"Feminism" and "Misogyny" Are Banned Words on TripAdvisor
In DepthIf you witness a restaurant owner committing sexual harassment, you’re allowed to post about it on TripAdvisor — as long as you don’t use any pesky words like “feminism,” “misogyny,” or “International Women’s Day.”
Christina Fowler and her husband, of Bedfordshire, England, wanted to go out to eat last Sunday. While driving around, they found an independent pub called The Bell. The food was reportedly great, but what she and her husband saw just before they left put her off ever coming back:
While waiting for our bill I saw the owner come up behind a waitress (think John Travolta at the Oscars) and bite her on the shoulder. It looked like a playful bite, not painful, but still a bite. The waitress didn’t even smile, let alone laugh. A few minutes later, I saw the owner approach the same waitress and slap her across the bum with a napkin. She spun around, at which point he pursed his lips and made kissing noises to her. Again, she wasn’t playing along or laughing, but seemed almost resigned to the attention. It was clear to me that she didn’t appreciate this type of treatment from her boss.
In one of the only positive uses of an online restaurant review site I’ve ever seen, Fowler went on TripAdvisor and wrote about her experience using words like “feminism,” “misogyny,” and “International Women’s Day.” Just one problem: those words are specifically banned by TripAdvisor due to a site-wide ban on “political language,” which is a concept I wasn’t familiar with (although it supposedly met the initial review and was only removed afterwards). After Fowler removed the offending language,* the review was back up.