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Cybersexism: Sex, Gender and Power on the Internet
‘The Internet was supposed to be for everyone... Millions found their voices in this brave new online world; it gave unheard masses the space to speak to each other without limits, across borders, both physical and social. It was supposed to liberate us from gender. But as more and more of our daily lives migrated on line, it seemed it did matter if you were a boy or a girl.’
It's a tough time to be a woman on the internet. Over the past two generations, the political map of human relations has been redrawn by feminism and by changes in technology. Together they pose questions about the nature and organisation of society that are deeply challenging to those in power, and in both cases, the backlash is on. In this brave new world, old-style sexism is making itself felt in new and frightening ways.
In Cybersexism, Laurie Penny goes to the dark heart of the matter and asks why threats of rape and violence are being used to try to silence female voices, analyses the structure of online misogyny, and makes a case for real freedom of speech – for everyone.
It's a tough time to be a woman on the internet. Over the past two generations, the political map of human relations has been redrawn by feminism and by changes in technology. Together they pose questions about the nature and organisation of society that are deeply challenging to those in power, and in both cases, the backlash is on. In this brave new world, old-style sexism is making itself felt in new and frightening ways.
In Cybersexism, Laurie Penny goes to the dark heart of the matter and asks why threats of rape and violence are being used to try to silence female voices, analyses the structure of online misogyny, and makes a case for real freedom of speech – for everyone.
45 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 22, 2013
15 people are currently reading
963 people want to read
About the author
Laurie Penny
31 books610 followersLaurie Penny is a journalist, an author, a feminist and a net denizen. She is Contributing Editor at New Statesman magazine, and writes and speaks on social justice, pop culture, gender issues and digital politics for The Guardian, The Independent, Vice, Salon, The Nation, The New Inquiry and many more. She is the author of Cybersexism, Penny Red and Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism, as well as Discordia: Six Nights in Crisis Athens, co-authored with Molly Crabapple. Her book, Unspeakable Things, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014. In 2010, at the age of 23, she was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing. She is a frequent guest on national television and radio, has appeared on Question Time, Any Questions and Newsnight for the BBC, as well as Al-Jazeera and Democracy Now, and has given talks at the Oxford Union and the London School of Economics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
September 28, 2013
This was a quick read. Nothing really new, but very well put and collected. To sum it up, a quote from the book:
"According to the current logic of online misogyny, a woman's right to self-expression is less important by far than a man's right to punish her for that self-expression. What appears to upset many of these men more than anything else is the idea that any woman or a girl, anywhere, might have a voice, might be successful, might be more socially powerful than they themselves are - at least, that's the message I get every time I'm told that I've got a lot to say for myself, and my silly little girl's mouth could be more usefully employed sucking one of the enormous penises that these commentators definitely all possess."
I can't really say it any better than that. I mean, the book deals with other stuff as well, and it's an enjoyable read, if you can say that about a depressing subject.
"According to the current logic of online misogyny, a woman's right to self-expression is less important by far than a man's right to punish her for that self-expression. What appears to upset many of these men more than anything else is the idea that any woman or a girl, anywhere, might have a voice, might be successful, might be more socially powerful than they themselves are - at least, that's the message I get every time I'm told that I've got a lot to say for myself, and my silly little girl's mouth could be more usefully employed sucking one of the enormous penises that these commentators definitely all possess."
I can't really say it any better than that. I mean, the book deals with other stuff as well, and it's an enjoyable read, if you can say that about a depressing subject.
May 6, 2015
I agree totally with the thesis of this essay; I do. I think it is badly supported. Considering the topic and how easy it is to find seism examples on the internet, why are only two big stories and personal example used? I would have liked to see more examples that didn’t make the news (such as a reviewer being told she is old and ugly because SHE didn’t like a book, when a man who says the same thing doesn’t rate a comment). BBC Radio 4 had a better program about seism in gaming culture.
