After my post linking to Todd Seavey's rant about feminism, I got my first anti-feminist troll.
I'm sure I will get more.
It's sad that I've resigned myself to that.
I was about to ask "What is it about discourse on the internet that gives people the license to treat each other like crap?" but we all know the answer.
Normal person + Internet Connection + anonymity = raging asshole. (Apologies to the creators of Penny Arcade.)
Throw some male entitlement and rape culture fuels onto the fire, and you have most blogs and forums on the internet.
We need to stop yelling at each other and start figuring out how to fix it.
I'm going to quote Chris Clarke and merely suggest that we start by what none of seem to know how to do: Listening.
9 comments:
I finally got a blog together to put up the discussion that happened on my livejournal regarding my comment in Todd's thread. It's here
if I'm working blogger correctly.
I'm glad you put up the comments you did on Seavey's blog, though I'm perhaps more pessimistic about people listening. It's hard to know what will shift what's really a large set of reinforcing beliefs, none of which is therefore individually vulnerable. Of course this applies to everyone. =)
Tempest in a teacup.
Michael:
Are you calling *me* a tempest in a teacup, or the problem as a whole?
I wouldn't call you a tempest in a teacup ;) I see a lot of rants, little discussion and even less action. Not saying it's unique to this situation, not at all...I just don't get rants.
Rants tend to appeal to two kinds of people: those who already hold the same view (so you get what looks like support but it's something that already existed and no one has changed their view) and those who will contest it no matter what...just because.
It's why I tend not to comment here and why I think there are so few comments in general. People *here* tend to agree already, so there's little to discuss. Preaching to the choir isn't the same as getting a wider audience engaged :)
I'll certainly agree there is a lot of "preaching to the choir" here. This is a relatively new blog, so the people who read it the most are my friends, who, by and large, have politics similar to mine.
However, do you do disagree that the topic at hand is a problem?
When people get threatened or stalked, I consider it a legitimate concern, regardless of the gender of the target.
Events like "Take Back the Blog!" are, aside from the financial aspects, akin to benefit events for causes. The people involved usually are "of the choir," but the purpose of the event is to raise awareness and consolidate the voices.
If you gather together a big and vocal enough group, changes can be made.
Eh, maybe...but rehashing things that are being discussed in larger forums detracts from the larger efforts while also smacking of doing little to add to the discussion. If a small amount of opinion/commentary is being added to content from elsewhere, it's not blogworthy in its own right, but it does take eyes away from the original source.
Again, not saying there's not an issue...but there are ways to discuss it more effectively, if that's the goal. But then I've wondered what the purpose of this blog was since inception and feel I still don't get it. Seems a solution in search of a problem.
But then I've wondered what the purpose of this blog was since inception and feel I still don't get it.
Clearly you didn't read this post.
I want to be a writer, but I'm not very good with fiction. I currently have several book ideas floating in my head, but they're all essay-flavored.
Oh, no, I *did* read everything from the get-go...just was confused ;) Same with Kensington Leopard. You definitely have general ideas about what you're interested in, in doing these things, but I didn't see much happening on KL and I guess some of the posts here seem pulled from elsewhere and then not followed up on much. Some, of course, strike chords and resonate for a bit, so maybe I shouldn't be to antsy to expect anything specific just yet as it may be getting more and more prevalent if I take a further step back :)
I may also be one of those who get to be contrary to be contrary ;)
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