🚀 go-pugleaf

Anthony Morton <amorton@ee.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
>[quoting _Nattering_on_the_Net_ by Dale Spender]
>"There is no female who has worked on a networked system who has not been
>subjected to harassment, flaming, or other intimidatory tactics."

As to Flaming, I suspect that anyone who has spent much time on
a networked system (at least as an active participant in public
areas) has been flamed. Computer mediated communication distances 
us from the people we are communicating with. This lets people say 
what they are thinking without being held back by the social conventions 
that go with face-to-face communication. To some extent it also
permits weenies to act out their wannabe tough guy fantasies
by being nasty to people who aren't in a position to thump them.

>There is the allegation that anyone who logs on using a female identity is
>immediately swamped with harassing e-mail.

I question the assertion that harassment is immediate, but every woman
I know who has spent much time on the net has been propositioned with
varying degrees of subtlety. Certainly the women I have talked to about
this receive a _lot_ more unsolicited email (from men) than I do, despite
the fact that I post more. I'm not suggesting that unsolicited email
is harassment, but I suspect that there is a sexual factor at work here.

>Is 'data rape' myth or reality?

'Data rape' is a cute little pun, but it's crap. Calling online 
harassment rape trivializes the suffering of those who have been 
raped. It's bullshit to equate nasty email with a violent physical 
attack, even if the nasty email includes threats and/or is repeated 
tens of times a day for weeks or years. If your account is accurate
then Dale Spender is hurting feminists who do have a grip on reality 
by making it harder for anyone who labels themselves a feminist to be 
taken seriously.

......Andrew