July 6, 2023
from 2013 so it makes sense this is so dated.. maybe the evolution of violent inceldom since then would make the author a little less sympathetic/masturbatory toward 'Geeks' ... some really poignant stuff about surveillance & pornography & even incel misanthropy but i really loathe the idea that "you can hack anything--even sexism!!!!" (re: online vigilantes bringing justice to female victims) and especially "geeks aren't just the problem-they're also the solution" because whether intentionally or not i feel like she had kind of conflated Geekism with men for the whole essay .. her whole thing about violent incels being born from social rejection (the solution being "using compassion") also kind of contradicts other points she was constantly making about how women owe no one a reprise from socio-sexual frustration. overall i just disagree with the framing, that it's an issue to be righted by its victims, even if it could be. doomer moment but it's barely different from the social poison of pedestrian misogyny and no amount of charity work can really soothe the damages
October 24, 2017
Penny slashes through the bullshit men say to defend a sexist internet - and point out that Free Speech should be protected - for the women being silenced, not as a shield to hide behind for the misogynist idiots who think they have a right to verbally assault women. The first 15 pages list the state of online harassment, and it is a horrifying read - but luckily Penny also believe that we can all save the internet together and make it liveable for all geeks male and female. Read it if you think feminism isn't necessary anymore, or that the internet is free and open to all - or if you want to join the fight for good - and btw. the writing is excellent!
March 14, 2025
its really outdated as someone else said on other review. the whole cyber space is so much different especially since the pandemic. we were shocked at ai image thing a year or two ago but now ai can make a movie with a promt.
other than that, i found the book not radical enough. it felt like one of the books who just complain and complain and complain. theres no deep analysis. its just shallow complaining. feminists have to be more than just talkers. we have to do action, we have to share deep analysis. as i said, i just didnt find this book radical enough for me to enjoy or deep for me to enjoy.
other than that, i found the book not radical enough. it felt like one of the books who just complain and complain and complain. theres no deep analysis. its just shallow complaining. feminists have to be more than just talkers. we have to do action, we have to share deep analysis. as i said, i just didnt find this book radical enough for me to enjoy or deep for me to enjoy.
April 7, 2022
si el libro completo es la mitad de bueno me doy por satisfeche
aunque señala y de alguna forma verbaliza como las estructuras de poder de la vida “real” se repiten en la “virtual”, el punto de vista siempre es de la mujer la mujer la mujer, si cambiásemos esa palabra por “cualquier minoría “ el libro se entendería de la misma forma
a la vez me da un poco de miedo esta visión tan centrada en la mujer heterosexual, no creo que sea discriminatorio pero si creo que la autora ve demasiado el purpura y no tanto el resto de colores del arcoíris
aunque señala y de alguna forma verbaliza como las estructuras de poder de la vida “real” se repiten en la “virtual”, el punto de vista siempre es de la mujer la mujer la mujer, si cambiásemos esa palabra por “cualquier minoría “ el libro se entendería de la misma forma
a la vez me da un poco de miedo esta visión tan centrada en la mujer heterosexual, no creo que sea discriminatorio pero si creo que la autora ve demasiado el purpura y no tanto el resto de colores del arcoíris
July 18, 2018
Cibersexismo supone un primer acercamiento brillante y ameno a la obra de Penny, de esos que enganchan y llegan a crear referentes de lucha o, incluso, invitan a pensar en una deseada amistad con su autora (yo, al menos, querría quedar con Penny asiduamente para tomar café y comentar la actualidad en cualquier bar londinense).
Crítica completa en: https://alibreria.com/2018/07/18/cibe...
Crítica completa en: https://alibreria.com/2018/07/18/cibe...
October 20, 2013
I read this in one sitting while on the train from London to Cornwall. It’s a mid-length essay on the current state of gender politics, sexuality, harassment and censorship on the internet. The scope is perhaps too broad for the limited length, and it’s ultimately haphazard in its thesis, but it’s an enjoyable and interesting read.
If you don’t share in the author’s politics, you’re unlikely to enjoy this as a primer: her stance is generally confrontational rather than persuasive, and there’s little attempt to convince an unbelieving audience. Instead we get a full and vigorous expression of the world as she sees it – lots of intimate, subjective experience, and less of the hard journalistic/academic stuff. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
The main prompt for this book seems to be the current way in which women are treated in public discourse online. It’s a situation which can be summed up in a single quip: ‘a woman’s opinion is the short skirt of the internet’ - that’s to say it attracts all kinds of attention simply for being what it is, rather than for its content. Women writers and artists on the internet suffer all kinds of personal abuse for no reason other than they are women: some of the examples collected here are simply ugly and violent, while others (such as the author’s own story of a would-be blackmailer) are terrifying in their sheer banality.
