Building a safe online space for women comes with its own set of challenges. One of them is keeping men off the platforms.
At SHEROES, one of the funniest things we've noticed is how some men will try their hardest to get on the platform despite us explicitly specifying that it is a women-only app. So we instituted a protocol that we like to call the “dude alert”, where my team and I get an instant notifications every time a man tries to get on board. Sometimes, we’ll have men trying to peddle a product, or a service.
Sometimes, they'll just post photos of themselves as if they are god's gift to eye-candy and we're a dating app. The other day, we had a guy in our health community asking us for body-building tips. Another man posted a review saying we only feature “bakwas ladies talks” (the truth is far from it!).
Don't get us wrong. We don't hate men. But in a world where gender parity is a huge problem, women need a safe space to engage around the issues they grapple with everyday. Some men bow out gracefully and apologise. Others launch into a volley of unmentionables as the “unfairness” of it all. Sorry, guys but this one is only for women, and it's gonna stay that way.
(Sairee Chahal is the founder, CEO SHEROES India – the women's community platform)
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