One of the most
popular pastimes in the modern age is social media. According to an eMarketer
report, "nearly one in four people worldwide will use social networks in2013. The number of social network users around the world will rise from 1.47billion in 2012 to 1.73 billion, an 18% increase" .
While social media can be entertaining for all, a major problem has soured the
experience for women everywhere. According to bustle.com, "being a woman on the internet can be especially rough. Whether you're trying to find a date or just, you know, minding your own business, unwarranted sexist abuse is such a common phenomenon that some women are making it their mission to turn the tables".
Women are being harassed online at an alarming rate. 'Trolls' on social media
sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit, and 4chan are taking it upon
themselves to seek out women's accounts and send them mean, unnecessary, and
just plain threatening comments. As a matter of fact, this happens so often
that people have coined the term "cyber-misogyny". While many
different people face harassment online (a different issue in itself), the
harassment women face has been found to be more gender-based. It has been
pointed out that while men are also harassed online, they are never harassed because they are men, whereas that is the most
common 'reason' for harassing women.
Evidence of this is abundant in the recent Gamergate scandal - a group of male gamers identifying themselves as 'Gamergate' began attacking several prominent feminists in the gaming community, such as game developers Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu, and cultural critic Anita Sarkeesian.
Gamergate's harassment included 'doxxing' the targeted women (doxxing is a term
popularized on the internet meaning to share personal, identifiable information
about an individual), rape and death
threats, as well as a mass shooting threat in protest of an invited speech
featuring Sarkeesian.
Many of the complaints from those claiming to represent Gamergate had to do
with the individuals distaste for women in games. Brianna Wu tweeted about
speaking to other women about Gamergate, saying "one of the most disheartening things about #GHC15 (a conference meant to celebrate women in tech) was hearing firsthand from about 30 women keeping a low profile career to avoid #gamergate" and "This is a field where your reputation and fame are so critical to success. But #gamergate has created an atmosphere of terror for women".
Sadly, this kind of harassment is found all over internet communities. One
particular example is the attacks on what appears to be an eighth grade girl on
twitter. She posted pictures of herself at a school dance, saying "letstalk about how i was slaying".
She received several nasty replies on Twitter, all of them from adult men. These replies were riddled with foul language and crudely photoshopped images of her, clearly meant to offend.
Several women came
to the girl's defense and tweeted at the men attacking her. However, the body
positivity movement was created specifically for this purpose. It has become
the norm for people to post pictures of themselves on social media praising
their hair, or makeup, or outfit. Body positivity is about loving yourself no
matter what you look like and regardless of what people say about you. Popular
alternative singer Halsey is a huge supporter of body positivity and has
tweeted in favor of it numerous times. Most notably, she often takes it upon
herself to tell people off when they harass someone for their appearance or how
they choose to present themselves, as seen when she tweeted at fellow musician
Jack Johnson when he criticized the movement. He claimed that many girls had
been "using the excuse of body positivity to post slutty pictures".
He has since deleted those tweets, but
Halsey's replies remain.
Another example of
women being harassed on social media has come with the Twitter and Instagram
hashtag "#ShoutYourAbortion". The hashtag is meant to help people who
have had abortions normalize their experience and to explain that abortion is a
valid decision no matter the circumstances. Many people who have participated
in this hashtag have been under attack by so-called "pro-lifers".
This example especially can be linked to The
Handmaid's Tale, with how abortions are criminalized in Gilead. However, the entire problem of misogyny in social media can be linked to Gilead. Women are being attacked on the internet simply for being women. This is incredibly similar to women's plight in The Handmaid's Tale, where women must make up for being women by having children. As this poignant #ShoutYourAbortion tweet states, "#HandmaidsTale is not an instruction manual".
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think can be done to stop harassment and misogyny online?
2. Why is online harassment considered "less serious" than if someone were attacked in person?
3. Do you think gendered harassment will ever fully go away? How could we achieve that?
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