INTERNET MISOGYNYBy Cherry
Men define how women should use the internet through a range of complex behaviours. The behaviour includes
all-pervasive re-enforcement of sexist stereotypes. Our truths are lost,
submerged in twisted, patriarchal tales.
The internet had much promise in the golden age of
initial exploration. There was potential for gender to be irrelevant. . And
yet, sadly, it’s become increasingly obvious to radical feminists that the internet
mirrors life. Women are marginalised, misrepresented, and harassed online by
men. Isolated, individual women challenge the status quo in numerous ways
within particular cyber spaces. As with the real world, men respond by
demonizing her. I’m going to use my own story from an experience of an LGBT,
male-dominated, website to illustrate how a woman can be harassed, and scapegoated
online. I will call the site “UC”.
PERSONAL ONLINE HARASSMENT AND
ABUSE
My appearance, weight, age, sexuality, integrity,
illness, and “who I really am” were all regularly publically attacked on UC. Numerous stories
trivialised and distorted my life experiences and online choices. They were
repeated cyclically as if they were facts. I was accused of lying about serious
matters in the real world, including making a false allegation of sexual abuse.
The attacks against me were permeated with stereotypical sexist myths. That’s how we know this is not about one woman and one group of men. It’s how
online misogyny works. Men create false representations of women. Others on the
site are marginalised and singled out. However, the sexist stereotyping of my
personality and life experiences, whilst men involved are championed, is what
makes the experience characteristic of online misogyny.
ANONYMITY vs. “TRUE” IDENTITY
There are some commonly accepted “truths”
about using the internet. It’s widely
assumed that these “truths” are “gender-neutral”. I don’t believe this is so. I think women’s accounts about life
online are subsumed under patriarchal mores.
Men tell us how we should represent ourselves on the
internet. They have two main, opposing, approaches. We should either use our
full names and be fully open about who we are (says Zuckerburg, founder of
Facebook) or we should be “anonymous” so we can “leave our mistakes behind“,
according to Chris Poole, founder of an infamous /b/ site where users are
largely anonymous. The anonymous posters on /b/ site indulge in unpleasant
behaviour including uploading humiliating photos of women and misogynist posts.
Men frequently use anonymity to re-enforce aggression towards women, and
others, online.
Pressure to reveal true identities leaves women
exposed. Feminists and women bloggers have been threatened. One woman had her
home address published
(http://bitchmagazine.org/article/from-the-archive-wack-attack) .She stopped
blogging. If people don’t reveal “who they really are” online through
up-to-date photos, real name, age and other details, then they are often
accused of being that much-feared net-alien, a “troll”,
on discussion forums. Women are trapped between these
two opposing positions, neither of them providing protection from the
consequences of online patriarchy.
Women are made aware of rape and the threat of rape.
It serves to control how we live and many of us are cautious about giving out
personal details. Under patriarchy, “not being who you are” on the net can
symbolically and, in reality, represent liberation for women after a lifetime
of oppression.
If we do hide our true identities, many men seek to
expose us or reinvent our motivation for doing so to fit with theirs. They
assume we do it, like they do, out of malevolence. The paranoia and fear that
someone may not be who they seem online constantly replays across the internet,
even if all a woman wants to do is post her ideas.
ANTI-CENSORSHIP
Most men want to protect “freedom of speech” on the
internet. Un-moderated environments tend to be rife with woman-hatred. The reinforcement of
online misogyny can be both subtle and unsubtle. Thoughts stem from entrenched
social norms telling us how things should be. Methods of online communication
perpetuate those social norms. They are littered with unconscious patriarchal
assumptions about who women are and how we behave.
The belief that people should be free to type what
they want online is often championed above blatant misogyny. Women objecting to
misogyny face ridicule and accusations of wanting to “censor” men. The
discussion is then shifted by men to one about libertarianism. It’s another way in which online misogyny continues unabated.
MALE GUARDIANS
Male “guardians” of social networking websites have a key role to play in reinforcing
patriarchy online. When men use their economic power or technological knowledge
to set up a website they determine how that website should be used. They do this
by creating rules and features and banning/suspending profiles. They define the
boundaries of personal, online, expression.
The unofficial “guardians“ of a site have a colluding role. These are influential posters who
retell site-related stories as if they are universal “truths”. Any forum over time, develops invisible rules and a common way of
viewing the world. Irving Janis (1972) calls destructive, shared ideas among
people who interact, “groupthink”. For radical feminists, “groupthink” is not gender neutral. Men define the world according to how they see
it and women either fit in or are seen as “other“. UC‘s “groupthink” re-created my existence to fit with patriarchy’s view of women as manipulative, attention-seekers who lie and scheme.
HOW WOMEN ONLINE ARE PORTRAYED
UC mimics the media’s obsession with women. The “angel and the whore” phenomenon means
some women posters (those who don’t challenge
the status quo, look pretty and/or side with men against other women) and some
celebrities are the “angels”, while others are “whores”. The “whores” are wicked, evil manipulators who lie and deceive our way through life.
My experience on this particular site is mirrored by
accounts from other women elsewhere on the internet . There are millions of
other internet pockets where men are acting the same way towards women. Feminists have written extensively about how
women are seen as “mad” or “bad”. What is new is how this manifests itself across the internet, the most
powerful modern-day communication tool there is.
WHY DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER?
Here we are. We’re on the cusp
of some critically important ways in which the internet can change how the
world communicates. It’s fast, we can talk to people internationally as if they’re in the same room, for free. Acting collectively on the internet is a
new people power unseen before.
And yet, men’s power and
control over internet activities means abuse and “gaslighting” of women is
all-consuming. Our attempts to hide from, or challenge, online harassment or
sexism are manipulated by men and used to further humiliate, ridicule or
silence us. It’s all eerily familiar with many parallels within the real world.
Men have publically told my online story, negatively,
for years. It feels liberating to finally tell it myself. I believe there are
many more women and girls confused and damaged by how others portray them in
public cyber spaces. I hope, this article will form part of a growing radical
feminist analysis about how online misogyny thrives.
Cherry has been a radical feminist and political activist for many
years. More recently, she has participated in local UK uncut actions and has
set up a regional feminist network. She can be contacted by e-mail
and/or followed on twitter @iamraging
