Babes who Blade didn’t start as something to hate-read. But after a year and a half and the addition of 6,000-plus members, it’s hard to think of much else to do there.
For those unfamiliar, Babes Who Blade is a private Facebook group for anyone who isn’t a cisgender male, started by UNC students in July 2017. According to the group’s "about" section, it’s a space that provides services ranging “from advice to emotional support to recommendations.” And there are a lot of those things in the group — posters frequently ask for recommendations when picking classes, advice on going to therapy and help dealing with the aftermath of trauma.
There are also content warnings for narcissism, Canada and “spooky stuff” — things that minimize the reality of trauma for many in the group.
There are reams of comments on posts of white women trying to one-up each others’ sense of social justice, dotted lightly by comments of people of color that are quashed under the tide of white neoliberals patting each other on the back.
Babes Who Blade has evolved into a deeply unfunny parody of a liberal safe space; at the same time, it’s become an actual unsafe space for the people of color, LGBTQ+ people and mentally ill people that it claims to protect.
Some members have criticized the group for enabling white feminism — and they’re right.
Originally intended to protect the privacy of babes seeking advice about deeply personal matters, the group’s anonymous posting feature has unfortunately become a mechanism through which white feminists can express their deeply misguided opinions without actually having to own up to them.
Similarly, posts submitted anonymously seem to make people feel as though they can speak more freely in the comments — that is, they can unconstructively attack the poster without empathy. The moderators’ recent decision to turn off anonymous submissions was the right one, but it was too little, too late to combat all the issues the group grapples with.
Moderators this week chose to disable comments on posts that have gotten especially high attention from members, and to archive the page for 24 hours — restricting commenting, liking, adding members and creating new posts.
