Misogyny online
sduford on Apr 01 2007 at 8:47 pm | Filed under: Blogging, Rant
The anonymity of online blogs and discussion forums tends to bring out the worst in people. Since almost no one knows who you are online you can say things to people without the requisite courage to say those things straight to someone’s face. You don’t need to face the consequences, of insulting, infuriating, or emotionally demolishing someone. Because of this, perfectly normal people can turn into arrogant and thoughtless jerks who say horrible things they would never say to someone’s face. And then there are those who already have a tendency towards verbal violence, and become raging lunatics online. This type of individual will generally call men they don’t agree with “homo”, “fagots”, “commie” or some other similar expletives.
However, when faced with a woman that has a position of influence, like a journalist, or any woman that has strong views that disagree with their own, these same individuals seem to turn into misogynist a-holes. They will resort to scare tactics, intimidation, attacks on the woman’s physical appearance, her mental abilities, and a whole litany of denigrating stereotype.
I find this practice very inappropriate, nasty, inconsiderate and downright disgusting. It makes me feel ashamed of being a man at times. Joan Walsh of Salon.com just wrote a great editorial entitled Men Who Hate Women Online, relating her own experience as well as that of Kathy Sierra who recently had her life threatened by some readers of her blog. This is a MUST READ for all of you men out there who like to get into heated debates online.
