Had to read Lean In because female friends and colleagues are reading it and I want to be in on what they are taking about and hip to when they are using Sandberg's sound bites/recommendations on me (I am female, so ideas will be tested on me before my male counterparts).
DK member Susan from 29 contributed a well-written review back in March if you want to learn more about the book or harvest diary ideas. I learned a little about myself as I read the book and came up with a few arguments over what she has to say, but that's not why I'm writing at the moment.
The whole time I was reading, Facebook's big misogyny problem kept coming to mind, and I found it difficult to take anything Sandberg had to say seriously.
I Googled around for words from Sandberg or Facebook of any kind that address the hypocrisy, but the top search results led to, ironically, a Facebook page called, Sheryl Sandberg "LEAN IN" and Remove Misogyny from FB.
Pointedly, the banner on this Facebook page is a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: "There comes a time when silence is betrayal." Sheryl really needs to come out with a statement that includes actions that Facebook intends to take to address violence against and objectification of women of all ages in the form of pictures, words, videos, and even direct threats on numerous pages on the site. Posting rapes to Facebook is evidentally a new trend.
I realize that Sandberg alone can't rid Facebook of all the pages that have made the social media site an unsafe place, but if she can be such a strong advocate for herself, and claim to be an advocate for other women in the corporate world, can't she also be an advocate for all women? Or has the topic become too big of a risk to her career to lean in on?
Generally, with an issue like this, our community would organize a boycott, but that's not the answer here. I like Facebook, many of us here at DK do. At it's simplest, it's fun, and I'm in touch in some sweet ways with friends who are too far away to spend time with. And it's my favorite news feed. So easy to customize. At it's best, Facebook is part of a social media machine that is helping bring attention to important issues and growing and catalyzing critical movements locally and globally.
But there are alternative actions we can take. The Facebook page directed at Ms. Sandberg and one of Facebook's darker sides (privacy will always be an issue - it's the internet) holds a link to a Change.org petition that you should read and consider signing.
Also worth reading:
A group of leading women’s rights organizations from around the world, including MissRepresentation.org, have signed an open letter to Facebook asking the company to do a better job of monitoring hate speech directed at women and girls within their massive social networking site
Source:
MissRepresentation.org
This letter has led to growing pressure on companies to remove advertising from offensive FB page and FB in general via the #FBRape Twitter campaign. According to an article in the International Business Times yesterday:
As of Friday afternoon, WAM said that seven companies -- including the Nissan UK unit of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (OTCMKTS:NSANY) and the privately held WestHost -- have agreed to pull their ads from the site. Others, such as the Zipcar unit of Avis Budget Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR), say they are investigating the matter.
Social media helped create this mess, we can use it to clean it up. Lean in.