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Jake Swearingen writes at The Atlantic that the Internet can be a mean, hateful, and frightening place - especially for young women but human behavior and the limits placed on it by both law and society can change. In a Pew Research Center survey of 2,849 Internet users, one out of every four women between 18 years old and 24 years old reports having been stalked or sexually harassed online. "Like banner ads and spam bots, online harassment is still routinely treated as part of the landscape of being online," writes Swearingen adding that "we are in the early days of online harassment being taken as a serious problem, and not simply a quirk of online life." Law professor Danielle Citron draws a parallel between how sexual harassment was treated in the workplace decades ago and our current standard. "Think about in the 1960s and 1970s, what we said to women in the workplace," says Citron. "'This is just flirting.' That a sexually hostile environment was just a perk for men to enjoy, it's just what the environment is like. If you don't like it, leave and get a new job." It took years of activism, court cases, and Title VII protection to change that. "Here we are today, and sexual harassment in the workplace is not normal," said Citron. "Our norms and how we understand it are different now."
According to Swearingen, the likely solution to internet trolls will be a combination of things. The expansion of laws like the one currently on the books in California, which expands what constitutes online harassment, could help put the pressure on harassers. The upcoming Supreme Court case, Elonis v. The United States, looks to test the limits of free speech versus threatening comments on Facebook. "Can a combination of legal action, market pressure, and societal taboo work together to curb harassment?" asks Swearingen. "Too many people do too much online for things to stay the way they are."
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Friday October 24 2014, @12:35AM
I also can't help but notice just how little interest people have in the psychological reasons for some men behaving in this way towards women online. The discussion immediately veers off towards the judgemental: "well, they're just fucking losers".
Was on line playing some first person shooter game the other day, just killing bots waiting for some opponents that were planning to meet there. Someone joins and immediately starts trash talking and boasting and calling names and making totally asinine threats. No real skill, just all mouth/keyboard. I used the jerk for target practice, for a while till they went elsewhere.
Long story short, found out a few days later it was really a 20 something girls. I had wandered onto another server where I promptly got my ass shot off by a whole bunch of them. It was a group of college gamer gals.
Don't assume everyone behaving badly on line are men.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 24 2014, @12:49AM
Ugh. This seems to be a standard conservative response to a variety of social ills - my personal anecdote disproves the existence of any systemic problems.
Obama is president, therefore racial inequality does not exist.
A girl trash-talked me online, therefore men get an equal share of harassment online.
There was a double-murder in my town, so crime-rates are going up and we need more cops.
My cousin got addicted to cocaine, so we need stronger drug laws!
etc
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 24 2014, @01:47AM
Fool AC comes in and posts silly non sequesters so therefore nothing any one else says counts.
You're your own worst enemy.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 24 2014, @04:00AM
And that my friend is a tremendous display of self-unawareness.
Congrats on cleaving to the stereotype.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 24 2014, @07:00PM
A man says something wrong, therefore every man is wrong.
See how easy this works?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 24 2014, @07:08PM
Clear as mud. But I'm sure inside your head it is 100% relevant and insightful.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 24 2014, @02:22AM
So what you're saying is that it's all these maladjusted males that are causing the problem, and one female doesn't disprove it?
Are you one of these fools who believes that male-on-female violence is dominant, and female-on-male violence is justified?
Everyone knows one guy who was hit by a woman, but that doesn't really count because it's just anecdotal, male-on-female violence is clearly much more common. Except that the real mix is closer to 50/50, with women using weapons 86% (or thereabouts) of the time, most often against a male who's acting in a passive manner. Wiki has the appropriate supporting information, but my point isn't about intimate partner violence, it's about prejudice.
You are prejudiced against men.
Your prejudice is your assumption that males are the dominant "troll" force on the internet. It's interesting to note that your response to a suggestion otherwise is to troll in response.
Deal with your prejudice: women are humans, too. Women can be fat or thin, ugly or pretty, mean or nice, violent or passive. Women can make mistakes, drive cars, get degrees. They can leave the house and get jobs.
They can also be internet trolls.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday October 24 2014, @06:47AM
I had a girlfriend once who choked me, non-consensualy out of anger, to the point I started to get dizzy. At first I was just like "OK, this isn't amusing" and not struggling because you can't hit a woman but when I started to pass out, it was kind of too late to struggle and I was basically lucky she decided to stop on her own. I've been punched in the face exactly one single time in my 46 years, and I saw stars just like you hear in the cliche. Same chick, same thing -- she was violent and I just took it. This was over well 20 years and still I feel embarrassed by it rather than what I should have felt -- I'm not even sure what I should have felt. I do know that I wouldn't have been able to get any help.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/candacelowry/watch-how-people-react-when-they-see-a-woman-abuse-a-man-in [buzzfeed.com]
The video here is quite telling -- actors play out a scene in a park. In version 1, the man is abusing the woman and the intervention is swift, serious, and by many. In version 2, the woman is abusing the man, nobody does anything but many laugh.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday October 24 2014, @06:50AM
Lame -- serious typo"
the line:
"This was over well 20 years "
should be
"This was well over 20 years AGO"
Yes, we broke up, about 19 years ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 24 2014, @01:15PM
It is well known that men and women instigate domestic violence at roughly the same rates. [scientificamerican.com] However that fact is only half of the picture - it does not account for severity. Men tend to punch and choke while women tend to slap and scratch, thus women experience injury from domestic abuse at 2x the rate of men. That is what explains the reactions in the video you cited. In neither case is the victim injured, but the potential for escalation to injury is much greater when the man is the aggressor. The people who intervene are doing so not because of what has happened but what is likely to happen if it continues unchecked.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday October 24 2014, @02:50PM
How very dismissive of you. I guess because men usually choke and punch, it doesn't matter when women do it at all. Secondly, if you look at the video, she grabs the guy by the hair and literally throws him against a steel fence. That's merely amusing and OK because statistically, men punch and choke. One of the commentators on that page said this:
That's your logic.
(Score: 1) by jbruchon on Friday October 24 2014, @11:26AM
The logic you're attempting to use works against your agenda as well. A feminist's personal anecdote isn't sufficient evidence to prove there is a systemic problem. A bunch of feminists shrieking about theoretical systemic problems and working backwards from that conclusion to find supporting evidence does not provide evidence of a systemic problem.
I'm just here to listen to the latest song about butts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 24 2014, @12:49PM
> The logic you're attempting to use works against your agenda as well.
That would be true if there weren't plenty of evidence for the problems being systemic. Already cited elsewhere in this story's comments.