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History of Feminism
In reply to the discussion: What happened when I confronted my cruellest troll [View all]F4lconF16
(3,747 posts)22. +1
i have a lot of sympathy for women who get trolled online, because it seems like men dont get trolled as much in this manner. men get a lot of mean comments, but people dont seem to get as obsessed with them on the deeply personal level, like they do with women.
Absolutely. There's a level of viciousness in the attacks on women on the internet that is simply unparalleled (as far as gender, anyways--being gay, black, etc., will often net you the same cruelty). I think it's a very direct reflection of our culture, taken to extremes. When you have men who feel entitled to harass women in the public arena, they will happily do much, much worse to women if they think they can't get caught. Our society is already incredibly anti-woman; providing a "safe space" for them to verbally and emotionally berate women only captures that.
it was really disturbing, and unless online trolling happens to you at that personal level, its sometimes hard for people to understand why its so disturbing.
I think much goes the same for rape. Many men I have talked to have simply no concept of the trauma involved. There's a total lack of understanding, shown in comments like, "Heh. A woman can rape me anytime.", or "It's not rape if you liked it.". Really, there's a huge empathy gap in our society: it is very challenging to cross that gap and attempt to understand things from another perspective. Sadly, all too many people are just not interested in doing so. It's much easier to ignore it, or victim-blame, or any of a number of things.
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This: "...it doesn't negate their responsibility for the culture they are fostering."
CrispyQ
Feb 2015
#18
Excellent article, TY for posting this. This kind of behavior is not limited to the internet, so I
mother earth
Feb 2015
#5
years ago there were a few trolls on du, who decided to photograph themselves
La Lioness Priyanka
Feb 2015
#9
There are a few truly nasty people out there, who will go to ANY length, to make others feel like...
AverageJoe90
Feb 2015
#41
"it’s not illegal to reach elbow-deep into someone’s memories ... and twist them and weaponize them"
phantom power
Feb 2015
#44