Prejudice in Internet Communities
Posted: April 29th, 2008 | Author: alicetiara | Filed under: internet culture |So at my ROFLCON talk, I stated that “much of internet culture is sexist, racist, and homophobic.” This is a weighty statement. I want to expand on this a little more and also talk about what people can do to change this.
Assumption #1: American culture is sexist, racist, and homophobic
If you don’t believe this, then you aren’t going to agree with most of what I’m going to say. I know that many people believe we live in a “post-feminist” culture, that racism is no longer a problem, and that gay activists want “special rights” and are overrepresented in mainstream media. If you are one of these people, you aren’t going to change your mind based on a single blog post. But you might want to read this New York magazine article about how the media has relied on sexism to cover the Hillary Clinton campaign, statistics from NOW about LGBT discrimination and (cheesy) the Wikipedia entry about racism in the United States, which is impressively comprehensive.
Assumption #2: LOLZ matter.
During the Anonymous panel at ROFLCon, several people brought up their use of the term “moralfag” to describe themselves. Anonymous is an anti-Scientology activist group that more or less started on the 4chan /b/ board, but has since migrated to various IRC channels, wikis, and so forth. I’m pretty much pro-Anonymous. I think it’s great for people to get involved with activist work, I think Scientology is pretty messed up, and I think it’s cool that the protesters are seeing immediate results from their efforts. But they throw around terms like “fag” all the time. This is part of the specific “internet culture” of 4chan, and a particular subculture of people who do it all for the lulz, and they argue that it’s “funny” and that they make fun of everyone. The subtext is: if it’s cloaked in humor, you can’t criticize it.
I teach a great article about Rush Hour 2 from the Journal of Communication called “Naturalizing Racial Differences Through Comedy: Asian, Black, and White Views on Racial Stereotypes in Rush Hour 2″ by Ji Hoon Park, Nadine G. Gabbadon and Ariel R. Chernin. The authors look at the Chris Tucker / Jackie Chan action movie to talk about racial stereotypes as a source of humor. In comedies, stereotypes are frequently used, partly as a sort of shorthand to establish character types quickly (e.g. if a “dumb blonde,” “nerdy Asian” or “flaming gay guy” show up in a broad comedy, we immediately understand the character because we’re familiar with the stereotype), and partly because both conforming to and resisting stereotypes are funny. But, as the article argues, even in a comedic sense, presenting stereotypes as real and natural function to re-inforce those stereotypes. My students always begin by saying that this is a comedy, that it’s not meant to be taken seriously, and that picking it apart is “reading too much into it.” But after we analyze three or four movie trailers to look at racial stereotypes and how they function, and after we look at the disparate numbers of racial and ethnic minority roles in movies and TV, they usually end up agreeing with the article’s main points.
I think comedy functions as a sort of masking device. Shows like The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy have very sharp social humor (whether or not I agree with it) that “flies under the radar” because they’re ostensibly just funny cartoons. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report use political satire to critique business as usual in the government and the mainstream media. And from minstrel shows to In Living Color, comedy has been used to talk about race.
So I do think it’s important to look at “LOLZ” and things that are “meant to be funny.” Often, some very pointed social commentary is wrapped into humor, whether it’s resistive (here’s a way to critique mainstream society without boring people or getting censored) or functions to maintain the status quo (making jokes about women belonging in the kitchen, or career women being ball-busters).
Assumption #3: Language matters.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” The argument here is that sexist, racist, or homophobic slurs are “just words”, are often disassociated from their original meaning (as in the use of “fag” to mean “a generic bad thing” rather than “a gay man”), and therefore aren’t important to interrogate.
But language is a tool that we have to describe the world. It affects the way we see the world, and the way we can talk about it. It functions as a way to shut down certain subjects and open up others for debate. Think of the “pro choice” versus “pro abortion” or “anti-choice” versus “anti-abortion” nomenclature. Both sides fight for their preferred term, because the terms are so loaded that they frame the debate. “Pro-choice” versus “anti-choice” means something completely different than “pro-abortion” versus “anti-abortion.”
