You guys have seen the post FYI (if you’re a teenage girl) circulating on Facebook, right?  If not, go read it and the comments.  Really.  We’ll be here when you get back.

So WOWZAS, huh?

This writer is encouraging girls not to post sexually provocative pictures of themselves on social media.  I don’t see anything wrong with that.  Girls shouldn’t post sexually provocative pictures of themselves online.  Creepers, bullies, and future employers always find that shit, not to mention the fact that a single poor decision like sharing one’s boobies with the world could end up haunting somebody for a lifetime, emerging and reemerging at the least opportune times.

I agree with the writer there.  It’s not about censoring women or making them feel ashamed of their bodies.  It’s about not making stupid decisions.  If you wouldn’t walk next door and shove your privates in a stranger’s face while pouting suggestively, you shouldn’t duck face and stick your ass out for a camera.  Rule to live by.  (Unless you’re drunk.  Or at a bachelorette party.  Or a stripper.  Then by all means, duck face and stick your ass out till the cows come home.)  ((<— Just kidding.  Don’t do it.))  (((Unless you really want to, of course.  And you’ve carefully considered all the repercussions and come to the conclusion that the act of duck facing and assing online is worth any backlash you’ll encounter.  It’s your face and ass, and you have every right to duck and stick.  Every right.)))

Many of the commenters claim the writer is slut shaming and creating a double standard because she implies it’s the role of females to keep males from having impure thoughts about them by making sure they dress appropriately (or maybe she outright states that), yet she chooses to post half naked pictures of her boys flexing in their swimsuits on a beach.  She’s telling teenage girls not to pose in their jammy jams without bras on or in their towels fresh out the shower because once her boys see them like that, they’ll never be able to un-see them for the slutty sluts they are, and then the very next thing readers see are her bare-chested sons.

I agree with the commenters’ ideas there (NOT the way many of the commenters expressed those ideas).  You can’t tell young girls to cover up or quit being friends with your sons and include scantily clad pictures of your boys in the same post.  It’s just kind of a no no.

Surprisingly, though, neither the writer’s well-meaning intentions nor the claims of slut shaming and double standards are the key points I took away from the post.  The greatest insight I walked away with is this:

People are really fucking cruel to one another.

You see, it doesn’t really matter what I think or whom I agree with because it’s not my shtick.  It’s not my post.  It’s not my place to vent, let loose, or express myself.  That’s reserved for the writer because it is her space.

That doesn’t mean readers can’t comment or put in their two cents.  It’s OK to agree or disagree with the writer.  It’s OK to debate the issues raised in the post.

What’s not OK, however, is to be a first rate asshole.

Some of these commenters called her naive.  Others addressed her in the third person, as if someone else — some neutral third party — were wading through the feedback and might agree with their negative perceptions of the author.  Still others called her a bad mother.  And worst of all, many resorted to vulgarity and threats in their responses to the post, pushing the author to delete the comments entirely.

This is a human being.  Someone’s mother.  Someone’s daughter.  Someone’s wife, cousin, sister.  She doesn’t deserve to be abused simply because her opinions differ from others’ or she didn’t consider carefully enough how some might perceive her seemingly goodhearted statements.

It’s her blog, for God’s sake.  A blog is like someone’s living room.  It’s a place outsiders are invited into.  You don’t march in, take a crap on the rug, and insult the hostess’s choice in decor.  It just ain’t right.

All jokes and sarcasm aside, I think within this author’s post lies a healthy discussion, one we as a society should be having.  I just think we should be having it civilly. 

I wish people would consider how their words affect others.  I wish they would revisit the golden rule and contemplate how they might feel were they the brunt of the attack.  Most of all, I wish people would simply be good to one another.