🚀 go-pugleaf

I just found myself a copy of 'Nattering on the Net', the new book by
prominent Aussie feminist academic Dale Spender.  I haven't had the chance
to read it in detail, but I was drawn to it by a couple of reviews I read
(one moderately favourable, one unfavourable) which suggest that this is (in
part) yet another attempt to jump on the pornography-and-harassment bandwagon.
A typical quote is the following:

"There is no female who has worked on a networked system who has not been
subjected to harassment, flaming, or other intimidatory tactics."

Comments like this naturally call to mind the 'male plaything' jibes of
Victoria's erstwhile Premier, Joan Kirner.  It seems Spender would have us
believe that the wholesale oppression of women that allegedly exists in the
society at large carries over to the Internet with a vengeance, and that
online systems are rife with 'data rapists' and pornographic harassers.
There is the allegation that anyone who logs on using a female identity is
immediately swamped with harassing e-mail.

Glancing through the book I get the impression that Spender, like all too many
others, has lumped the Internet in with commercial BBSs as though they were
the same animal.  There is the all-too-familiar rave against dirty pictures,
although one saving grace of the book is that there is no reference to Martin
Rimm and his disgraceful 'study' of online pornography.

Besides purporting to expose patriarchy in cyberspace, the book deals at
length with the print revolution and its parallels with the supposed revolution
now taking place in electronic media.  Written from a feminist perspective,
the book makes extensive claims regarding the suppression of women's voices as
print media began to pervade society; the clear intention being to draw
parallels with the new electronic media and promote the fear that women will be
excluded from participation in electronic discourse as they supposedly were
from print discourse.  Not being an historian I can't comment on these claims.

John Nieuwenhuizen reviewed the book rather scathingly in The Weekend
Australian a couple of weeks ago.  His attack concentrated on the supposition
that communication technology is set to replace print media entirely, about
which he is most sceptical (as am I).  Nieuwenhiuzen also does not believe that
universal authorship via the Net will serve as much of a democratising
influence; like at least one poster on c.o.e.t., he does not see much scope
for making one's voice heard without the marketing resources of a publishing
company behind it.  I'm sure many readers of these newsgroups will have
differing opinions.

I myself am insterested in reviewing this book for our campus newspaper (in
which the 'moderately favourable' review appeared), partly to present the
'net-savvy' side of the story, and partly just to stimulate some discussion
on the topic.  Hence this posting; I'd like to hear the opinions (and even
facts) of Usenet readers on the question of supposed male domination and
harassment.  While there's been plenty of discussion of pornography and
privacy issues here, there hasn't been much on the harassment issue.  Is
'data rape' myth or reality?

I'd be particularly interested in hearing from those who have actually read
the book themselves and have their own view of it to contribute.


-------
Tony Morton
University of Melbourne, Australia