I have to say I’m somewhat disappointed that so many people have chosen to blame anonymity for the verbal and visual harassment of Kathy Sierra. I’m a free-speech zealot, and I believe the ability to speak anonymously is an important cornerstone of that freedom. For one thing, anonymity (however imperfect it may be online) is what allows so many women bloggers to tell their deeply personal stories without fear that their friends and family will see what they write. I wouldn’t want to do anything to make it harder for vulnerable people to tell the truth online.
The important part of the Kathy Sierra scandal was not that people were saying hateful and violent things anonymously. Rather it was that some A-list bloggers like Chris Locke, who were not anonymous and were in fact exploiting their fame, set up several blogs (ie, Meankids) explicitly designed for people to say hateful things. That being the case, I would blame the A-listers for giving the hate speech a high-profile forum, not the no-name low-lifes who took advantage of it. If the anonymous person/people had chosen to set up blogs on typepad and started spewing there, it wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much attention. (And that might have defeated the purpose.)
Or am I missing something?
I had a long discussion with my husband about this and related things, and he said something I’ve not seen anyone else say. The people who were writing these hateful things are really messed up.
That reminded me of a monologue by Craig Ferguson that made the internet rounds not long ago, where he talked about how we laugh at people who do strange things (it was Britney Spears this time), but these are people who are in trouble and need help. He speaks frankly about his own struggles with alchoholism.
I think that’s what’s going on with this situation too, that here are some really messed up people and rather than call it how it is, people are laughing at it and finding amusement in it. How callous is that? Don’t we owe each other better than that, to both the victim and the messed-up perpetrator? The A-list bloggers are like the comedians, getting mileage out of it, but look at the cost of the mileage.
The Colin Ferguson clip is a must-see: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7bbaRyDLMvA
If you are, then I am too. Because I feel the same way.
I agree that the people making these kinds of comments are in need of some serious help–socialization at the very least. But it’s also true that they are aided and abetted by the culture and the opportunity presented by a site as stupid and juvenile as meankids. Why is it acceptable to trash-talk about anybody (like, say, the Rutgers women’s basketball team)? It’s an expression of a deep insecurity, for sure, but that doesn’t excuse the act. Why any adult would set up a site specifically for that purpose is beyond me. Sadly, it’s easy to “pick on” women this way, because we’re all socialized to be so non-confrontational. We need to change that. And while I wouldn’t see our anonymity on the net removed, I do think it’s a shield for some people, one that gives them a false sense of power. I’m not sure what to do about that except to make blog owners more responsible for policing their content. There is definitely a line that should not be crossed in interactions on the net.
Yes, I agree. When I was growing up, I was taught that there was a level of behavior that was expected in civil discourse. If someone refused to meet that level of civility, terminating the conversation was an acceptable response. Why should it be any different in cyberspace?