Black and white and red all over – what do those bra-color facebook updates tell us about privacy?
posted by Kaimipono D. Wenger
If you’ve been on Facebook in the past day, you’ve probably seen female friends with curious, often one-word status updates: “Black.” “White.” “Red.” “Blue.” “Nude.” “Zebra striped.” And perhaps a few who posted “None.”
If you haven’t yet figured it out, here’s the key to interpreting those statuses: Each of those Facebook friends was stating the color of her bra. The viral campaign, passed on largely by word of mouth, has a stated intent of raising awareness of breast cancer.
Bewildered journalists have criticized the idea as useless slacktivism; feminist bloggers are understandably incensed at the sexist and exhibitionist undertones. I think that both of these critiques have a lot of merit. There’s another angle I’d like to explore briefly. To what extent does this highly-successful viral campaign illustrate our changing ideas about privacy?
A fundamental notion in privacy is the idea of different spheres. This can be described as the classic public/private spheres, as in Dan’s discussion of the harms to the Star Wars kid or the Dog Poop Girl; it can be described through a number of other frameworks. Jeff Rosen writes, for instance, about the protection of intimate information.
I’m no expert like Dan, but I wonder how to analyze the mass voluntary participation of thousands of people engaged in a group sharing of a highly intimate piece of information. This is being done by women, who are particularly vulnerable to privacy attacks (especially relating to their intimate lives). And remember, facebook’s privacy default status is now that updates are open to the world! It’s striking to see crowds happily helping to assemble their own digital dossiers.
Last year the New York Times magazine ran an insightful article about how social networking breaks down barriers between spheres in life. “It brings back the dynamics of small-town life, where everybody knows your business,” suggested the article. I think that position is sometimes oversold. But when I checked in to facebook yesterday and saw on my news feed the bra choices of family members, friends, former students (!), and even some academics, I had to wonder. Maybe it’s true that, as the New York magazine article suggested, “the future belongs to the uninhibited.” Or maybe this is an illustration of the collapse of walls between social groups, and of changing ideas about the meaning of privacy.
January 8, 2010 at 9:40 am
Posted in: Privacy, Social Network Websites
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Responses (14)
Ardis - January 8, 2010 at 10:05 am
Kaimi, chances are that 90% or more of these one-word posted updates are not valid today. In other words, although a lot of people might have found it weird, it’s hardly a contribution to a “digital dossier.”
Besides, you men started it, years ago, with your willingness to discuss on late-night TV and everywhere else your preference between boxers and briefs — a choice which, I suspect, is a lot more stable on a day-to-day basis (and therefore more revealing in a digital dossier way) than any of the colors posted yesterday. Don’t hate on us women for following your manly lead.
Randy B. - January 8, 2010 at 10:24 am
“a highly intimate piece of information”
Really? People actually think that the mere color of a person’s bra, voluntarily shared — not visually but through text, is not just intimate but “highly” intimate?
One can only wonder what such people think when they walk down the beach, or even a city street, on a hot summer day.
[Also, it's kind of funny that the "anti-spam" word I have to type in is "broad".]
markshelby - January 8, 2010 at 10:42 am
I speculate that (1) many people do not consider a one-word written description of their bra color to be all that intimate/private and (2) given the light-hearted nature of the exercise, a fair portion might report a more interesting color than the one they’re actually wearing anyway.
I would predict a much lower level of participation if the exercise were to report something more universally considered private/intimate, such as one’s current bra *measurements*.
Leslie Randle - January 8, 2010 at 11:03 am
This Facebook email initially reminded me of the “boxers or briefs” incident during the Clinton campaign. I then reflected on my fashion design background. I thought a bra was to remain “stealth” in it’s primary purpose. I was amazed at how many were wearing colors on an average day. This either means that women are wearing more opaque clothing or are visually volunteering this information on a daily basis.
I am also incorrect in previously assuming only teenagers buy the bright (outlandish) colors and patterns at Victoria’s Secret for daily wear. So I am more boring than I previously thought. Perhaps I should stop now, Take it as a sign, give up designing, and go to law school.
Confused 2(now 3)L - January 8, 2010 at 11:32 am
I\’ve been thinking a lot about the role that gender plays in the developing concepts of privacy for new media lately. On one side you\’ve got the extreme First Amendment interpretation that anonymity is sacrosanct, even for harassing and disruptive comments, and on the other you have the increased acrimony and hostility that one sees in anonymous forums. Unfortunately due to the traditionally male dominated communities found on the internet, this hostility and idiocy can disproportionally fall on women, brilliantly captured by XKCD.
This post shows us, I think, a contrary example, and I wonder what exactly that\’s contribute able to. Is it the more gender balanced environment of Facebook? The element of control that a Facebook poster has over the distribution of their comments? Possibly, as another comment suggested, the posters simply didn\’t consider this private information. Although I suspect that they would have considered it such if the result of their comments was harassment and derision.
Maybe I\’m just recapping the original post, but I wonder if anyone else sees it similarly?
JMS
Becky - January 8, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I did not participate to give out personal information. For me it was a game. How long would it take for the men to figure out what we were talking about. I think there may have been a few who posted on their walls and therefore the men got to see what we were doing. I agree that it does show how little privacy there is on FaceBook.
