Giggle app - 'for girls only'

[midclegs]

I am becoming more and more angry with a 'women and girls only' app called Giggle. It transpires that this app, which purports to only allow females and tests membership by using 'sophisticated AI' to test for male/female facial characteristics based on 'selfies', is unsuccessfully straddling the line between trying to be inclusive for transwomen (and Sall, the founder, believes TWAW) and lying to women and girls by saying that men aren't allowed.

Here is the website: joinagiggle.com/

TRAs aren't happy because it's trans-exclusive; www.theverge.com/2020/2/7/21128236/gender-appgiggle-women-ai-screen-trans-social

Sall says there are no men on Giggle, twitter.com/salltweets/status/1280070838289436680

Sall tells us itis a forum for women and girls to discuss periods and PCOS twitter.com/salltweets/status/1280065432615923712?s=20

A good thread is here, detailing the contradictory messages that Giggle is setting: twitter.com/adulthumanfem10/status/1284062222155644929?s=20

Sall doesn't allow transmen on to her app (see 2nd image).
And Sall's app has a 'Sex Work' category for girls and women. (3rd image).

Sall appears on Twitter often posing as a GC woman asking questions such as "What is a man", yet her business model blurs the truth. Many many teen girls around the world are being lured into believing that this is a site for females only. But this is a dodgy site which some think is enabling grooming: twitter.com/lunarfish1524/status/1285544427004534785?s=20

Sorry for a potentially incoherent post, but please have a look and let me know I'm not being irrationally bonkers!

(PS I am blocked by her on Twitter, she blocks anyone immediately who asks rational questions)

Not RTFT but looked at their site.

It's for girls I note.
Not women.

The word giggle is very related to childhood.

None of the lesbians I know would relate to being giggling girls.

It's a fetish site for men?

So are you confirming that Giggle is now 100% male free? And by male I mean anyone who is currently or has ever been in possession of their very own penis?

If so, great news! My little cousin was really upset when my sister withdrew her from there. It am sure it will make her bloody month to be allowed back on.

Oops should have RTFT!

I'm glad you are female only but have no idea how you filter out blokes.. Who will be very very interested especially as your age for joining is 16.

On the sex industry thing. Why not have a support section? Rather than having it as (from what I have read) a section on the enjoyment section on a site that is open to girls from 16.

sallgrover you are tireless and brilliant at standing up for women on twitter. I can't imagine how tough it must have been to come to the realisation of what was going on in full public view. Most of us get to do it in private. Thanks

@NiceGerbil

Oops should have RTFT!

I'm glad you are female only but have no idea how you filter out blokes.. Who will be very very interested especially as your age for joining is 16.

On the sex industry thing. Why not have a support section? Rather than having it as (from what I have read) a section on the enjoyment section on a site that is open to girls from 16.

The ‘How to filter out blokes’ is presumably this, from the OP: ‘...tests membership by using 'sophisticated AI' to test for male/female facial characteristics based on selfies.’

I'm glad you are female only but have no idea how you filter out blokes.. Who will be very very interested especially as your age for joining is 16.

It uses facial recognition technology and seems to work very well as far as I can tell.

That fact that it works is what stirred up the whole fuss in the first place. Seems that facial recognition software finds transwomen visually different from women.

There are some interesting court judgements at the moment that rely on transwomen being ‘visually indistinguishable from women’. Some people might want to have a think about that.

I’d be really interested in a female-only app. Unfortunately I’ve looked at the site and I can’t sign up for something that calls me a ‘girl’ or refers to a collective of women as a ‘giggle’. I’m 42 and I haven’t called myself a ‘girl’ for a quarter of a century, and I sure as hell don’t ‘giggle’.

This came up on my active.
I was confused why an app for girls would have chat about sex work when I realised that grown women are being called girls.
I suspect that there will be Jessica Yaniv types using selfies lifted from the Internet or using pictures of their female friends and families so it's a big fat no from me

Thank you Sall.

@Highwind Yes. It has been that way for over a year now. I have spoken publicly about this numerous times. There is no mystery or secrecy.

@NiceGerbil

1. We have two forms of onboarding security to ensure that Giggle is female only.

1. The "Sex Industry" category is in a "support" type category. It is not in the Gigs category, where freelance work happens, nor is it in Hobbies. It exists where mentoring categories based on profession exist. No matter what your thoughts on sex work are, there are women who do it as a job. This is a place for them to come as a refuge away from that. A lot of people have jumped to a lot of disturbing conclusions when it's simple to see for yourself what it is.

@PaleGreenGhost Thank you so much. Honestly, having a female-only space to use in between all of the hate and attacks, etc, helps a lot. It's just a positive space where we can all be honest, relaxed and laugh. It's exactly what it is supposed to be.