Yet the essay is more positive about other aspects of online sexuality. I think it admirable for a relatively prominent British journalist to come out in favour of pretty much every kind of sexual self-expression online, declaring themselves as a ‘digital romantic’ at a time when so much of the public debate about ‘sexting’ etc is mired in hysteria and moral panic. I particularly liked this description of the gap in our understanding of sex online and in meatspace:
‘Online and in real life (IRL), sex and gender still inhabit two separate worlds. One is a sanitised, sterilised, buttoned-down world of ‘professional’ conduct where we edit our extracurricular activities for the benefit of our employers and panic over children being exposed to an accidentally flashed nipple. The other is a rabbit hole of hardcore heterosexual fucking that relies on its guilty, semi-legal status to disguise the fact that a depressing amount of its content is boring at best and violently misogynist at worst. It’s a curious, schizophrenic splitting of sexuality from surface in a culture that is supposed to be all surface. Sex, as ever, isn’t the problem. People’s inability to deal with sex in a way that is not violent, guilty and contemptuous of women and girls is the problem.’
As you might expect, the author is a long way from arguing for online censorship. On the contrary, she makes an important observation in noting that any government action against pornography is unlikely to be limited to images deemed explicit, and that any moral crusade against porn is likely to be lumped in with a ban on vague but politically sensitive search terms like ‘violent material’, ‘terrorist related’ and ‘extremist’ content.
On the other hand, it isn’t particularly clear about what the author expects should be done about online misogyny. Will a change in the culture of the internet be enough, or does this require wider action in society? Going from this essay, I have no idea. It’s one thing to write things like this:
‘Once the geek community finally wakes up to the fact that the harassment, bullying and intimidation of women online is a clear threat to the principles of freedom of speech and egalitarianism, the social space of the internet will start to look very different.’
...but once you start breaking that down, things look a bit more complicated. (Surely there is no longer any monolithic ‘geek community’?) But whatever; the author’s talent is for the breezy, confident generalisation, not for the difficult minutiae. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
If you don’t share in the author’s politics, you’re unlikely to enjoy this as a primer: her stance is generally confrontational rather than persuasive, and there’s little attempt to convince an unbelieving audience. Instead we get a full and vigorous expression of the world as she sees it – lots of intimate, subjective experience, and less of the hard journalistic/academic stuff. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
The main prompt for this book seems to be the current way in which women are treated in public discourse online. It’s a situation which can be summed up in a single quip: ‘a woman’s opinion is the short skirt of the internet’ - that’s to say it attracts all kinds of attention simply for being what it is, rather than for its content. Women writers and artists on the internet suffer all kinds of personal abuse for no reason other than they are women: some of the examples collected here are simply ugly and violent, while others (such as the author’s own story of a would-be blackmailer) are terrifying in their sheer banality.
Yet the essay is more positive about other aspects of online sexuality. I think it admirable for a relatively prominent British journalist to come out in favour of pretty much every kind of sexual self-expression online, declaring themselves as a ‘digital romantic’ at a time when so much of the public debate about ‘sexting’ etc is mired in hysteria and moral panic. I particularly liked this description of the gap in our understanding of sex online and in meatspace:
‘Online and in real life (IRL), sex and gender still inhabit two separate worlds. One is a sanitised, sterilised, buttoned-down world of ‘professional’ conduct where we edit our extracurricular activities for the benefit of our employers and panic over children being exposed to an accidentally flashed nipple. The other is a rabbit hole of hardcore heterosexual fucking that relies on its guilty, semi-legal status to disguise the fact that a depressing amount of its content is boring at best and violently misogynist at worst. It’s a curious, schizophrenic splitting of sexuality from surface in a culture that is supposed to be all surface. Sex, as ever, isn’t the problem. People’s inability to deal with sex in a way that is not violent, guilty and contemptuous of women and girls is the problem.’
As you might expect, the author is a long way from arguing for online censorship. On the contrary, she makes an important observation in noting that any government action against pornography is unlikely to be limited to images deemed explicit, and that any moral crusade against porn is likely to be lumped in with a ban on vague but politically sensitive search terms like ‘violent material’, ‘terrorist related’ and ‘extremist’ content.
On the other hand, it isn’t particularly clear about what the author expects should be done about online misogyny. Will a change in the culture of the internet be enough, or does this require wider action in society? Going from this essay, I have no idea. It’s one thing to write things like this:
‘Once the geek community finally wakes up to the fact that the harassment, bullying and intimidation of women online is a clear threat to the principles of freedom of speech and egalitarianism, the social space of the internet will start to look very different.’