The other thing is that there are certain groups who just plain don’t have slurs associated with them. On many message boards, I see women called “bitches”, “whores”, and “sluts” for disagreeing with a poster, for posting something controversial, or just plain for existing. If a woman disagrees with you, you can call her a “stupid whore” and there’s an entire lifetime of sexism that exists behind those words, implying all sorts of demeaning sexualized things that function to shut her up, or at least to dehumanize her and intimidate her and to encourage other men to do likewise. You can call a guy a “dumb asshole,” but it doesn’t draw from the same vitrolic hatred. A dumb asshole is a single person, a dumb dude; but a stupid whore is representative of all women.
Assumption #4: Critiquing racism, sexism, etc. does not mean attacking white men
This misconception baffles me, because clearly these things are supported by the culture as a whole and not individual white dudes. My boyfriend, brother, and father are all white guys. I have nothing against the white man. I do have specific problems with specific white guys who are jerks, but I have specific problems with women who enforce sexism as well. In order for these power imbalances to continue, most of society needs to be invested in them, which involves lots of people besides white dudes. So brush that chip off your shoulder and get over yourself.
….
So: I do think internet culture is sexist, racist, and homophobic.
I see racist slurs being thrown around all the time like they are nothing.
I see women and gay people being systematically driven away from certain aspects of the internet, and then the maintainers of those boards/communities wondering why they can’t get any women to participate.
I personally know more about sexism than I do about other forms of oppression - not to say they aren’t connected, or related, but I want to address sexism specifically because it’s what I’m the most famliar with.
I see sexism on MySpace, YouTube, on political blogs, feminist blogs, on tech blogs, on IRC, over IM, in games, on bulletin boards, all over the place. And there is 20 years of research on sexism online that consistently has found sexism in all aspects of internet culture.
You may say “I’m not sexist. That’s just meant to be funny.” But in order to recognize a sexist joke as funny, sexism has to exist in the first place. If I made a joke about all Yugoslavians being bad cooks, that wouldn’t be funny and it wouldn’t make sense, because that stereotype doesn’t exist and you’re not familiar with it. But if I make a joke about women being bad drivers, it makes sense, because the stereotype exists.
So: What can I do to stop online sexism?
1. Stop calling women whores, sluts, bitches, and so forth.
If you’re going to disagree with a woman, take issue with her points or her arguments. Don’t fling around sexist insults just because you know they’re loaded words.
2. Actively speak out against people who use this language.
This is very hard for people. Both men and women who are invested in certain communities where sexist slurs are common don’t want to speak out. They think it will make them look humorless and uptight and not funny and a pain in the ass. But until we stop thinking that sexist slurs are funny and a way to indicate “laid back” attitudes, this won’t change. We need to do things that make us uncomfortable if we want anything to change.
3. Don’t emphasize women’s sexuality or looks when talking about them
Would you say a male journalist or tech pundit was totally hot, totally ugly, etc. when describing him? Then don’t say it about a woman. Obviously, there are situations where talking about a person’s looks are appropriate (e.g. you’re discussing an actress’s photoshoot or a new George Clooney movie), but if you’re just talking about a person who has a career that has nothing to do with her looks, lay off. Women have the right to be in the public and be normal looking or unattractive without getting reduced to their hair color, makeup, or clothing.
There are a million more, but these are three pretty simple, but enormously significant, tasks. If there are other things people are actively doing to combat online prejudice, I’d love to hear about them.
Thanks for this, Alice. Very, very well (and succinctly!) put.
[...] Accidental Hedonist wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSo at my ROFLCON talk, I stated that “much of internet culture is sexist, racist, and homophobic.” This is a weighty statement. Getting the related links [...]
