Most people who use the internet are familiar with social
media and news aggregating websites. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yahoo,
Google News, the list goes on. It is not hard to find examples of gender based
disparity on these websites. When the trending topics on Facebook and the top
articles on yahoo have to do with men, they are either in relation to
businessmen, star athletes or world leaders. When they have to do with women or
femininity, the topics are limited to hair, clothes or the female body and are
almost always rank with objectification. While this sexism far from desirable, it is
nothing compared to the outright and dangerous “anti-feminism” that has
developed on less well known websites like 4chan and Reddit. This “anti-feminism”
has resulted in vast campaigns of online harassment that is truly dangerous for
women who use the internet.
4chan is an entirely anonymous online community populated predominantly
by technically savvy, white males. Many of the most famous gags on the internet
(think Rick Rolling) developed on 4chan, however, before 2014 most internet
users had never heard of the site. That’s because in 2014, 4chan (a bastion of
racism, homophobia and sexism) was at the epicenter of the celebrity nude photo
hack that released private pictures of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and many,
many more (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/02/the-shadowy-world-of-4chan-the-shock-post-site-that-hosted-the-private-jennifer-lawrence-photos/).
This release of private photos was conducted illegally in order to harm and embarrass
female celebrities and while abhorrent, is just the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to online gender based harassment. Shortly after the pictures were
released on 4chan, they were to be found on a similar site: Reddit.
Reddit is a website similar to 4chan in that it is formed of
many different sub-communities. While the website has many benign areas focused
on art and history, it is also home to much darker areas devoted to racism, sexism,
pedophilia and rape (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/17/ellen-pao-reddit-sexist-racist-internet-trolls-winning).
One obvious example of the sexist, online harassment that hangs over Reddit’s
head is of course the celebrity photo scandal as mentioned above. A much darker
and more disturbing example is to be found in the way in which the members of
the website have interacted with management of the website. Between 2014 and
2015 Ellen Pao was the CEO of Reddit and made it clear that she intended to impose
stronger content restrictions on the website when she had the subreddits “transfags”
and “fatpeoplehate” shut down (The Guardian). In response to this presumed affront
to free speech, a vocal minority of the website’s users began a coordinated campaign
of harassment against Pao. While a regular petition for Pao’s removal formed,
users also began to post Pao’s address, personal information, and to create
memes focusing on her gender and race. One focusing point for the “anti-Pao”
movement was her involvement in a sexual discrimination case previously in her
career (http://www.newstatesman.com/sci-tech/2015/07/reddit-s-woman-problem).
This supposedly served as evidence that Pao was only interested promoting the “female
agenda” and served to fuel the vitriol towards her. In the end, she was forced
to resign. Far from being the outlier, this treatment is often the norm for
women who attempt to acquire and maintain status in the online community as is
evidenced by the Gamergate “controversy”.
Gamergate is essentially the example to examine when
discussing online, gender based harassment. The story of Gamergate starts when
a vindictive ex-boyfriend of video game developer Zoey Quinn posted a blog
accusing her of trading sexual favors for favorable video game reviews. The
story ends with multiple women (Zoey Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and Breanna Wu)
being forced into hiding because of death threats, rape threats, and exposed
personal addresses. After the blog post by Quinn’s ex-boyfriend
“outraged gamers took to Twitter, Reddit and 4chan by the
tens of thousands to protest the so-called ethical breaches in gaming
journalism…Some of the people sent Quinn death and rape threats so specific, so
actionable, that she fled her house and called the cops,” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to-read/)
When Anita
Sarkeesian, a media critic, spoke out about the issue, she received the same
treatment. Later, after making a joke online about the situation, Breanna Wu again
received the same. All three of these women received this treatment for the
same reason, because of their gender. This example of harassment thus proves to
be the most disturbing of the three and truly a show of how dangerous online
harassment can be.
While the thinly veiled sexism and
objectification found on mainstream internet sites is reprehensible, it is also
important to see how dangerous and damaging sexist beliefs can be when allowed
to ferment into their most extreme forms. Whether is an embarrassing and
harmful release of intimate correspondence or it is a “specific and actionable
death or rape threat,” harassment by anonymous online communities like 4chan
and Reddit needs to have a light shined on it and needs to be ended.
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