Get out of here ‘manosphere’, we don’t want you here. (Week 11)
“Carl is a man who literally profits from harassing me and other women: he makes over $5,000 a month on Patreon for creating YouTube videos that mock, insult and discredit myself and other women online, and he’s not alone. He is one of several YouTubers who profit from the cottage industry of online harassment and antifeminism; together, these people have millions of followers who are regularly encouraged by the videos and tweets of these individuals to harass me and other women who make videos daring to assert the basic humanity of women, people of color, trans folks, and members of other marginalized groups.” - Anita Sarkeesian, 2017
The above is a quote from prominent feminist Anita Sarkessian. She wrote this about her experience at the popular YouTube convention VidCon. This event has become synonymous within the online community because Sarkessian publicly attacked the man, known as Sargon of Akkad. Sargon and his online community, known as anti-social-justice-warriors (ASJW), then proceeded to post more videos online sharing his anti-feminist views due to the incident, leading to hundreds of thousands of people sharing attacking Sarkessian and other women on various digital platforms.
This is just one example of how one person’s online harassment of another can explode and lead to a ‘mob’ mentality.
But what is online harassment?
It is best described as a combination of the following ten behaviours:
Being called offensive names
Being physically threatened online
Being sexually harassed online
Being harassed over a long time
Being hurt online by a romantic partner
Spreading damaging rumors online
Encouraging others to harass you online
Attempting to hurt the victim in person after online harassment.
All of these behaviours are abhorrent. No one should ever subject someone to one of these behaviours. But in my opinion, when we are talking about online harassment, calling for another person to contribute to harassing someone online is the worst of these behaviours. And it is unfortunate that the ‘easy’ targets for ASJW’s are people of colour and women.
Online communities were formulated to help people connect. Content creators share content with their community because it makes their fans happy. But unfortunately, the internet has become the key in helping make men’s rights activism and ASJW’s so popular. Thus leading to phrases such as ‘toxic masculinity’ being thrown around online by men’s and women’s rights activists alike.
With this in mind, there is a great term to describe this ‘internet bubble’. It is called the ‘manosphere’ and is best described as the culmination of many diverse communities that have been brought together by a common language that orients them in opposition of feminism.
So, how do we fight against ideas like ‘the manosphere’?
Honestly, there is no straight answer.
Governments have certain regulations against cyberbullying and trolls. Activists can raise awareness with things like comedy specials, fundraisers and blogs. And we can pressure platforms, like YouTube, to take a harsher stance on these sorts of behaviours.
No one deserves to be belittled online - it is rude, unfair, appalling and just plain old disgusting.
I am going to leave you here with another quote from Anita Sarkeesian, who in her TEDX Talks but it best by saying:
“We don’t usually think of online harassment as a social activity, but we do know from the strategies and tactics that they used that they were not working alone, that they were actually loosely coordinating with one another. The social component is a powerful motivating factor that works to provide incentives for perpetrators to participate and to actually escalate the attacks by earning the praise and approval of their peers.”
If you or someone you know is a victim of online harassment, please reach out to the following resources for support:
eSafety Commissioner: https://www.esafety.gov.au/
Kids HelpLine: 1800 55 1800
Headspace: https://headspace.org.au/