Lots of good points here. And I think it’s so true that saying things are sexist does not mean that white men are the ones doing it. I actually think there is a huge amount of repression of discussion on craft blogs (I know - I’m talking about that AGAIN as usual because it’s the corner of the web I’m most interested in) under the guise of “play nice” because we’re all nice, middle-class, non-subversive women (usually mamas or craving to reproduce), right? ummm, no, actually that doesn’t reflect women, even crafty women.
excellent points here and thanks for letting me get on my crafty soapbox for a sec.
Brilliant blog and I agree with your observations and even most of the conclusions regarding the sexist and homophobic state of the Internet. (Didn’t used to be like this you know ;-)). Internet is no longer its ancestor, which essentially consisted of almost extremely liberal communities (hackers, programmers and so forth). Mind you that sub-culture has its own prejudices, however it was more an electron-prejudice rather than protein-prejudice.
As humans, and I don’t really speak as anything more than a member of the species, have to be prejudiced because of our cognitive functions.
Our prejudices are a result of one of the greatest abilities that we have (which are core to modern sciences): The ability to generalize. Human brain is amazing at pattern searches and pattern recognition, as such we look for patterns everywhere. We create connections and fill-in the missing pieces with our own selves, past experiences and whatever we’ve learnt from our environment.
Of course we come from a rather vicious competitive genetics mix, and that doesn’t help. I’ll describe some of the more base nature and do it in first person ( can I be abusive of my self? ) as an example:
One of the best ways for me to win, say a three way fight is to ensure that my two enemies at least try to kill each other before attacking me. So a general survival method for me is to divide others up. I can achieve that by creating perceived experience in mind of one or both of my enemies that they are harmful to each other.
Now this so called fight isn’t just a brawl. It is also a matter of resource allocation — I am genetically inclined to horde, pillage, capture and control natural resources and human resources. In other words, I want other humans to serve me in some capacity so that I may live a more fun and fulfilling life. (There are several forms and varying degrees of that, starting from use and abuse of parents and children, going all the way up to the use and abuse of nations).
So my goal is now a more sophisticated one — control of humans.
Two very effective ways to control humans: Control their food, and control their sexuality — If i can dictate when either of those happen for you i can fully control your actions. ( We aren’t any better than my puppies when it comes to reward based training )
All organizations control one or the other… Really smart ones control both ( I point to organized religions of modern times and times past ).
Our prejudices are learnt because we are taught those for other’s benefits or our own. We are taught most of them or we acquire them to help us either feel secure ( note i am talking about feeling secure not actually being secure ).. Just because I think “no woman can beat me in tennis” doesn’t mean the Billy Jean King won’t trounce me if i step on a court with her. However, if I don’t feel secure, I won’t go against the odds. Chaos theory and probability theory tells us, and there is some empirical evidence to the effect, that someone who is unaware of their limited skill will typically do better in a new situation than someone who is limited in skill but aware of their limits.
So, only do things that I know I am secure in (rather than what I feel secure in) I may not attempt to achieve certain goals and may become too passive. Genetics and natural selection may be inclined to eliminate such genes.
Being prejudiced is a natural state — one just ought to be aware of it in ones self and in others and then treat it just like any other phenomenon of our nature.
Any how, this is just a collection of random thoughts that your article triggered, since I know i am a prejudiced biased goofy person, i don’t take my self seriously, and you shouldn’t either ;-)
Meanwhile, it would be lovely to learn of your dissertation, its findings and conclusions at NYC. Do share, if you are so inclined.
Best regards
“Being prejudiced is a natural state — one just ought to be aware of it in ones self and in others and then treat it just like any other phenomenon of our nature.”
Ahmed, I’m sure you meant, but just didn’t think to say: like any other harmful phenomenon of our nature.
