When Kickstarter Funds A Rape Manual
What does it mean to be a woman with a public online presence? A lot of the time it means finding like-minded people to make friends with, collaborate on projects with, and share your view of the world. A lot of the time it means sharing your presence and letting people know, "Yes! There are girls on the Internet!"
All of the time, it means a little bit of fear.
That fear is always riding just under the surface. On the outside, I can be casual, humorous, and love my life deeply and sincerely. But that doesn't make the fear go away. The fear is always there. It comes in the form of comments on my body when I ask people not to. It comes in the form of private messages asking for my facebook info or to "get to know me better". It comes in the form of being afraid to tell people off too harshly in case they lash out or seek revenge, or try to look up my personal information to spread on hate-sites. It means constant vulnerability. A vulnerability that I have to contend with if I am to have any online presence at all.
For me, the fear is people finding out my real name and where I live and trying to find me. There are no restraining orders on the Internet. If someone knows my name, google is all too happy to divulge where I currently am digitally, and everything I've done in the past. For better or worse, that is how the internet works. It requires us to be good people and take responsibility for our words and actions, but our morals are changing slowly, and when profits become involved, our morals are often pushed to the side or completely ignored. Everyone has to make a living, right?
STRONG TRIGGER WARNING FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT
What does it mean to be a woman with a public online presence? A lot of the time it means finding like-minded people to make friends with, collaborate on projects with, and share your view of the world. A lot of the time it means sharing your presence and letting people know, "Yes! There are girls on the Internet!"
All of the time, it means a little bit of fear.
That fear is always riding just under the surface. On the outside, I can be casual, humorous, and love my life deeply and sincerely. But that doesn't make the fear go away. The fear is always there. It comes in the form of comments on my body when I ask people not to. It comes in the form of private messages asking for my facebook info or to "get to know me better". It comes in the form of being afraid to tell people off too harshly in case they lash out or seek revenge, or try to look up my personal information to spread on hate-sites. It means constant vulnerability. A vulnerability that I have to contend with if I am to have any online presence at all.
For me, the fear is people finding out my real name and where I live and trying to find me. There are no restraining orders on the Internet. If someone knows my name, google is all too happy to divulge where I currently am digitally, and everything I've done in the past. For better or worse, that is how the internet works. It requires us to be good people and take responsibility for our words and actions, but our morals are changing slowly, and when profits become involved, our morals are often pushed to the side or completely ignored. Everyone has to make a living, right?
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