'Why Is Reddit So Anti-Women?': An Epic Reddit Thread Counts the Ways

[redqueen]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/07/why-reddit-so-anti-women-epic-reddit-thread-counts-ways/55080/



While Reddit has proved itself as a great source of viral news and received deserved praise for its coverage of the Aurora shootings, a recent thread posited a question about where women fit in in the site. It's already yielded over 1,700 responses — some genuinely awful especially those towards the bottom of the thread, and some which actually made us think about Reddit's male-driven culture and how women factor into it.

As people mention in the thread, Redditors are mainly guys. According to Google's Doubleclick Ad Planner the site's U.S. users are 66 percent male, and its skew towards dudes has been discussed outside the site. The blog Geek Feminism took on the subject in 2009. In December, Daily Dot wrote that asking whether Reddit is sexist "hardly seems worth an argument" because the answer is so obvious: "it is." Jezebel headlined a story in April as "Reddit Is Officially the Worst Possible Place for Rape Victims to Seek Advice." That same month, the site Man Boobz — which carries the tagline "Misogny. I Mock it." — noted an "experiment" in which a woman found less discrimination by creating a Reddit username that is "obviously male."

...

Women who commented in gaming threads explained they got what essentially boils down to the "booth babe" treatment, which Katie J.M. Baker explained yesterday on Jezebel. Girls who appear to be interested in video games are viewed as attention grabbers. (Real booth babes, Baker explains, "are paid models, not groupies.&quot

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Internet anonymity is often regarded as a bad thing. Jimmy Kimmel's segment wherein celebrities read mean tweets about themselves was partly aimed at exposing how horrible people can be when they have the veil of the Web to protect them. We can only assume (and, mostly, hope!) that sexist Redditors might tone down their sexism if their full identities were out in the open. But in these cases for women anonymity actually provided reverse protection.

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The backlash against feminism is getting worse. Not only is it in the legislature, it's well represented online (e.g. misogynist abuse such as that directed at female journalists and bloggers, girls showing off presents on r/atheism, Rebecca Watson, Anita Sarkeesian, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam).

It's alarming. This isn't 'oh it's just the intnernet' type stuff. This is abuse and harassment. And worse, in the most serious cases, it's a clear attempt to silence and marginalize feminists.

[ismnotwasm]

1. Internet chickenshits

I'm always amazed how men delight in saying the most vile or useless crap on the Internet, but tend to back down one on one. It's not that I'm intimidating or anything, but-- I Will Call people on their shit. Apparently there are those not used to this, they tend to shut the fuck right up.

Then they probably run to the Internet and complain and cry on Reditt. I have no respect for that shit, although I acknowledge anonymous misogyny is is incredibly damaging and hard to counter.

Name names, pinning an individual and not a pack, and men get uncomfortable, unless they are simply lost causes. Misogynists LIKE it under their respective wormy slimy rocks.
Little pukes.

[seabeyond]

2. vile or useless crap on the Internet, but tend to back down one on one.

you are so fuckin right on. cowards.