Updates to the Abuse Policy

[danahboyd]

The Advisory Board met last month, resulting in decisions about some open issues in the Abuse Policy. The conclusions are posted here. I am happy with the decisions and I hope you will be too

Comments

[danahboyd]

One bias that I do have concerns the physical damage of many of these practices. For example, I believe that anorexia and bulimia cause long-term physical damage on the body. I am not a staunch believer that people should be barred from doing things that cause physical damage. (If that were the case, I'd have to take a stance against a long list of things from extreme sports to alcohol, going outside to eating corn syrup.) That said, I do believe that addiction is real, control issues are rooted in broader cultural structures, and many people cannot handle what they get themselves into when it combines addiction, control, and feedback loops. (This goes for alcohol and drugs as well as self-harm.) I am not interesting in putting bandaids on solutions, but addressing problems at their roots. Based on earlier work, I believe that many people who engage in SH cannot handle what they've gotten themselves into, but I'm less interested in stopping the SH than helping people address what prompts that behavioral response. This involves cultural and social factors as well as personal factors.

For example, when I was working in a transgender clinic, I found that a huge number of FTM folks went through a period of extreme SH (ED or SI). Lots of folks tried to stop the SH without getting at what were the underlying reasons why SH was occurring. All of these guys stopped engaging in SH once they were able to work out why they felt so uncomfortable in their bodies. The root cause was self-realization of gender identity. Stopping SH wouldn't have helped these people; realizing their gender identity did.

Does that help? (I know I'm ranting here - you're making me think that I need to lay out my approach at some point when I have some more spare cycles.)