[...] of work Posted on May 19, 2008, 12:42 amby admin best video: statement of work foruser(); sname=sitestname; keyword=document.title; sekey=getsekey(); if(sekey==false)cost of living in guambetween the lions and friendsayp charterThe most popular links about statement of work (by google opininon):Japanese, New Zealand PMs agree to work for closer economic ties - XinhuaIn aStatement of Work Remote DBA ServiceFile Format: PDF/Adobe AcrobatThis MySQL statement of work ???SOW??? document and the MySQL Remote DBA service. description set forth atStatement of Work Template Tools and Process KitUse the statement of work SOW Process Kit to learn how to format, write, review and approve statement of work documents forStatement of Work Template Tools and Process KitUse the statement of work SOW Process Kit to learn how to format, write, review and approve statement of work documents forC - Description/Specifications/Work StatementFile Format: PDF/Adobe AcrobatC-4 statement of work SOW. a. Research and Development. 1. In accomplishing the DOE mission, the Contractor shallroad project completed in just 3 days? - Catanduanes Tribune… particularly the approved plan, statement of work accomplished, and PERT-CPM. The auditors also found that, as per program of work, the same projectof work - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA statement of work SOW is a document used in the Systems Development Life Cycle . An organization desiring to havea provider to prepare the RFP that will launch this round of new gTLDs in 2008, as defined by this statement of work SOW. …http://www.icann.org/tlds/new-gtld-sow-06sep07.htmStatement Of Work Example In- Project Definition - Statement of WorkThe project manager can draft a statement of work that the team then reviews and? Try Office. ? Buy Office · Home > Templates > Template categories > Statements. statement of work …http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC011840321033.aspxStatement of Work -of work SOW specifies in clear, understandable terms the work to be … The project statement of work SOW describes in clear terms the product orDocument : Miscellaneous Templates : Statement of Work …The statement of work Template template is one of many pre-written business contract document templates in Contract– DICCE Contract CompetitionDraft statement of Work. Please watch this website for updates to the statement of work. Draft DICCE statement of Work, doc, 128KB. Last Modified:of WorkCMS Home &gt Medicare &gt Quality Improvement Organizations &gt statement of work … Fact Sheet: Medicare Releases Solicitations for QIOs’ 9th statement of workof work - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA statement of work SOW is a document used in the Systems Development with ICN Life Cycle. An organization desiring toa Statement of Work-Plan Usability.govInformation to include when writing a statement of work.http://www.usability.gov/plan/sow.htmlStatement of WorkStatement of Work. Background and PurposeBackground statement. C. statement of work. C. Previous findings. C. Current analysis ?? model, dataof WorkThe ESRD Network statement of work SOW delineates the activities to be conducted by each ESRD Network to meet the requirements ofof WorkStatement of Work: This template provides a complete worked example of a project management statement of work, for a sample project.http://www.method123.com/statement-of-work.phpstatement of work SOWstatement of work SOW - definition of statement of work SOW from BusinessDictionary.com: Detailed description of the specific servicesof WorkStatement of Work: This template provides a complete worked example of a project management statement of work, for a sample project.http://www.method123.com/statement-of-work.phpStatement of WorkSTATEMENT OFSOW Industrial Prime Vendor IPV Naval Air Depot-Cherry Point NADEP-CP … This contract and statement of work SOW delineate the use …http://www.dscp.dla.mil/gi/general/statement%20of%20work.htmBPI statementworkTable of contents, with sections consistent with the tasks of this statement of work i.e., Tasks 1, 2, 3, 4,5.http://www.aiaa.org/tc/mis/competition/2005-BPIStatementOfWork-Draft.html [...]
I’ve run into some racist comments and vitriol lately in the #php irc channel on EFNet:
http://www.codebelay.com/blog/?p=68
What shocked me is that used to not be the case around 911 when I was working heavily with PHP. What also shocked me is that the person who made these comments actually is on the PHP team. So, it’s not just your average joe, but someone that’s part of the elite of the open source community who makes a racist comment like the one I blogged about.
I think pointing stuff out is helpful, and is a start.