...but once you start breaking that down, things look a bit more complicated. (Surely there is no longer any monolithic ‘geek community’?) But whatever; the author’s talent is for the breezy, confident generalisation, not for the difficult minutiae. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
August 24, 2013
Cybersexism is Laurie Penny's take on how, for women, the Internet's promise of freedom has instead turned into another tool for men control and abuse them. She's not against the Internet because of this - indeed she celebrates the opportunities it opens up and tells of its formative influence on her life. Instead she recognises how it reflects and magnifies the still deeply sexist nature of modern society. Nor is she in favour of censorship. Confronting the anonymous haters that plague women who dare to express an opinion on the Internet does not, she says, threaten freedom of speech - quite the opposite in fact. The real threat to such freedom instead lies with governments, which try to control what we can see and do online, often in name of protecting the vulnerable who they are otherwise happy to cast aside. Though out and proud as a geek, she recognises how geek culture can both promote and shelter misogynistic activities, and how mythologised stories of the rise of the nerd often reduce women to trophies or objects of hate. But she sees hope. In an increasingly online world, geekdom has the potential to be a powerful ally in the fight against the dreadful treatment of women on the Internet. Cybersexism is written with Penny's usual passion, intelligence and clarity. It's only a short book, but packed with thought provoking opinions.
October 6, 2013
Cybersexism: Sex, Gender and Power on the Internet is such a well-written, eloquent piece of criticism which focuses on the problematic politics of the internet. Men bashing women, women bashing men, men bashing men, women bashing women and all behind a screen. Ms. Penny addresses so many issues which many of us have encountered: from the verbal abuse and threatens of rape, the exclusion from the gaming world because of gender. The internet allows those that hold prejudice to abuse and to be verbal about these prejudices without having to come face to face with those that are being abused.
This essay explores the dangers of the anonymity of the internet and what this can do to people. I found it fascinating to read and found myself with agreeing with so much of it. Laurie Penny reclaims the term Geek for women: why are men so determined to exclude women from this? But she also explores many more issues. Why is it that a woman's opinion counts for less online? Many things are shared online which would never be uttered in public and certainly not face to face. This eloquent essay explores this in great detail. It is fascinating and well researched argument; I definitely recommend it.
This essay explores the dangers of the anonymity of the internet and what this can do to people. I found it fascinating to read and found myself with agreeing with so much of it. Laurie Penny reclaims the term Geek for women: why are men so determined to exclude women from this? But she also explores many more issues. Why is it that a woman's opinion counts for less online? Many things are shared online which would never be uttered in public and certainly not face to face. This eloquent essay explores this in great detail. It is fascinating and well researched argument; I definitely recommend it.
September 27, 2013
I rate this book five stars despite disagreeing with the author's reading of the film The Social Network, despite its relatively poor volulme-to-price ratio, and despite its somewhat herky-jerky tone.
Cybersexism is but a preview of an upcoming larger collection of essays by Laurie Penny, and one I'd gladly shell out for again. Penny is a passionate, witty and confrontational writer whose militant language doesn't quite conceal a genuine care for everyone on the gender spectrum. Yes, even those old foes of Tumblr: the white, hetero, able-bodied, cis male!
I rate this book five stars because I basically feel this should be a manifesto for all those who venture into online spaces, to get just a small taste of what it's like to be on the other side of "pics or gtfo". Its small volume may have left me eager for more, but its punchy, witty style makes it ideal introductory reading for the tech-inclined feminist.
One may sneer and say my praise comes from being on the same side of the political spectrum as the author, but if the basic message is "women/girls/lgbtq's deserve equality, representation and a feeling of safety", that surely transcends all political affiliations?
Cybersexism is but a preview of an upcoming larger collection of essays by Laurie Penny, and one I'd gladly shell out for again. Penny is a passionate, witty and confrontational writer whose militant language doesn't quite conceal a genuine care for everyone on the gender spectrum. Yes, even those old foes of Tumblr: the white, hetero, able-bodied, cis male!
I rate this book five stars because I basically feel this should be a manifesto for all those who venture into online spaces, to get just a small taste of what it's like to be on the other side of "pics or gtfo". Its small volume may have left me eager for more, but its punchy, witty style makes it ideal introductory reading for the tech-inclined feminist.
