john oliver ("last week tonight") "why the internet sucks for women"

[niyad]

if you did not see this last night, it is not to be missed. the take-off on the ao-hell ad is one of the best examples of misogyny online around.

Yesterday on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver devoted 16 full minutes to the topics of vicious, misogynist online harassment and revenge porn, the difficulties of stamping them out, and the absolutely unacceptable responses from authorities. The whole thing culminates in a parody of an early 90s AOL ad. It was pretty satisfying.

Oliver: “I’m talking about the kind of direct threats that can make people fear for their safety. And if you’re thinking, well, come on, that doesn’t seem like that big a problem, well congratulations on your white penis. Because if you have one of those, you probably have a very different experience of the Internet.” Look, dudes, it’s coming from a dude! You can believe it now!

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Years ago, when I had an AOL account...

I set up one of my identities as a woman. Just to see what would happen.

WOW! I had no idea. And not just yer basic being hit on.

Seems like there's a competition out there to photoshop private parts to incredible dimensions. I remember one guy had a bikini model doing pullups off of his.

Now, I admit I was kinda egging them on a little (just a little...) to see how far it would go, and it went pretty far. My screen was constantly filled with IMs unless I turned them off. Once, after digging through them to get the funnier images, I found out I was being cybered all the while, and two guys posted pix of their happiness.

It became too disturbing, so I gave up after a few weeks. And when I asked the simple question of how any female got anything done with all the interruptions, nobody knew what I was talking about.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. I still have a few AOL disks around for skeet shooting.

[niyad]

5. that, or coasters.

[SunSeeker]

3. "The Internet: A dark carnival of humanity's most wretched impulses."

John Oliver nails it again.

[niyad]

6. indeed he does.

[niyad]

4. . . . .