I was one of those who contributed to the New Statesman piece last week about the abuse women writers and bloggers are subjected to online, and I’m really pleased to see how that piece and others have helped kick start a wider debate on the subject.
Unfortunately though, this isn’t the first time this debate has been had: and that’s because rape threats and other threats of violence towards women who write online are not new phenomena. Many of you will have been around long enough to remember the attacks on Kathy Sierra for instance, as well as being fully aware of some of the concerted campaigns against radical feminist bloggers, including Julie Bindel who for some inexplicable reason has been completely ignored in this latest round of discussions.
Online abuse is a subject Jessica Valenti has written eloquently about in the past, and indeed, one of my own earlier pieces for Comment is Free way back in 2007 – Speaking truth to power – was about the abuse women receive when they venture online. I asked then: “Is it really any wonder that women are so reluctant to contribute, when all we get for our pains are campaigns of harassment and intimidation?”
Sadly that’s a question that’s still being asked today.
But let’s be optimistic, maybe this time around someone will actually come up with some workable solutions, and this sudden interest in and concern about online misogyny won’t turn out to be a flash in the pan.
But anyway, without any further ado, here’s a collection of pieces on the subject from across the web, many of them personal testimonies of the abuse individual bloggers have experienced. Please add any you think I might have missed in the comments:
Sady Doyle: Why I Didn’t Delete Tiger Beatdown
Skepchick: Mom, Don’t Read This
Gluten-free girl: Warm brown rice and grilled vegetable salad
Seanan McGuire: Being a female in the age of the Internet
Tiger Beatdown: On blogging, threats, and silence
Helen Lewis-Hasteley: “You should have your tongue ripped out”: the reality of sexist abuse online
Helen Lewis-Hasteley: On rape threats and Internet trolls
Ray Filar: How women’s voices are silenced online through trolling
The Observer: Women bloggers call for a stop to ‘hateful’ trolling by misogynist men
Laurie Penny: A woman’s opinion is the mini-skirt of the Internet
Sian and crooked rib: My guide to online abuse and the excuses given to pretend it doesn’t happen
boglyn: Of Blogs, Blocks and Blokes: or, “Shame Wore a Purple Thong”
Sarah Ditum: Running Away from the Voices
Lucy Pepper: the misogyny thing
Butterflies & Wheels: My ladder doesn’t go that high
Too Much To Say For Myself 
DFTT. That is all.
http://avoiceforcreepymen.blogspot.com/
I wrote a reponse to ‘Anna Raccoon’s’ take on “Female Bloggers Cry Rape.” She seemed to have the notion that women were victimising themselves by speaking out, yet that in itself is a form of internalised prejudice. Why the “Female Bloggers Cry Rape” Post is a Form of Internalised Prejudice
suswatibusu – agree, the Anna Raccoon blog was appalling and called women who spoke out against this abuse as ‘lily livered’ when actually speaking out is a courageous thing to do, esp when so many of the responses prove the point we’re making.
Cath – thank you for linking!
Thanks also for the link Cath!
sianuskha- I spotted your comment on Anna Raccoon’s blog, and you made an excellent point especially in your analysis of online abuse, it definitely is a way of just keeping women perpetually silent.
“A way of keeping women perpetually silent”
Yes it’s all a big conspiracy! That’s what we talk about at the pub on Saturday nights, how to keep you all silent. And how we cackle with evil laughter! (the scary thing is you’ll probably still believe thisy)
Or perhaps you are wondering why not all women believe the same crazy rubbish you do? Possibly some of them are aware of people’s casual attitude towards men’s health and safety*, which technically counts as sexist, unequal attitudes (y’know – what you’ve been complaining about for a century?)
Or possibly the entirely unequal situation wrt parenting? Or maybe some of them are more rational than you about the “wage-gap” statistics, which I would be surprised if you’d looked at properly since they say something quite different to what you folks think
REALITY CHECK:
a) there’s no conspiracy to keep women silent, there never was. You and the likes of Laurie Penny think that just because you tell each other this, that makes it true!
b) PEOPLE are unpleasant to each other – not just men. And if anyone doesn’t believe that I point them (irony of ironies) back a year on this same blog to Cath Elliot’s piece on Seb Horsley for starters.
The fact that you cite Laurie Penny as a voice of reason is hilarious, and very telling.
* I’m sure the balance of men to women in the armed forces, prisons, out on the streets etc isn’t enough to persuade you of this…
@Hairy 9:59am:
Yes the Ladeez be cwazy! Such Cwazy Liars!
How many men have told you they are going to rape you this week??? Or women?
Numbers- cwazy laydeez need stats.
Brilliant round-up, thanks Cath!
@Harry Check the #mencallmenames trend on Twitter. This is just a handful of comments women get that bear no resemblance to some of the commentary male writers receive. No, it’s not a ‘conspiracy theory.’ It’s just a fact that some men feel the need to harass women both on and offline using sexually violent terminology as a means of ‘shutting [some] women up.’ Completely unnecessary.
“Seeke out ye goode in everie man,
And speke of alle the beste ye can;
Then wil alle men speke wel of thee
And say how kynde of hearte ye bee”
– Geoffrey Chaucer
1340 – 1400
Well… I’ve finally written about this. (It’s completely different to what’s been said so far. I just hope it will help).
What I propose is to work with compassion. Which is difficult, but as far as I know may provide the only alternative.
@Harry needs to get himself up to date on the stats WRT pay inequality. I suggest he pay a brief visit to http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=1208 – where ONS figures show that women experience a full-time pay gap of 15.5% and that their personal pensions are 62% that of men.
And yes, I agree wholeheartedly with every word of the above article. Women are silenced. Men actually DO chuckle about it in the pub – but those men aren’t really the problem, because they’re easy to spot. The problem is men like Harry, who don’t laugh about putting down women in the pub, but who know absolutely nothing about the subject of misogynistic oppression and yet still feel we need to hear their opinion on the topic.
Great round-up of writing and comments, thanks Cath.
I’ve written about the abuse I received while volunteering with an all-female environmental campaigning group – it’s not just bloggers, but all women involved with politics/activism (particulalrly left-leaning politics/activism) that are targeted. I don’t find it surprising that most of the female writers doing the ‘I’ve never received a rape threat, therefore it never happens!’ type posts seem to be more right-leaning in their writing and politics.
I can attest to being bullied by men on-line. It stems from a hatred of women, a fear of women and male entitlement. I have 3 wonderful brothers and a great Father so I know what a real man looks and acts like. I can’t tell you how sorry I feel for those pathetic men who hate women they’ve never met simply because she is a woman and she moves him out of his comfort zone to such a degree he wants to cause her harm. They are easy to spot: they dismiss women’s feelings and ridicule her for having them.