1. Start talking with men and boys about the messages they’re getting about women and girls. Tell them that they are not entitled to our bodies, no matter what. Talk to them honestly and comprehensively about sexualization and objectification. Stop being afraid to talk about boundaries, sex, and pleasure—leaving that to schools, the Internet, and peers is simply not cutting it. Show them what consent really looks like.

    And this sounds basic, but remind them that we’re, you know, people? We deserve at least that much.

    — From “What it’s like being a teen girl” by Emma Woolley.

  2. Gawker’s Violentacrez Expose And How ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Predicted Geek Misogyny →

    The sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which the titular demon hunter and her friends find themselves harassed by three young men, Jonathan Levinson, Andrew Wells, and Warren Mears, who call themselves The Trio. These characters are each an important example of three different and damaging kinds of views men can have of women, and what toxic and tragic things can come to pass when those different worldviews are conflated and intermingled.

    I love everything about this analysis by Alyssa Rosenberg.

  3. If folks sharing creepshots believed that what they were doing was somehow not right, wouldn’t they work a little harder to keep their true identities sealed? These are, after all, a nerdy demographic of people. This in no way validates any encouragement of harassment; I’m supporting the accountability factor here, not any kind of perceived vengeance. But the mindset of creepshot sharers is revealed by their willingness to share who they are. They know that there are no repercussions for exploiting women’s bodies publicly in our culture, and they will carry on.

    — Deanna Zandt in “Internet Wars Over Women’s Bodies”.

  4. Unmasking Reddit’s Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web →

    This made me actually feel sick. This is why I could never be a part of the Reddit community.

  5. Eine der letzten Ausgaben der Aljazeera-Sendung “The Stream” nimmt sich des Themas Sexismus im Netz an.

    Unter dem Titel “e-Patriarchy – Does the internet promote misogynistic behaviour?” diskutieren da unter anderem Helen Lewis vom New Statesman, Alice Marwick von der Fordham Universität, die zum sozialem Verhalten im Online-Umfeld forscht oder auch mein Lieblings-Skepchick Rebecca Watson.

    Trotz Kürze des Formats fand ich alle Stimmen sehr klug und ausgeglichen und insbesondere Lewis und Marwick haben mir gefallen (um zum Beispiel Gail Dines das wieder mal notwendige Kontra zu geben). Wenn man nicht so sehr in der Materie steckt, kennt man vermutlich nicht alle angesprochenen Sexismus-Fälle der jüngsten Zeit im Detail, dennoch finde ich die Zusammenfassung hier wirklich sehr gelungen. Must-watch!

    (via)

  6. What you fail to understand is that the use of hate speech, threats and bullying to terrify and intimidate people into silence or away from certain topics is a far bigger threat to free speech than any legal sanction.

    Imagine this is not the internet but a public square. One woman stands on a soapbox and expresses an idea. She is instantly surrounded by an army of 5,000 angry people yelling the worst kind of abuse at her in an attempt to shut her up. Yes, there’s a free speech issue there. But not the one you think.

    — From the article “This is what online harassment looks like” [Trigger warning], including a quite horrific update on the attacks against Anita Sarkeesian.

  7. If you haven’t watched this yet, do it now and learn what it means to be a real ally. Spoiler alert: It’ll make you very happy.

    The incident he’s referring to is of course the one about Feminist Frequency’s kickstarter project which I mentioned here.

    jessicavalenti:

    Jay Smooth being fucking awesome as usual re: online harassment. 

  8. Hell YES!!!

  9. Fat, ugly or slutty →

    Since I already opened that can of worms you may as well check out this website that documents the creepy, disturbing, insulting and degrading messages online players get.

    And oh hey, surprise! Most submissions are made by women.

  10. I am certainly not the first woman to suffer this kind of harassment and sadly, I won’t be the last. But I’d just like to reiterate that this is not a trivial issue. It can not and should not be brushed off by saying, “oh well that’s YouTube for you“, “trolls will be trolls” or “it’s to be expected on the internet”. These are serious threats of violence, harassment and slander across many online platforms meant to intimidate and silence. And it’s not okay.

    — 

    Super-badass blogger lady Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency in the article “Dear The Internet, This Is Why You Can’t Have Anything Nice”.

    Read also more about the incident regarding her kickstarter project “Tropes vs. Women” here.

    Side note: When I started blogging about feminist issues, one of my first posts was about the appalling sexism in the games industry and among gamers because I had just attended gamescom. Not hard to guess what I had to deal with in the comments section of that blog post…