to be fair is a pretty common issue with the internet generally).
This brings me to a second point, Fiction vs. Reality. I like to think I have a healthy skepticism of the stuff on this website. I am sure a decent amount of the stuff women put on the website is puff material to engender fans and followers, with little particular interest in actually dealing with/interacting with members. On a practical level, it would take too long/too many of them to ever keep track of. I really can't blame them for adopting such an attitude when there are seemingly so many members on the website who reduce themselves to fawning. There are a few grown men around that make me feel embarrassed. Anyways, some members seem to have pretty unrealistic expectations.
Third thing- there should be a means to get rid of really crass/creepy tags on sets/make them invisible. At the least, they should be discouraged. If this new website dominated by more visuals wants to not be or be seen as creepy then there is no place for crass tags on sets like “lickable asshole” of which I have seen a few.
Anyways, actual work and obligations really pick up again in the coming weeks so Ill probably be a whole let less active. To the very few people who might ever read this, I hope it was somewhat worthwhile
/ peace
