INTERNET MISOGYNY: How Online Patriarchy operates
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 rape. 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.
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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.
MALE GUARDIANS
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”.
http://www.psysr.org/about/pubs_resources/groupthink%20overview.htm 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.
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WHY DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER?
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.
http://sisterhoodispowerful.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/internet-misogyny-how-online-patriarchy-operates/
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last OP. i think this is a good read all the way thru. quick. there is more in the article. but, i think this is a real issue being addressed, about the net.
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You're finding some great articles out there.