Lefty Pinkoes

21 May 2013

The battle the GLBTIQ community could do without

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This week on Lefty Pinkoes we explore the seedy side of social media and look at how it has been used to denounce, belittle, shame and ostracize people within our own community, by people within our own community.

As we surge through the electronic landscape of the 21^st century, the way we interact, engage, communicate and inspire is becoming more and more digitized. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, blogs and the like serve to celebrate our achievements, milestones, aspirations and dreams.

Fluffy kittens and rainbow vistas aside, there’s also a dark side to social media that has the potential to cause harm, damage confidence, incite fear and result in anxiety and depression.

Native Americans and more locally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, are grappling with – and tackling! – the social problems of ‘lateral violence’ – a construct where oppressed minorities foster oppressive behaviors towards their peers.

Lateral violence can incorporate snide comments, passive aggression, overt aggression, shaming and bullying. In the distorted dichotomy the perpetrators of lateral violence are often those we should feel a sense of solidarity with; while victims are often peers or people we should view with a sense of empathy and heart.

Tonight’s guests are two women who have experienced and fought what we’d call lateral violence. Their experiences took the form of cyber bullying that sought to shut down their opinions and their honest faux pas in a manner that is distressing, vindictive and ugly.

In raising this issue we encourage those of you who feel distressed or disturbed by the content to talk to the Victorian Gay and Lesbian Switchboard or beyondblue. Outside of Australia, we encourage you to search online for your local GLBTIQ help line and associated online resources.