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Showing Original Post only (View all)Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet [View all]
Interesting and long article about how women are cyberbullied and not taken seriously about it. I figured I'd add something to the DU gender wars and how SOME women are treated online.
TRIGGER WARNING The article has some stuff that could trigger trauma, just fyi.
...A woman doesnt even need to occupy a professional writing perch at a prominent platform to become a target. According to a 2005 report by the Pew Research Center, which has been tracking the online lives of Americans for more than a decade, women and men have been logging on in equal numbers since 2000, but the vilest communications are still disproportionately lobbed at women. We are more likely to report being stalked and harassed on the Internetof the 3,787 people who reported harassing incidents from 2000 to 2012 to the volunteer organization Working to Halt Online Abuse, 72.5 percent were female. Sometimes, the abuse can get physical: A Pew survey reported that five percent of women who used the Internet said something happened online that led them into physical danger. And it starts young: Teenage girls are significantly more likely to be cyberbullied than boys. Just appearing as a woman online, it seems, can be enough to inspire abuse. In 2006, researchers from the University of Maryland set up a bunch of fake online accounts and then dispatched them into chat rooms. Accounts with feminine usernames incurred an average of 100 sexually explicit or threatening messages a day. Masculine names received 3.7.
...snip...
But making quick and sick threats has become so easy that many say the abuse has proliferated to the point of meaninglessness, and that expressing alarm is foolish. Reporters who take death threats seriously often give the impression that this is some kind of shocking event for which we should pity the victims, my colleague Jim Pagels wrote in Slate this fall, but anyone whos spent 10 minutes online knows that these assertions are entirely toothless. On Twitter, he added, When theres no precedent for physical harm, its only baseless fear mongering. My friend Jen Doll wrote, at The Atlantic Wire, It seems like that old ignoring tactic your mom taught you could work out to everyones benefit . These people are bullying, or hope to bully. Which means we shouldnt take the bait. In the epilogue to her book The End of Men, Hanna Rosinan editor at Slateargued that harassment of women online could be seen as a cause for celebration. It shows just how far weve come. Many women on the Internet are in positions of influence, widely published and widely read; if they sniff out misogyny, I have no doubt they will gleefully skewer the responsible sexist in one of many available online outlets, and get results.
So women who are harassed online are expected to either get over ourselves or feel flattered in response to the threats made against us. We have the choice to keep quiet or respond gleefully.
But no matter how hard we attempt to ignore it, this type of gendered harassmentand the sheer volume of ithas severe implications for womens status on the Internet. Threats of rape, death, and stalking can overpower our emotional bandwidth, take up our time, and cost us money through legal fees, online protection services, and missed wages. Ive spent countless hours over the past four years logging the online activity of one particularly committed cyberstalker, just in case. And as the Internet becomes increasingly central to the human experience, the ability of women to live and work freely online will be shaped, and too often limited, by the technology companies that host these threats, the constellation of local and federal law enforcement officers who investigate them, and the popular commentators who dismiss themall arenas that remain dominated by men, many of whom have little personal understanding of what women face online every day.
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/women-arent-welcome-internet-72170/
...snip...
But making quick and sick threats has become so easy that many say the abuse has proliferated to the point of meaninglessness, and that expressing alarm is foolish. Reporters who take death threats seriously often give the impression that this is some kind of shocking event for which we should pity the victims, my colleague Jim Pagels wrote in Slate this fall, but anyone whos spent 10 minutes online knows that these assertions are entirely toothless. On Twitter, he added, When theres no precedent for physical harm, its only baseless fear mongering. My friend Jen Doll wrote, at The Atlantic Wire, It seems like that old ignoring tactic your mom taught you could work out to everyones benefit . These people are bullying, or hope to bully. Which means we shouldnt take the bait. In the epilogue to her book The End of Men, Hanna Rosinan editor at Slateargued that harassment of women online could be seen as a cause for celebration. It shows just how far weve come. Many women on the Internet are in positions of influence, widely published and widely read; if they sniff out misogyny, I have no doubt they will gleefully skewer the responsible sexist in one of many available online outlets, and get results.
So women who are harassed online are expected to either get over ourselves or feel flattered in response to the threats made against us. We have the choice to keep quiet or respond gleefully.