One may sneer and say my praise comes from being on the same side of the political spectrum as the author, but if the basic message is "women/girls/lgbtq's deserve equality, representation and a feeling of safety", that surely transcends all political affiliations?
August 25, 2013
This reminds me of Wired Women: Gender and New Realities in Cyberspace. That book came out in 1996. Seventeen years later, we're still grappling with many of the same problems--only in a far more public setting. I appreciate Penny's treatment of the earlier days of the Internet, when there was much more freedom and creativity in exploring gender and identity than there is now IMO. Virulent online misogyny has been on the uptick since then as she argues and I agree, but I think she needs to provide more citations and references to buttress the generalized arguments that she makes.
September 7, 2013
Kurzer Text, der eine schöne Einführung in Sexismus im Internet liefert. Alles andere als allumfassend, eher als Denkanstoß geeignet. Laurie Penny schreibt leicht lesbar, macht aber ein paar wichtige Punkte deutlich, benennt Probleme und deren Ursachen und bietet sogar Ansätze zu ihrer Lösung. Das kleine Geld auf jeden Fall mehr als wert!
May 28, 2023
Wie auch »Fleischmarkt« eine Streitschrift, die vieles streift und sehr deutlich auf den Punkt bringt. Ganz besonders allen empfohlen, die im Internet unterwegs sind, sich als Geeks oder Nerds begreifen und vielleicht ahnen, dass sie einen heftigen, empathischem Schubs brauchen, um das Problem der Ausgrenzungs- und Niedermachpraxis gegen sich im Netz tummelnde Frauen ernst zu nehmen.
May 27, 2022
This book was well written and the points are obviously argued with a strong sense of belief. However, I felt that the book lacked in examples and references to back up the claims that were being made.
October 11, 2014
This medium-length essay, based on how women are treated in online communities, was well written. Although I have highlighted a number of quotes throughout the essay, I do feel it was lack some depth. The author should have researched more/ used more anecdotes to make stronger specific arguments.
August 13, 2017
Reading this made me feel like I was part of a frontier community just by growing up in "the age of the internet" and identifying as female. Very short read, but thrilling all the same.
The strength of belief behind the feelings expressed here comes across clearly; although I'm not sure the author has taken the time to sanitise her own writing from the personal biases she condemns in others.
Her examples are specific to her and those around her, which is OK because this message needed to be communicated even if it was communicated badly with weak or anecdotal information. However, little consideration was given to what it means to be a geek from a non-western country, or what it means to be a geek in a culture that doesn't even recognise or understand what tech means to society, let alone accepting it.
Whilst the author ranted on about ostracism of geeks in school cafeterias and online harassment of women in politics, all I could think is why she only applied her strong beliefs to women in western cultures who were privileged enough to have the opportunity to be in politics.
The strength of belief behind the feelings expressed here comes across clearly; although I'm not sure the author has taken the time to sanitise her own writing from the personal biases she condemns in others.
Her examples are specific to her and those around her, which is OK because this message needed to be communicated even if it was communicated badly with weak or anecdotal information. However, little consideration was given to what it means to be a geek from a non-western country, or what it means to be a geek in a culture that doesn't even recognise or understand what tech means to society, let alone accepting it.
Whilst the author ranted on about ostracism of geeks in school cafeterias and online harassment of women in politics, all I could think is why she only applied her strong beliefs to women in western cultures who were privileged enough to have the opportunity to be in politics.
July 3, 2022
“Perhaps one reason that women writers and technologists have, so far, the calmest and most comprehensive understanding of what surveillance technology really does to the human condition is that women grow up being watched. We grow up learning that someone is always looking at us and checking for misbehaviour…Whether or not anyone is actually watching and checking at any particular moment is less important than the fact that they might be… Patriarchal surveillance was a daily feature of the lives of women and girls for centuries before the computer in every workplace and the camera in every pocket made it that much easier. ”
Great essay with interesting takes!
Great essay with interesting takes!
October 30, 2017
Me ha gustado bastante, es curioso que me gusta precisamente más lo que otra gente critica en otras reseñas (que hable de su experiencia personal y parta la crítica y el análisis de género desde esa experiencia y vivencia propia, en bastantes aspectos compartida por muchas de nosotras).
Me ha resultado bastante revelador lo que cuenta de que cuando alguien te amenaza con exponer tu intimidad, una respuesta puede ser exponerla tú previamente dejándole sin armas para chantajearte, empoderándote desde ahí, desde el "sí, ¿y qué?", sea con fotos de tu cuerpo, sea con fotos que otros puedan creer vergonzantes o, en mi caso, que lo anterior no lo he hecho, con temas de salud mental propios.
