Social media is notoriously uncontrolled, with millions of online postings, often unfettered and anonymous, creating multitudes of hostile, gendered abuse. The prevalence of trolling is causing considerable concern, with women seeming to cop the worst of the abuse. It is often personal, sexist and wounding. The nastiest of these are often directed at women in power or those deemed to be feminist.
Julia Baird sees trash-talking trolls as feminism’s “final frontier”. Quoting Clementine Ford’s book Fight Like A Girl, Baird’s urgency seems to come from claims these activities discourage women from taking on public life and speaking out. Another excellent article covering these issues was Michelle Smith’s essay for The Conversation.
While I have also received my share of mindless, hurtful commentary, I think there is a wider issue at play. To me, this abuse is evidence of a deep, underlying misogyny in public commentary that will not be fixed simply by women speaking out.
As a sociologist, I think the flow of nastiness is not from mainly uninformed individuals, or fringe groups with outdated viewpoints. The general macho, aggressive tone and content of the abuse are so similar and widespread that they are likely evidence of a serious backlash and rising hostility to any meaningful sharing of gender power.
The second wave women’s movement had considerable successes in improving women’s status in the last century. But this seems to have stalled in its aims of changing macho male dominance and defining what matters.
How does Mia Freedman respond to online haters? Post continues below…