As we all spend so much of our time online these days, it’s hard not to get caught up in the sense of community built by most social networking sites. You’ve got all your friends on Facebook, you’ve got your favourite blogs bookmarked, you follow people on Twitter who intrigue and inspire you. And then on top of that, you might have a favourite social news site like Reddit or StumbleUpon that is updated and frequented by people just like you.
The internet is all about community - and it’s pretty hard to swallow when your community turns against you.
I imagine that’s how Anita Sarkeesian felt when her online feminist commentary was met by a wave of vicious opposition and harassment just last year. On May 17th 2012, Sarkeesian launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a web series that explored female cultural tropes. The answering campaign was, quite simply, disgusting.
In response to her request for sponsorship, brave Keyboard Warriors photoshopped images of the activist to portray her being raped by video game characters. An online flash game was created, where players could beat up Sarkeesian’s avatar, bruising and battering her until she eventually bled out on screen. Her Wikipedia page was frequently edited to display graphic sexual images. People tried to access and share her personal contact information, and congratulated each other on their successful harassment of the young feminist.
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| Gameplay from the 'Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian' flash game |
But Sarkeesian responded with such grace and dignity that the abusive campaign, designed to stop her from receiving any funding, completely backfired. Sarkeesian posted details of the abuse to her blog, where fans, feminists, and general decent human beings were so outraged that they succeeded in raising $150,000 to help Anita speak out to a broader audience.
Anita Sarkeesian’s horrific ordeal may have ended triumphantly, but it is a very real (if extreme) example of how women are often received in online communities. And not every hateful comment or campaign is resolved with such success.
Because almost all of us have a significant online presence, our interactions on the web are very telling of our general attitudes. It is, therefore, extremely disheartening to see women verbally abused and harassed so frequently and determinedly. As the web becomes the dominant form of communication, it’s becoming even more important for us to create safe and supportive communities, not just for women, but for everyone.
While
the Anita Sarkeesian campaign began on Kickstarter,
which is by nature highly publicised, there are of course the more personal
sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where the harassment against any part of a community is often much more harsh, and much more harmful. Less than two weeks ago, 17-year-old Jinan Younis wrote an eloquent and thought-provoking piece for The Guardian newspaper entitled “What happened when I started a feminist society at school”. I almost knew what had happened before I read it. I knew that Younis was not writing about the overwhelming support that her feminist efforts had received from her teachers and peers. Isn’t that sad? That I would see that title and immediately assume the worst?
As it turns out, I was right. In the article, posted 20th June, Younis recalls the uproar that followed after her feminist society posted the below image to Facebook.
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| Young students take part in the 'Who Needs Feminism' campaign |
“We were told that our "militant vaginas" were "as dry as the Sahara desert", girls who complained of sexual objectification in their photos were given ratings out of 10, details of the sex lives of some of the girls were posted beside their photos, and others were sent threatening messages warning them that things would soon "get personal".”
These are girls aged 16-18, whose attempts to create for themselves an equal, supportive community was met with a landslide of abuse and derision. Sixteen year-old children were attacked and humiliated, openly objectified and threatened. So what did the faculty do to punish the bullies?
Absolutely nothing.
There were no repercussions for the boys, and the girls were instructed to remove the images from Facebook. When confronted about their handling of the situation, the school maintained that they are “committed to protecting the safety and welfare of [their] students, which extends to their online safety.”
There were no repercussions for the boys, and the girls were instructed to remove the images from Facebook. When confronted about their handling of the situation, the school maintained that they are “committed to protecting the safety and welfare of [their] students, which extends to their online safety.”
What’s really disturbing is that this aggressive attitude
towards women isn’t even that uncommon on Facebook. The global social networking service has recently come under
scrutiny due to its failure to appropriately deal with the vast amount of
misogynistic content on the site. This includes 'fan' pages with titles like “Drop-kicking sluts in the teeth”, “Kicking your girlfriend violently in the
fanny because she won’t make you a sandwich” and “Violently raping your friend for fun.” Many of these pages have
thousands of ‘likes’ and have remained on the network for years. There have
actually been petitions to delete them, because simply asking Facebook to
remove horrific hate speech from their site initially did not get results.
Other examples of misogyny from the Facebook community
include “titillating” pages with images of naked women, and celebrities in
skimpy clothing. This kind of pornographic content has often been allowed to remain on the social
network for extended periods of time. Meanwhile, Facebook concerned themselves with removing pictures of
mothers breastfeeding their babies. An example of this bizarre double-standard
is the once popular page titled “Bra Busters” – but this particular example
does come with a fist-pumping tale of feminist victory. As told by The Daily Dot back in May, ‘Bra Busters’ fell apart when six feminists gained
control of the page and replaced all of the sexual and misogynistic content
with Feminist memes and Virginia Woolf quotes.
Because almost all of us have a significant online presence, our interactions on the web are very telling of our general attitudes. It is, therefore, extremely disheartening to see women verbally abused and harassed so frequently and determinedly. As the web becomes the dominant form of communication, it’s becoming even more important for us to create safe and supportive communities, not just for women, but for everyone.
We’re not quite there yet, but here are some of my favourite female-friendly online communities, and individuals who are proudly paving the way:
Founded by actress Dianna Agron, You, Me & Charlie posts emphasise whimsy and self-confidence for all.
HelloGiggles was co-founded by Zooey Deschanel, so you can expect plenty of upbeat posts promoting compassion and confidence.
Betches Love This is a tongue-in-cheek social news site presenting ‘Betch Culture’ as the female answer to ‘Lad Culture’. While I wouldn’t exactly call it a feminist site, it is written by some funny betches.
XOJane, founded by Jane Pratt, is a women’s lifestyle site that offers opinionated and uplifting articles.
Gala Darling is a self-help blogger who promotes ‘Radical Self-Love’ and sequins galore.
This social news site advertises as “Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Without the airbrushing.” ‘Nuff said, really.
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