No comparto totalmente algunos planteamientos que me chirrían (sobre hasta dónde limitar violencias online, aún no sé bien dónde pondría yo la línea entre censurar y protegernos a las mujeres víctimas de esas violencias)
Y una cosa que sí que no he entendido es el planteamiento de la editorial al sacar este libro y un mes más tarde el libro amplio "De esto no se habla", siendo este, más pequeño y barato, un capítulo exacto del libro siguiente. No lo entendí bien y por eso compré este pequeño, ahora tengo dos libros (uno caro y otro barato) y veinte páginas de un libro caro repetidas en un libro barato que también compré. No sé si la idea era hacer más caja de esta manera que yo he sentido un poco absurda... (si hubiera entendido bien que este texto venía idéntico en el otro libro, hubiera esperado y comprado solo el segundo, claro).
En fin, que ahora regalo este :-) Si a alguien no le importa que haya párrafos subrayados en el libro (soy una hereje, ya), y nos conocemos en persona, silbadme, nos tomamos algo y os lo paso.
Me ha resultado bastante revelador lo que cuenta de que cuando alguien te amenaza con exponer tu intimidad, una respuesta puede ser exponerla tú previamente dejándole sin armas para chantajearte, empoderándote desde ahí, desde el "sí, ¿y qué?", sea con fotos de tu cuerpo, sea con fotos que otros puedan creer vergonzantes o, en mi caso, que lo anterior no lo he hecho, con temas de salud mental propios.
No comparto totalmente algunos planteamientos que me chirrían (sobre hasta dónde limitar violencias online, aún no sé bien dónde pondría yo la línea entre censurar y protegernos a las mujeres víctimas de esas violencias)
Y una cosa que sí que no he entendido es el planteamiento de la editorial al sacar este libro y un mes más tarde el libro amplio "De esto no se habla", siendo este, más pequeño y barato, un capítulo exacto del libro siguiente. No lo entendí bien y por eso compré este pequeño, ahora tengo dos libros (uno caro y otro barato) y veinte páginas de un libro caro repetidas en un libro barato que también compré. No sé si la idea era hacer más caja de esta manera que yo he sentido un poco absurda... (si hubiera entendido bien que este texto venía idéntico en el otro libro, hubiera esperado y comprado solo el segundo, claro).
En fin, que ahora regalo este :-) Si a alguien no le importa que haya párrafos subrayados en el libro (soy una hereje, ya), y nos conocemos en persona, silbadme, nos tomamos algo y os lo paso.
March 15, 2020
Laurie Penny is one of the most prolific writers and relevant queer feminist voice of these days. This short book was well written as always (it is my third book by Laurie), however, the content was not as new to me as it might have been for people newer to feminist analysis. Would def recommend reading it tho!
July 23, 2020
A very short read that highlights the issues of women on the internet and the attempts by some to keep women silent and the means by which many women have fought back.
Much of the content can be found in “Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution”, so if you have this book, don’t bother with “Cybersexism”
Much of the content can be found in “Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution”, so if you have this book, don’t bother with “Cybersexism”
April 20, 2019
Terrific lecture! Is concrete a focus how she shows us the reality of women surfing all day in Internet... Everyone should read it, and any of you should do something about this problem around the world.
May 13, 2025
great writing. some things are...weird, but that's to be expected since it was written in 2013 and lots of stuff has changed since then. can't complain much.
kinda got lost at the end but i think that was just my brain shutting off
kinda got lost at the end but i think that was just my brain shutting off
April 15, 2020
Short but nevertheless a good introduction and navigation of the subject. Always a pleasure to read Laurie.
May 4, 2020
Brief but bracing, a well expressed essay on internet misogyny and the prospects for a more equal, open internet.
Read
May 12, 2025no new insights in here tbh but i liked it as a historical text.. the ending turned out to be too hopeful but that's only because we live in a hell world
July 23, 2025
有点像是博客文章，感觉讨论得有点浅。关于技术的偏见我还挺想了解更多的，互联网上人们之间的偏见也有更多其他纬度可以讨论，选取的这些我不太能get到。
April 23, 2018
Interesting, but I found the book to be lacking.
