Online Threats Against Women Aren't Trivial and Don't Happen in a Vacuum

[redqueen]

Adria Richards tweeted a photo earlier this week and is now the target of rape and death threats. She joins an infinitely long line of women whom groups of men seek to control through the threat of violence. The usual narratives about this phenomenon curry the ridiculous fiction that this harassment is trivial and inconsequential and that women need to grow a thicker skin. The usual narrative, useful for abusers and thugs and those not subject to harm at the hands of others, deliberately ignores the context in which this harassment takes place: the "real" world where violence and the threat of violence against women is constant and unrelenting.

Worldwide, according to Gallup, "72% of men and 62% of women say they feel safe walking alone in their communities at night." In the U.S.., those numbers are 89 percent and 62 percent respectively. Online harassment is an easy way to extend and maintain this gap in the developed world, where women are equal enough. I mean, if women start feeling safe, well, then what will some men do with themselves? Physical security is a basic prerequisite to women's empowerment, parity, equality and liberation. Make no mistake, bullying women in these ways online only amplifies messages we're getting everywhere else. As with street harassment, online harassment is the gendered contestation of public space. And, like street harassment, the people harassing have an entitlement to power and violence.

Earlier this week developer Adria Richards tweeted a photo of two men sitting behind her joking about forking and "big dongles" at a tech conference. You know, in a shared public space. The man's employer wasn't too keen about it either and fired him. Then Anonymous, Reddit, and 4Chan got involved in his defense and... she was fired after her company's servers were attacked. And then, like clockwork, the online harassment, including death and rape threats from total strangers began, thereby proving her point about who feels comfortable doing what in public space. Now, just to be clear, she didn't just get messages saying, "Shut up and go away!" She received messages like this, documented in The Daily Dot: "a photo (blurred but still NSFW) of a bloody, beheaded woman, bound and stripped, with the caption 'when Im done.' Next to it was a home address and phone number, ostensibly Richards's."

As I've written before, threats like this are not harmless expressions of free speech. They're akin to hate speech and are maliciously intended to intimidate and silence. Messages like this don't make women feel safe. And that's the point, isn't it -- to make sure our gendered safety gap stays constant
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/the-point-of-online-haras_b_2931720.html

[niyad]

1. k and r--the war continues apace

[MineralMan]

2. No threats are trivial, IMO.

All should be taken seriously and acted upon by the authorities.

[mercymechap]

3. That's horrible - we've entered into an

entirely new method of scaring and attacking people! I feel bad for Adria, hope it's all just talk and no action, I sure would hate to see her hurt more than she has already.

[theKed]

4. This is getting ridiculous ... nt

[smirkymonkey]

5. K&R

This is getting to be sick.

[redqueen]

6. I agree. nt

[Rex]

7. And should be taken very seriously.

There are some really bad people out there that become unhinged on the internet.

[redqueen]

9. Not sure how much of that stuff can be tracked down,

but I hope the people posting and sending the worst threats are caught.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. making threats against someone online is against the law. And morally reprehensible.

As lame, mock-worthy, or reprehensible as Ms. Adira's own conduct in that matter was- and it is, apparently, legal to eavesdrop on someone's private conversation, take their picture and post it on the internet without consent (despite the clear rape culture enabling overtones of such a move) and get them fired- that obviously doesn't justify the response she is apparently getting in some quarters.

It's also worth noting that the father of 3 who lost his job over making a joke about "dongles" handled the situation with aplomb, apologizing for the joke and merely requesting that next time, maybe Ms. Adira could confront someone like him directly, instead of tweeting his picture to 7 billion people without his consent.