HATERS book report

haters.md

• Sexism is most of the problem

  • Sexism is prejudice against a person because of their gender, combined with the privilege and power to do them harm

    • Women being prejudiced against men lack the privilege to harm them

  • Cybersexism is the expression of prejudice, privilege, and power in online spaces and through technology as a medium

    • **The goal is to create, enforce, and normalize male dominance in online spaces **

  • Disagreeing with a woman and putting her in her place using sexual harassment to **reinforce how cybersexists think the internet should work **(primarily a man’s space)

• Bystanders are also a problem

  • "Third-person effect": people who assume that they are not affected by stereotypes in media are often the ones who are the most likely to absorb harmful messages and beliefs from it

• **Ways in which sexism occurs against women **

  • Political and financial power

    • Congress is 80% men and 80% white and is in 75th place of women in politics around the world

  • Media stereotypes

  • Violence

    • Remains closely linked to gender and intersections with race, sexuality, gender identity, and other factors increase the likelihood that certain groups of women will experience violence

    • ~100% of sexual violence against women over 18 are committed by men

      • 95% of physical assaults

      • 97% of stalking incidents

    • When men are attacked, other men commit 70% of rapes, 86% of physical assaults, and 65% of stalking incidents

• Men tend to dominate all casual and professional discussions

  • Men tend to be socialized to assert themselves in conversation and interrupt other speakers - including women - to position themselves as the most authoritative individual. Common online as well

  • If women speak 25-50% of the time in mixed group, men perceive women as dominating the conversation

  • **The amount of time women speak is judged based on a comparison of silent women, not the amount of time that men speak **

• Anonymity and justifications for online abuse

  • Cybersexist harassers often use anonymity to say they didn’t "really" mean the harassment, abuse, or stereotypes they posted because the account was anonymous -** it wasn’t truly them** and therefore they weren’t truly expressing their own opinions

  • Harassers are more comfortable expressing harmful beliefs or engaging in abuse when they’re anonymous because they assume they will not be able to be held accountable for whatever they said or do

  • Men feel justified and entitled to engage in abusive activities online by virtue of being a man online and relying on the concept of **women as invaders in a male space **

    • Assume the internet is an inherently sexist place and see accepting abuse as the cost of entry for women

    • Bystanders are less likely to step in when harassment occurs, which helps abuse continue

  • **Harassment infringes on others’ ability to expressing their free speech **

• We should stop saying "trolls"

  • Most trolling activities are done by adult men

  • Term "troll" brings to mind teenagers in their mother’s basement doing harmless jokes

  • **Mislabeling harassment as trolling leads to deep disconnect with the repercussions and effect of online harassment - causes people to refuse to acknowledge cybersexism as a serious issue **

  • "Don’t feed the trolls" is harmful because it’s another way to say “stop making everyone uncomfortable by pointing out abuse

    • Makes the problem worse by giving abuser a perceived excuse to escalate their behavior in hopes of receiving a response

    • Validates their abuse through inaction

    • Doesn’t matter if the woman engages because it’s the thrill of never facing consequences

• Most of the advice given to women places responsibility on the victims

  • Women’s choices should not be between avoiding online life and dealing with unrelenting harassment

  • Going offline isn’t an option - limits career and social life

  • Blocking still requires the victims to see the harassment in the first place and doesn’t address the actual problem

    • Also doesn’t remove the content itself - others can still see

• Types of derailment

  • Harassers assume that they should get to dictate not only the content of their statements but** also the emotional reaction those statements elicit **

    • "They should stop being so sensitive, it was a joke" deflects the argument into something that’s about the victim’s response instead of examining the abusive behavior

  • DARVO - deny, attack, reverse victim and offender

  • First amendment

    • Reshaping a woman’s argument/critique of men to make it seem as though she said or implied something damaging to freedom of speech is one of the fastest ways to gain support for harassing her

      • Frequently used to demand women refrain from criticizing their sexist statements

      • Similar to blaming a woman for rape and discredits the original topic of conversation

  • **Positioning women as hysterical has the effect of creating a positive contrast for men as rational **

  • Tone policing

  • Fear

    • Sending threats as means of forcing women to leave "men’s spaces" on the internet

  • Women abusing other women

    • Typically done by educated, middle-class, cisgender white women have a tendency to rely on racist stereotypes and paint themselves as the victim of vindictive bullying

  • Harassment of straight white men is never an attack on their identity, but also seeks to classify them as women ("gay")

• Gamergate and mass movements

  • Tactics were practiced and refined on black women during Operation Lollipop on 4chan

  • Deindividualization is common in harassment mobs

    • Reduced self-awareness and lower inhibitions, poor impulse control

    • Personal identity is subsumed by group identity and responsibility is transferred to the group so no one is responsible

  • Autotelic experiences similar to gaming

    • What kind of moves can you do until she blocks you? Blocking is seen as a positive feedback loop and encourages increased attacks

  • Authoritarian figurehead leads the movement and directs attacks of deindividualized mobs against a victim

  • Targets are chosen based on access and what kinds of support they have

    • Typically WOC first

• What can we do?

  • Take Back Tech! Is a group that scores social media companies on their responsiveness to abuse

  • Sometimes shutting down comments can help

    • National Journal saw a 20% increase in revisits

  • Backchannels for women to help cope

  • Men should consider if their comments in a situation are on the actual problem or if it’s because a woman is saying it

  • Men can also help point out women’s work instead of the harassment that they are enduring

  • Set up safe spaces to test out new solutions to volunteer groups of women before it goes out to the public

  • Make anonymity contingent on good behavior - if you are a bad actor, your real name gets revealed and you face consequences and reduced privileges

  • Digital report card if you are behaving poorly with penalties to match

  • Make reporting abuse easier (checkboxes for types of abuse?)

  • Add friction for following or tagging people in issues if they go unanswered within a certain timeframe

  • Get alerted if someone is following 2+ of your blocked users starts to follow you

  • Hire more diverse people