I think a lot of things have come up on Barbelith in the past that people have been very supportive of one another for. But there's a serious danger, I think, in deliberately opening up a topic that, for many people, is unsafe to talk about outside of a confidential support-group setting or a therapy office. It shouldn't be unsafe to talk about anywhere, for the record. In an ideal world—no, in an ideal world sexual abuse would never happen, but in a better world where it did and society handled it better, it would be okay to talk about like any other serious subject. But in this world we live in, abusers have power, it's possible for Barbelith's semi-anonymity to be compromised, and someone talking about their history of abuse here in open forums could conceivably open themselves up to retaliation, or to repeat abuse from someone else who manages to track them down. That's an outside chance, but quite plausible given past events on the board.
There's also the possibility of legal ramifications. If someone identifies an abuser on the boards, true or not, it'll open Tom up to a libel suit—as well as, perhaps, a legal responsibility to turn the information over to the police, especially if the abuse is ongoing. If someone discloses that they themselves have a history as an abuser, think of the repercussions of that.
That's barring the virtual certainty that someone or ones in a vulnerable state will experience extreme discomfort, will be targeted by some harasser on the boards, and may suffer harm because of it, even if there's no real-world contact.
You all know I like the idea of a SBR forum. I believe anyone's welcome to open up whatever topic of conversation ze likes, provided it's not hate speech or illegal for some other reason. Barbelith has always been about accepting the consequences of whatever you choose to post online. I'm just not feeling like a "disclose your history with sexual abuse" thread is a good idea. |