@NonnyMouse1337 It does work well! To be honest, better than I ever expected. I thought we would have a more difficult job. Still, the onboarding is monitored at all times to make sure that it's working as it should.

@justawoman I understand some women have an issue with that. Personally, I don't. There are so many very serious reasons why female spaces need to exist, but I never want to lead with that. They're also fun places, where women can relax. They can be light hearted. The term "girls" comes from, simply, "having lunch with the girls". I say it all the time, or refer to my female friends as my girl friends in a platonic way. I don't find it offensive at all. It's just "an app with the girls". It's important, I think, to not always have to be so serious.

@ForThePurposeOfTheTape You are very incorrect with your suspicion.

Photos of photos are not accepted on the onboarding. Those people are not permitted into the app.

As established, the category is now called "Sex Industry". It's there as a tool to mentor women out of the industry, a place for women in the sex industry to go to away from men. These women exist and they deserve a refuge just as much as any other woman.

Thank you to everyone who has messaged. This is all I'm going to say on it all here. Sometimes, I feel like a broken record.

There are more answers, etc here:

Ah yes, the old ‘feminists have no sense of humour’ trope. It’s not about not wanting to kick back, relax and have fun: it’s that describing adult women as ‘girls’ who ‘giggle’ is seriously misogynistic. Can’t you see that it buys into the whole narrative that says women are just overgrown children who shouldn’t be taken seriously? It’s a key narrative of the patriarchy.

There’s no social app for adult men that I’m aware of that refers to them as ‘boys’, and I’ve tried to imagine what the equivalent to ‘giggling’ would be but cannot come up with anything that’s as dismissive and derogatory. That’s because nearly all the really derogatory ways to describe someone’s manner and behaviour are aimed at women - hasn’t you noticed?

Change the name of the app, take away some of the pinkification, and I’d be really interested in joining you for some fun and chat.

[quote sallgrover]@ForThePurposeOfTheTape You are very incorrect with your suspicion.

Photos of photos are not accepted on the onboarding. Those people are not permitted into the app.

As established, the category is now called "Sex Industry". It's there as a tool to mentor women out of the industry, a place for women in the sex industry to go to away from men. These women exist and they deserve a refuge just as much as any other woman.[/quote]
Ok I apologize for the photo or a photo comment but how do you know the person is that person? I can imagine someone asking a female friend/relative to do the photo but.

My comment about girls stand. 10 year olds are girls. Grown women are not

I don't underhand PPs concerns about the use of the word girls to describe adult women.

Really really don't.

I go on girly holidays, girly weekends away, meet for a girls' night out. What's the problem?

And the name Giggle, again can't see a problem with that! I have a giggle with the girls on our girlie nights out! I think it a sounds fun name.

Now the name Twitter, that gets my back up, brings images of loads of old people just twittering on. Haha

@justawoman

Ah yes, the old ‘feminists have no sense of humour’ trope. It’s not about not wanting to kick back, relax and have fun: it’s that describing adult women as ‘girls’ who ‘giggle’ is seriously misogynistic. Can’t you see that it buys into the whole narrative that says women are just overgrown children who shouldn’t be taken seriously? It’s a key narrative of the patriarchy.

There’s no social app for adult men that I’m aware of that refers to them as ‘boys’, and I’ve tried to imagine what the equivalent to ‘giggling’ would be but cannot come up with anything that’s as dismissive and derogatory. That’s because nearly all the really derogatory ways to describe someone’s manner and behaviour are aimed at women - hasn’t you noticed?

Change the name of the app, take away some of the pinkification, and I’d be really interested in joining you for some fun and chat.

What about Boys' Toys? Night out with the lads? Lad Mags? ( not envy)

Lad means boy.

I'm not being goady at all, just genuinely interested in other's opinions.

@justawoman “ Change the name of the app, take away some of the pinkification, and I’d be really interested in joining you for some fun and chat”

No.

@justawoman
What men think about women plays no part in my decision making process. Giggle is a place where women can be free from the perceptions of men.

As we all know, women’s oppression doesn’t come from gender. It’s from our biological sex.

Pink is just a color. Like green is for go or red is for stop. It’s just a shorthand, something we recognize. Pink doesn’t oppress women.

I don’t like the name Twitter. I think it’s a stupid name. But it’s never occurred to me to tell Jack Dorsey that. Sometimes I find it more misogynistic that people tell me how to run my company, based on their own taste & perceptions, than I find the word “giggle” to be problematic.

It’s just an app. Don’t use it if you don’t want to. Use it if you do want it. It’s supposed to be fun and, within the app, it is.

@BrizzleGirl totally agree with you!

[quote sallgrover]@justawoman “ Change the name of the app, take away some of the pinkification, and I’d be really interested in joining you for some fun and chat”

No.[/quote]
Well, with customer relations like that, I’m sold