Haters Quotes

“Calling the Internet a public forum is done to invoke a conceptualization of the Internet in which all expression is seen as valid and worthwhile. However, in reality it frames abusive comments as suitable online behavior while vilifying any attempt to make online spaces safer for everyone interacting in them. After all, if the only way for women to avoid abuse is not to talk, whose free speech has actually been affected?”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“One of the most common experiences a woman has when discussing online abuse is either receiving advice about how to handle it or being condemned for handling it “incorrectly.” This advice is sometimes well intentioned but often delivered in the form of a mansplaining response to a woman who is pointing out that cybersexist abuse has been directed her way. The advice may be meant in a nice enough way, but it’s offered with no thought to women’s actual experiences, no consideration of the consequences of following the advice, and no evidence that what is proposed would even be effective for reducing future instances of abuse.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“Sexism is a combination of prejudice against persons based on their gender, combined with the privilege and power required to cause harm.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“Actually, it’s about ethics in games journalism” became the immediate and fervent reply to anyone discussing Gamergate’s harassment of Quinn. As she fled her home in the face of horrifically detailed death and rape threats that included her address and other personal information, those watching in shock were repeatedly told that Gamergate did not condone harassment. A Gamergater on Twitter might politely assert the “actually” line in one set of conversations, while simultaneously saying in another set that Quinn or another target was a slut who should kill herself.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“What “don’t feed the trolls” misses is that, for these online cybersexist abusers, it doesn’t matter whether or not a woman responds to their abuse. The payoff for these types of “trolls,” as mentioned earlier, is the ability to say horrendous things to women and never face real consequences for doing so. How a woman reacts is beside the point... None of it makes a difference if the victory is being able to send the threat in the first place, know that the intended victim has seen it, and never face any consequences.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“The public forum argument simultaneously insists that women be receptive, welcoming, and passive in the face of harassing comments while it excuses harassing behavior and suggests that it’s an acceptable part of public discourse.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“Online threats of violence seem to have a very simple purpose: they are intended to act as a reminder to women that men are dominant, that women can be attacked and overpowered if men choose to attack, and that women are to be silent and obedient. Many threats contain ultimatums: if a woman doesn’t stop engaging in activities that the men issuing threats find undesirable, she will be punished with physical violence or even death. The intent of threats is to establish offline patterns of violence against women in online spaces.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“Cernovich, Yiannopoulos, and Sommers all found a marketing opportunity in Gamergate: a constantly active audience willing to buy whatever it was they felt like selling that day. No matter what their stance had been previously, their support of Gamergate guaranteed that followers of Gamergate would hang on their every word.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“This story is not at all an uncommon one in tech circles, including gaming. The popular notion is that women who get ahead must be engaging in something underhanded to do so, because tech is a white man’s world (even as they will then describe it as a meritocracy of the best kind). Any successful woman can expect to be accused of sleeping her way to the top.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online

“Everyone involved, from the figurehead to each individual harasser, is able to diffuse responsibility for the abuse among the group, claiming abuse was always committed by “someone else” and thus was not the concern of any one member, regardless of their own actions.”
― Bailey Poland, Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online