Misogyny online

SwanSky

I came across this really interesting story a while back about a woman who's big into online gaming, and some of the intense misogynistic harassment she's had on the back of challenging misogyny in online gaming and on the internet generally.

I thought it'd make for an interesting conversation. I'll post the link below.

http://www.feministfrequency.com/

Da Shins Kelly

It's like most things on the internet - people are granted anonymity and so they feel like they can say anything they want and get away with it. It's true to a certain extent. For better or for worse, the internet is probably the last realm where free speech truly exists. I'm paraphrasing here, but as a man once said, 'the best and worst thing about the internet is that it gives everyone a voice'. Any time I see misogyny on the internet, I just kinda console myself with the fact that these people would more than likely never express these opinions as freely and vocally as they do online because they know it's not really acceptable.

Morag

The idiots who attacked her are by no means representative of all gamers or even a cross section of them.

SwanSky

Da Shins Kelly wrote: »

Any time I see misogyny on the internet, I just kinda console myself with the fact that these people would more than likely never express these opinions as freely and vocally as they do online because they know it's not really acceptable.

I agree with this. I still find that behaviour very disturbing though. Watching the video, that woman was threatened with rape, gang rape, sexual assault, violence and murder, and had photo-shopped pornographic images of herself sent to her and images of her face bruised and battered plastered all over the internet. People were invited, actually, to mess her face up on screen. That, to me, sounds like a horrible experience of bullying on a grand scale.

Morag wrote: »

The idiots who attacked her are by no means representative of all gamers or even a cross section of them.

I'm not into online gaming at all Morag but I never thought this was representative of all gamers. I'm not sure what you mean by 'cross section' though. There were thousands of men involved in that cyber-bullying, so it's hardly like a few spotty teenage boys sitting in their bedrooms.

Morag

I never said it was teenagers and what do you mean by online gamers?
there are plenty of people who are in various different gaming communities who not play online but are part of communities which are based online.

SwanSky

Morag wrote: »

I never said it was teenagers and what do you mean by online gamers?
there are plenty of people who are in various different gaming communities who not play online but are part of communities which are based online.

The video I posted is specifically about a segment of the American online gaming community. They play online video games.

Rob!

I have noticed it on Xbox Live on occasion. When I'm home from college I'll use my sisters login to play online - and you do bump into jerks who come out with ridiculously sexist remarks. That said, in 7 years of sharing her gamertag, I don't think I've ever encountered misogyny exclusively. It's always been some verbally abusive moron who seems to insult everybody they can however possible, as opposed to only picking on girl gamers. No form of online abuse should be tolerated, but I can't help but get the feeling that people aren't being banned for this sort of stuff.

Morag

Which segment? which game? and which game server?
As each game, the community which surrounds it can have it's own culture and even with in that there are different 'segments' as you but it.

There is a huge difference between the culture found which surrounds counter strike and starcraft.

SwanSky

Morag, I'm not into online gaming as I told you. All of the information about what happened is on that video. Have you watched it?

Lyaiera

Morag wrote: »

Which segment? which game? and which game server?
As each game, the community which surrounds it can have it's own culture and even with in that there are different 'segments' as you but it.

There is a huge difference between the culture found which surrounds counter strike and starcraft.

I do game, and I can absolutely say that the majority of games are infested with idiots. I remember people trying to start physical fights in gaming cafes over CS. And a high level pro-gamer was banned from Starcraft (or maybe DOTA) recently for being an A-Grade Douchebag.

I don't know how anyone could look at online gaming and say it doesn't have serious problems.

Rob!

Lyaiera wrote: »

I do game, and I can absolutely say that the majority of games are infested with idiots. I remember people trying to start physical fights in gaming cafes over CS. And a high level pro-gamer was banned from Starcraft (or maybe DOTA) recently for being an A-Grade Douchebag.

I don't know how anyone could look at online gaming and say it doesn't have serious problems.

Figure this is relevant to the thread. It's a website made by female gamers to highlight the abuse they have to put up with online. It really hits home how shamefully prevalent this is. (And yes, that is the actual site name before people think I'm trolling.) http://fatuglyorslutty.com/

Cant believe this goes on ignored and unnoticed all the time. Until I did some research after seeing this thread I was clueless about this. It makes me sad how much stupid there is in the world.

mirekb

Da Shins Kelly wrote: »

Any time I see misogyny on the internet, I just kinda console myself with the fact that these people would more than likely never express these opinions as freely and vocally as they do online because they know it's not really acceptable.

Me too - I think it's just another thing for them to slag about. They say horrific things to each other too. Any of them who actually are misogynists have made themselves irrelevant to me.