Thank you all for the support and encouragement as I navigate this torrent of online sexism and harassment. Here’s some inspiration for us all from Capt. Janeway!
The notion that cyber harassment is trivial is both widespread and damaging. Because so many refuse to recognize cyber harassment as harmful, women suffer in silence, often sacrificing their female identities and their online lives. A cyber civil rights agenda would change this by recognizing and naming cyber harassment as gender discrimination. By changing the social meaning of online harassment and recharacterizing it as a civil rights violation, we may be able to transform online behavior in a manner that permits women to claim the internet as equally their own.
Danielle Keats Citron, “Law’s Expressive Value in Combating Cyber Gender Harassment” in the Michigan Law Review, December 2009.
Source: works.bepress.com
Harassment, Misogyny and Silencing on YouTube
Here is a very small sample of the harassment I deal with for daring to criticize sexism in video games. Keep in mind that all this is in response to my Kickstarter project for a video series called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games (which I have not even made yet). These are the types of silencing tactics often used against women on the internet who dare to speak up. But don’t worry it won’t stop me!
[MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING]
NOTE: These 60 comments were left over the course of just one hour on YouTube. They represent a tiny fraction of the 2000+ similar comments left on my video.
Source: youtube.com
