Sunday, March 2, 2014
The Internet as a Weapon of Misogynists
This article in Salon caught my attention today, for obvious reasons: "Women who have a tendency to exhibit feminist notions on the Internet are especially victims of this [doxxing and humiliation]. Anti-feminism and the doxxing movement are interrelated. There's a notion of wanting to harm women who speak out or take up too much space, women who don't know their place on the Internet. As Adam Savage says, 'The Internet hates women'."
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Thank god I grew up before the internet, when I was young I was capable of doing all manner of dumb things to win approval from men, luckily no documentation exists. What will never cease to enrage me is this underlying desire to punish women for being attractive.
ReplyDeleteI've read that during The Reign of Terror during The French Revolution crowds would turn out in larger numbers to see a pretty girl going to the guillotine, how little of human nature has changed.
Ditto ditto, indeed indeed.
DeleteRevenge of the nerds sums it up. In real life, most of these guys live mouse coloured lives of quiet desperation. Their head space and identity is trapped in junior high. They think that contempt is powerful because it's the weapon that was used against them to "keep them in their place" And even after decades have passed, it's still with them.
DeleteThe worst tyrannical behaviour that you'll ever deal with is a nerd who for the first time in his/her life has power. They haven't got a clue of wise use because they've never had it before. And the most powerful lessons that stayed with them are from punitive forms. So, they assume power is punitive and contemptuous. There might also be the fear of losing power if they aren't aggressive.
Yes, that's pretty much how I see them too.
DeleteCinzia, habe you checked out radish mag? I think 'revenge of the nerds' pretty much sums them up, and the dork enlightenment in general. Nerds with low EQ, such as Anatoli Karlin or that lion guy.
DeleteMaybe you will have to legally change your name if you want to get a new job?
ReplyDeleteNow why on earth.would I have to do that? I don't know where you are coming from, but it sounds like a hostile place. Look, I am hardly alone: This kind of "internet terrorism" is being directed at a lot of people (mostly women), and the public at large is starting to get wise. And I have faith that eventually our laws will catch up to the technology, probably within the next few years.
DeleteSpeaking out against misogyny would probably help her employment chances, especially in an academic setting.
DeleteHey, this is my "red badge of feminist courage". And it does give me an interesting story to tell during the job interview...
DeleteWho is "they" and how, exactly, are "they... no different than the SPLC"? And that reminds me, I've got about thirty essays I should be marking right now...
ReplyDeleteI don't know what's more chilling about that article - what was done to that girl or the many comments blaming her for it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's chilling to me is that we are still living in a world where a woman's life (or anyone's life, really) can be "ruined" because of her choice to express herself, at some point, as a sexual being. In a world that is awash with pornography and the most shameless exhibitionism (i.e., reality tv), a person can be penalized in this way for being... a normal human being.
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