For those who made the comments about boxers or breifs, I don’t want to know that information. Please, keep that to yourselves.
Maryland Conservatarian - January 8, 2010 at 1:34 pm
“But when I checked in to facebook yesterday and saw on my news feed the bra choices of family members, friends, former students (!), and even some academics…”
So, assuming the critiques really do have a lot of merit, what percentage of the above would you place in the “slactavists”, “sexists” and/or “exhibitionists” categories?
recent graduate - January 8, 2010 at 3:37 pm
You’re reading too much into this. It’s just a quick, fun way of reminding people that breast cancer is a big problem for women — is that a bad thing?
JM - January 8, 2010 at 4:02 pm
In this case I think this comes down to a very American view of privacy, that of body privacy.
I know people who are happy to be nudists in public but don’t want you to know about their medial or financial health.
On the other hand Americans are paranoid about body privacy but often quite forthcoming about their finances and how much they paid for something.
While some people tweet their location all day long others some prefer their comings and goings, the affairs of life, to be private, but don’t mind you seeing them at the beach in a swim suit or for that matter in their underware.
Bra color, heck that’s even a common subject on TV shows like House. Most women are not concerned with if you know the color of their bra, but are concerned about how you found out. No one likes to be spied on.
Living in the Sunny south we see a lot of bras, bikini tops and exercise tops. Down here it’s normal outerwear unless you are obese and need to wear a shirt all the time. We even see topless women on the beaches, Welcome to South Florida.
I always taught that Americans aversion to the body was driven by the fundamentalist nature of their religions, but maybe it is simply a product of embarrassment over their obesity. I notice the less obese ones are less embarrassed or paranoid about people seeing their bodies or knowing what they are wearing.
A.J. Sutter - January 8, 2010 at 7:32 pm
I wonder what notions of privacy will become when the Facebook generation enter the judiciary. Will those of us who are a bit older find that what we had believed to be within the sphere of privacy was not?
Ms. Jack Meyers - January 9, 2010 at 1:22 pm
I have mixed feelings about this, Kaimi.
On the one hand I wear strappy tank tops often enough that my bra color isn’t private information to almost anyone who sees me in person. Everyone knows that I’m wearing a bra, so I don’t see it as that big of a deal if they see the strap. On the other hand, I don’t make it the topic of conversation or run around making sure everyone notices. So I didn’t participate in the Facebook campaign when it hit my inbox.
Besides, I hate slacktivism. What’s the supposed intention of this campaign? To make people “aware” of breast cancer?
I think people are already aware of breast cancer. If you want to help, give money to the cause or volunteer to work with breast cancer patients and their families. Posting your bra color on Facebook doesn’t make people “aware” of anything but your own boobs.
Aria Tiki - January 9, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I have to say, as someone who participated in the Facebook colour posting, that what colour I’m wearing isn’t a matter of privacy as long as I’m the one telling you about it. If someone asked me, I wouldn’t think twice about telling them. It only becomes a matter of privacy for me when they’re seeing it on me. I wear various colours for my own fun and pleasure. This is not a serious matter, it’s all in the spirit of fun and promotion of a disease that is prevalent among sisters.
Also, this is the internet. Everything posted can be posted by anyone. Just as in real life, they could be lying or telling the truth, serious or playful, joking or sarcasatic. In real life, we can often tell the difference from tone of voice. On the internet there is only text, and text can be misconstrued very easily, particularly when using the English language. There’s a reason why we use smilies and *action* words. If we didn’t, then something said in a joking fashion could be turned into a very nasty insult resulting in the destruction of an otherwise happy relationship.
When it comes to things in the digital world, people should remember that it’s all make-believe. Yes, there is a lot of truth to be found, and it’s a very helpful resource. When it come to things like Facebook, where information presented is reliant on the individuals, things should be taken with a pound of salt because the only way to know how truthful it is lies in actually getting to know the person in real life.
Cake - January 9, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Is the color of an article of clothing an intimate personal detail? Would that bit of information really change an otherwise stable person into an Internet or physical stalker? I think Wenger is really reaching deep into the privacy hysteria bag here. Please, this is a sophisticated group, try to rise to that level.
Dana - January 9, 2010 at 11:01 pm
There’s stuff people need not to know about myself and that’s one of them. Though the cause is good (breast cancer), the way of supporting it is weird because until someone tells you (and it appears to be secret because no one tells), you have no idea what this is all about and you don’t pay attention. Until some dummy friend posts this on his status “WARNING: URGENT! FACEBOOK VIRUS ALERT. An email recently went out to women asking them to post the color of their bra. THIS IS A VIRUS. To fix it, you must remove your bra, then go to Setting>Enable Webcam> Record Movie. Please repost to your status!”
I live in a small community and I don’t want any of my friends, co-workers, family or acquaintances to look at me and think “She’s wearing a white bra or could it be some other color?”. It’s nasty.
What’s next? For uterus cancer we’ll be asked to put “virgin” or “non virgin” on our status? That’s not interesting information…well, to me, it’s not. But that’s my own personal opinion whether I rose to the level or not.
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