But no matter how hard we attempt to ignore it, this type of gendered harassmentand the sheer volume of ithas severe implications for womens status on the Internet. Threats of rape, death, and stalking can overpower our emotional bandwidth, take up our time, and cost us money through legal fees, online protection services, and missed wages. Ive spent countless hours over the past four years logging the online activity of one particularly committed cyberstalker, just in case. And as the Internet becomes increasingly central to the human experience, the ability of women to live and work freely online will be shaped, and too often limited, by the technology companies that host these threats, the constellation of local and federal law enforcement officers who investigate them, and the popular commentators who dismiss themall arenas that remain dominated by men, many of whom have little personal understanding of what women face online every day.
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/women-arent-welcome-internet-72170/
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Note that the "some go too far" language isn't used often to describe members of other groups.
Gormy Cuss
Jan 2014
#28
I imagine there are many people who petulantly inform any and all of those things they dispose of...
LanternWaste
Jan 2014
#25
Yes there are, and when gender wars and woo threads become spam I would say they have the right to
Katashi_itto
Jan 2014
#29
This isn't a 'gender wars' post--it's a discussion of harassment and threats of physical
geek tragedy
Jan 2014
#64
Not to disagree with you but the OP posted in the first sentence they were adding to the gender wars
Drew Richards
Jan 2014
#144
ditto. if it pisses off the anti-feminist crowd, it's doing something right nt
geek tragedy
Jan 2014
#10
so says one of the primary belligerents in those wars, who supposedly trashed
geek tragedy
Jan 2014
#27
Like you have credibility to pass judgement. You are simply playing to your usual audience
Katashi_itto
Jan 2014
#31
Says the poster who stated he was trashing the thread and then posted 4 more times.
seaglass
Jan 2014
#46
I guess you changed your mind about trashing - that yellow tab lighting up is awfully enticing.
seaglass
Jan 2014
#67
Fishing? No, I found it funny that you were challenging someone else's credibility. Your ideas are
seaglass
Jan 2014
#75
I dont count you as anything. Thanks for lumping me in with Bonobo I will take that as a
Katashi_itto
Jan 2014
#78
Bonobo there is no way in hell you are getting an apology from me. In Prism's thread about his
seaglass
Jan 2014
#134
Now this is just getting silly. You know you called me out in the Men's Group when I was not
seaglass
Jan 2014
#159
Is this some kind of performance art? Either that or you are just yanking my chain.
seaglass
Jan 2014
#162
On the contrary - I had no idea until now of your appalling record of anti-woman posts
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2014
#117
Hahah, where did I say that? "gender wars . . . trash thread" You brought up misogyny and sexism.
Katashi_itto
Jan 2014
#37
Maybe you ought to read it " I figured I'd add something to the DU gender wars and how SOME women"
Katashi_itto
Jan 2014
#39
Oh I agree, but when you watch the level of vitriolic flung at me, by the usual suspects
Katashi_itto
Jan 2014
#52
You just decide to make things up now? "your opinion does not include treating women with respect."
Katashi_itto
Jan 2014
#164
LOL, sure…..you've never been one to trash and not post another dozen times. I wish.
bettyellen
Jan 2014
#125
I agree that most wouldn't say it IRL. The question is, why is it tolerated online?
Gormy Cuss
Jan 2014
#57
Very true. I've gotten into fights with family on FB that never would have happened IRL
BarackTheVote
Jan 2014
#73
Here's the thing, the thoughts behind the "crap" are real. The fact that most of these creatures
Egalitarian Thug
Jan 2014
#93
My personal take: people will try to live up to the role online that they wish they had IRL
LadyHawkAZ
Jan 2014
#124
I've read something similar to that in ethnographies about online communities.
Vashta Nerada
Jan 2014
#128
Yeah but it's not about disagreeing, it's about how some people disagree
justiceischeap
Jan 2014
#70
And, the more this stuff is dismissed as harmless in 'anonymous' discussions
geek tragedy
Jan 2014
#76
72.5 of the incidents of harassment- so while you say "everyone gets harassed" women face it 3X
bettyellen
Jan 2014
#123
In the UK news today: Two guilty over abusive tweets to Caroline Criado-Perez
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2014
#107
I'm guessing it was to fit in. That said, I know there are female cyberbullies
justiceischeap
Jan 2014
#113
Lizz Winstead talks to Raw Story about the creepy men who make the Internet a hellhole
Oilwellian
Jan 2014
#120
If so then it's primarily because of cowardly little shits who would never say such things in person
nomorenomore08
Jan 2014
#121
I'm reminded of the young woman who posted the book her mom got her on Reddit
justiceischeap
Jan 2014
#166