Mean Moms Caught Making Fun of ‘Ugly’ Babies in Secret Facebook Group
Christians – the ones who are married with children – love to harbor this stereotype that childless and/or single adults are not as loving, godly, mature or self sacrificing as married people or parents.
I’ve never married and never had children, and I do not even like children, but how often have you seen me post photos of babies or children on this site and make fun of them for being homely? Zero, that’s how many times. Because I’ve never done that, not here, and not on other sites.
(Link): Facebook group takes cyberbullying to whole new low
- PHOENIX — It’s a story FOX 10 first broke earlier this week and is now making national headlines.
We uncovered a Facebook page — in which grown women — some of them moms — mock and ridicule pictures of babies and toddlers — some of those kids have disabilities.
It’s taking cyber bullying to a whole new low.
The story has generated a lot of reaction across the country — including from some parents — who had no idea their kids’ pictures had been taken and were the subject of harsh ridicule — and only discovered it when our story aired.
(Link): Facebook Group Bashes Toddler and Baby Photos, Sparks Outrage Online
- Yes, a Facebook group of grown women is taking part in what some are calling “toddler bashing,” posting pics of kids and making fun of them online.
The offending Facebook group takes photos from others’ accounts without the owners’ knowledge. It was meant to be private, but the word got out.
Photos were sent to a local Fox station of the page, where people – including some moms, no less – post and ridicule pictures of other people’s kids.
Under one photo of a baby, a woman posted, “It’s hideous.”
Another woman added, “You can absolutely not fix ugly.”
Another Facebook commenter wrote, “An ugly baby thread. I have died and gone to heaven. Why can’t you guys live near me so we can do this over cocktails?”
As you might expect, the obligatory backlash has hit.
Ellen Veach was notified by a friend that her two-year-old daughter’s photo was on the site. “At first, I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
(Link): Awful Facebook Group Steals Parents’ Baby Pics & Rips Kids to Shreds (VIDEO)
(Link): Facebook group bashes toddler and baby photos
- Updated: Nov 4, 2013 09:47 PM
By Jill Monier
PHOENIX — It’s bullying of a different kind — not by teens, but by mothers and their targets are little toddlers and babies.
This is outrageous.
A Facebook group of grown women is taking part in what some are calling “toddler bashing.”
The group was taking photos of children, from other Facebook accounts without the owner’s knowledge, then posting them to make fun of the kids.
We’re told this web site was supposed to be private, but as we know, nothing is ever private online.
A secret Facebook group is secret no more.
Photos were sent to us from what we’re told is a private Facebook group where women, some mothers themselves, post pictures of other people’s children to make fun of them.
“Oh, it just makes me really sad,” said Kristina Young.
Under one photo of a baby, a woman wrote, “It’s hideous.” Another woman commented, “You can absolutely not fix ugly.” Another wrote, “An ugly baby thread.. I have died and gone to heaven. Why can’t you guys live near me so we can do this over cocktails?”
“They’re comparing this little girl to the mean little boy in ‘Toy Story,” said Nicole Harris.
We showed the posts to valley mothers.
“Wow. People are just that.. shows just how shallow people are.. how low they are if they’re going to stoop to making fun of people’s children,” said Harris.
“It’s like bullying mothers bullying,” said Young.
Ellen Veach spoke to us online. She knows all too well the pain this Facebook group has caused. Last week, a friend notified her that her 2-year-old daughter’s photo was on the site.
“At first, I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. It was basically just a head shot of one of the pictures I posted in my album and it was next to another picture of a cartoon character basically,” she said.
Veach says she didn’t realize friends of friends had access to her Facebook photos.
“So I’m posting pictures of my son’s first day in kindergarten or Ivy’s new outfit or something just naively posting it up there so my friends can see, not realizing there’s a group that takes these pictures and targets these children and makes fun of them. Like that’s just something I wouldn’t even think a mother or grown woman would do.”
Veach says some children on the site were disabled. The women know what they’re doing is wrong. After a comment, one wrote, “I’m probably going to hell for saying that.”
The Facebook page is private. We couldn’t find it, but we’re told it was taken down. Many of the mothers associated with it have disabled their pages, but others are defending their actions, posting on their Facebook pages that it’s their freedom of speech. We tried reaching out to them, but have not heard back.
Veach took the photos of her children off Facebook and now displays the slogan “Stay Strong and Stop Bullying.”
“We think out children are beautiful and miracles and have somebody even though you know it’s not true to have somebody say something negative or derogatory about your child.. it hurts,” she said.
Veach reported the group to Facebook. We contacted Facebook as well. The company says they review all reports and do have community standards that address identity, privacy, bullying and harassment.
This next link is from feminist site Jezebel, which has, in the past, decried “Lookism” (ie, society telling women their value resides in their physical appearance).
So, the feminists at Jezebel are against society or men criticizing or mocking a grown woman’s appearance, but in the following, the author and the post’s commentators are fine with grown women mocking the looks of babies and toddlers.
(Link): Mean Moms Caught Making Fun of ‘Ugly’ Babies in Secret Facebook Group
- That being said, making fun of people for how they look is certainly not nice. So it was no surprise that when a private Facebook group—initially intended to sell and trade toddlers’ clothing, but turned into a space for people to get really real about the physical appearance of strangers’ kids—was discovered, there was outrage at the meanness of it all. Because everybody expects mothers to be kind and nurturing and benevolent, even though there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Naturally, a mother is protective of her child, and doesn’t want her kid to be called ugly. But at the same time, it’s also probably because she thinks her child is beautiful, and lends a certain amount of importance to the issue. (Don’t we all, really?)
However, the stuff on that Facebook group (which has since been deleted) didn’t seem all that bad, as far as Internet nastiness goes. Mostly, the moms were making fun of the kids’ clothes and the parents’ choice of stupid picture as their profile photo, commentary that doesn’t really have much to do with the kids at all.
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