There’s a new website called She’s a Homewrecker set up to allow women to publicly shame other women they believe broke up their relationships. This latest example of digital finger-pointing and slut-shaming is no different than other revenge-based digital gossip sloshpiles.
Getting cheated on sucks (unless you have a cuckold fetish, which is a topic for a very different article). People should be angry, even furious, when their romantic partners violate their trust and step outside the agreed-upon boundaries of their relationship. And if they find out that the person their partner cheated with knew that they were committed to someone else but still encouraged an affair, sure, it’s fine to be incredibly angry at that person, too, but maybe understand that it takes two to do the downtown no-undies tango.
You know what’s not cool? Making a website to publicly shame women who encourage men to step outside the boundaries of their relationships. Developing a forum to call women out on their perceived misconduct does nothing to repair broken relationships, and it encourages vitriol and creates a thoroughly unproductive digital space that’s nothing more than a platform for bullying.
She’s a Homewrecker allows women to bully other women over squabbles involving men, but it doesn’t let the “homewrecker” tell their side of the story, and in many of the comment threads, the “homewrecker” gets doxxed by commenters, her personal information given out. The website’s disclaimer insists that it’s “all about gossip and satire” but the entries appear to be written in earnest, with the intent to incite anger towards the subjects (and there’s plenty of anger in the comment section). What’s more, on the entry page, authors are told that they need to go into detail for their stories to appear on the site, but other than a ban on posting about people under 18, there doesn’t appear to be any fact-checking going on, which means this is the perfect way to slander a woman you don’t like.
Here’s a sample opening for a Homewrecker entry: “Two years ago my husband had an affair with this slut. HE TOLD her then to leave him alone. The other night she decided to start texting him, she says she’s not trying to start any trouble. Yeah right.” The “slut” in question has her picture and full name given at the top of the entry, with the captions “Warning! I am a slut” and “I like to screw married men” attached to her photo.
The website creator, Ariella Alexander, even takes the time to shame “homewreckers” on her personal Pinterest page, and it appears she’s launching a companion blog called He’s A Homewrecker, but that might just be an attempt to quell criticism that her site is wrong to only focus on females.
One silver lining: at least some of the commenters have started pointing out how ridiculous the site is:
[h/t Jezebel]