September 14, 2013
Simon Baron-Cohen (cousin to the famous Sasha, AKA Borat and Brüno) is an eminent psychologist working at Cambridge University. His pioneering autism research at the Trinity school makes him among the most renowned researchers in his field. Baron-Cohen's work -- studying the biological differences in empathy between autistic and non-autistic children -- lead him to find a general variance in empathy between the genders. In a study on one-day-old children, at an age before any cultural influence regarding gender roles can take hold, Cohen found that while boys were generally more likely to be interested in mechanical objects, girls were much more likely to stare at faces. Baron-Cohen wasn't out to demonstrate that women where superior at empathy-related tasks, but simply came across this difference in his search for empathy disparity in children with autism.
Now, what does radical twitter activist Laurie Penny have to say about these findings? Well she dismisses them out of hand, of course. Calls them "codswallop" and completely denies their conclusions. At no point does she criticize the methodology used in the study, and she doesn't even offer one iota of evidence to support her dismissal aside from the fact that she finds the conclusions abhorrent. According to Laurie, there's no need to change your hypothesis in response to evidence. To her, science is a method of finding support for predetermined conclusions, not a way of finding truth, whether those truths agree with your social and political views or not.
Although a useful look into the mind and methods of internet feminism, the androgenization dogma (the fallacy that woman have to behave the same as men in order to be equal) keeps it from properly addressing the very real problem of woman-bashing on the internet. If, instead of setting up straw-sexists (according to penny, these anti-women trolls represent the "true" behind-closed-doors discourse on women in all-male circles), Penny would have made a distinction between the majority of anti-misogynistic men and a vocal hateful minority then this could have been a useful start to a larger, important conversation.
Now, what does radical twitter activist Laurie Penny have to say about these findings? Well she dismisses them out of hand, of course. Calls them "codswallop" and completely denies their conclusions. At no point does she criticize the methodology used in the study, and she doesn't even offer one iota of evidence to support her dismissal aside from the fact that she finds the conclusions abhorrent. According to Laurie, there's no need to change your hypothesis in response to evidence. To her, science is a method of finding support for predetermined conclusions, not a way of finding truth, whether those truths agree with your social and political views or not.
Although a useful look into the mind and methods of internet feminism, the androgenization dogma (the fallacy that woman have to behave the same as men in order to be equal) keeps it from properly addressing the very real problem of woman-bashing on the internet. If, instead of setting up straw-sexists (according to penny, these anti-women trolls represent the "true" behind-closed-doors discourse on women in all-male circles), Penny would have made a distinction between the majority of anti-misogynistic men and a vocal hateful minority then this could have been a useful start to a larger, important conversation.
September 10, 2013
This is a short book but it raises some serious issues for women who use the internet. It also asks questions about what exactly constitutes free speech. Any woman who uses the internet regularly – especially forums, chat rooms and social media will have come across misogyny in one form or another. Even expressing mild opinions about anything leaves you with the feeling that women should be seen and not heard and that the internet is no place for women – we should leave it to the men.
The author asks if we are doing the right thing by overprotecting children – especially girls – from the internet. Are we perhaps perpetuating a situation where abuse of women is acceptable – because it is just banter and if you can’t take a joke then you shouldn’t be here. But it seems the jokes only go one way – against women.
I found myself agreeing with most of what the author says in this hard hitting book. I have in the past tried to debate issues of interest to women in a calm and rational manner but have received such virulent abuse from men that I have stopped doing so. Maybe I was wrong – maybe we need to fight back and to make sure our views are heard. Currently it is the free speech of women which is being restricted.
Free speech is not about abusing and threatening others and never has been. Fortunately the law agrees but the fight to make ourselves heard and be able to debate subjects without being abused is far from over.
The author asks if we are doing the right thing by overprotecting children – especially girls – from the internet. Are we perhaps perpetuating a situation where abuse of women is acceptable – because it is just banter and if you can’t take a joke then you shouldn’t be here. But it seems the jokes only go one way – against women.
I found myself agreeing with most of what the author says in this hard hitting book. I have in the past tried to debate issues of interest to women in a calm and rational manner but have received such virulent abuse from men that I have stopped doing so. Maybe I was wrong – maybe we need to fight back and to make sure our views are heard. Currently it is the free speech of women which is being restricted.
Free speech is not about abusing and threatening others and never has been. Fortunately the law agrees but the fight to make ourselves heard and be able to debate subjects without being abused is far from over.
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