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AN INQUIRY INTO ANONYMOUS
Healing as (We)Blog in a Show Tits or Leave World
THE QUESTION OF HUMORAt ED we archive the lulz...[and] lulz is laughter at someone else’s expense...This makes it inherently superior to
lesser forms of humor...the anguish of a laughed-at-victim transforms lol into lulz, making it longer, girthier, and
more pleasurable...and is the only good reason to do anything, from trolling to consensual sex. (Encyclopedia Dramatica)
[1]
ENCYCLOPEDIA DRAMATICA
WHO IS ANONYMOUS?
[2]
WHAT THINKS OF WOMEN
[3]
SHOW TITS OR GTFO
The Rape Culture of “Meatspace”
Feminist theorists have consistently argued, in what
seems to me clearly logical and transparent ways,
that we live in a rape culture. Our lives
are controlled by the constant threat of rape. To be
clear, I am distinguishing between “fear” and
“threat.” Although it may be accurate to say that all
women fear rape, fear is something specific to the
individual. I'm talking about systemic control. While
the fear of rape may influence the way that an
individual woman engages the world around her, it
is the threat of rape that controls
the way that we all, men and
women, are culturally conditioned. In Against our Will: Men, Women and Rape Susan
Brownmiller made the first comprehensive attempt
to conceptualize rape on a macro level. The basic
principle is that because we are immersed in a
culture that frequently sexualizes and decriminalizes
acts of rape and because as women we are taught
to be ever-vigilant in protecting ourselves against
rape, the threat of rape functions as a mechanism
for control and dominat ion. According to
Brownmil ler “rape has played a
critical function...a conscious
process of intimidation by which
all men keep all women in a state
of fear” (15). As I write this, over thirty
years later, I have the benefit of decades of
research and theorizing on rape and its social
functions. As a result, I am more inclined to
understand this issue as a systemic one,
perpetuated by a patriarchal culture (in part
contributed to and continued by individual men)
that enlists rape as a method of social control. Still,
deflecting all blame on the institution of patriarchy
isn't sufficient , since institutions are created and
upheld by people, men and women. Patriarchy is
not the rapist and not all men are trying to control
all women through the threat of sexual violence.
Nevertheless, patriarchal systems of inequality
provide fertile ground in which individuals are
encouraged to implicitly (even at times explicitly)
condone acts of violence. An imbalance of power
relations among the genders as well as among
those of different racial, ethnic, religious, and class
background (to say nothing of the blatant hostility
to same-sex relationships) is the scaffolding that
allows a rape culture to go unchecked. As Andrea
Dworkin noted in her 1983 address to the Midwest
Regional Conference of the National Organization for
Changing Men, by not actively working to dismantle
this rape culture that is inherently beneficial to men,
makes them accomplices in the terrorization of
women. The failure to act makes us all accomplices
in a culture of violence, misogyny, racism and
homophobia.
Is there a rape culture in
cyberspace?
In the Spring 2008 issue of Bitch magazine, “Whack
Attack--Giving the Digital Finger to Blog Bandits,”
Jaclyn Friedman discusses this summer's attacks on
feminist blogs. Friedman, while guest-blogging on
the popular feminist site. Friedman and other
bloggers believed at first that the posters were
trying to silence them and so they “decried these
attacks in blog after blog;” they fought back,
refusing to be silenced. As Adrienne Rich has said:
“ s i l e n c e i s o p p r e s s i o n , i s
violence.” Only these posters weren't trying to
silence the women and men posting on these
feminists sites; on the contrary, they were trying to
piss them off; they wanted them to respond. So,
unwittingly, the bloggers gave Anonymous just what
they wanted--“hostile chaos” or, assuming you
aren't the one whose site is being attacked, lulz.
A RAPE CULTURE
WHAT ARE LULZ?
Is blatant sexism humorous? Does dehumanizing
others constitute humor?
Does lulz humor go to far? When does
humorous language become violence?
[5]
ATTACKING WOMEN: FOR THE LULZ
This past summer a series of attacks were leveled at feminist blogs after members of Anonymous attacked Biting Beaver for comments she made regarding her son. While many feminists (myself included) were horrified by her remarks, we were more horrified by Anonymous’ response. They made death threats, published Biting Beaver’s address, and called for people to find her home and rape her and kidnap her son (for his own good, of course.)
Biting Beaver’s comments were violent and reprehensible. Do violent comments warrant a violent response? And do threats of rape and murder constitute humor?
A fellow blogger came to her defense and received
comments like this one:
A. Friend | [email protected] | IP: 66.90.103.37
Heart, this is horrible. I’m sorry that this is happening to you.
These people want nothing to do but to hurt you and your
cause. I feel for you. In fact, I want to feel you now. I’d like
to tie you down, take a knife, and slit your throat. I’d
penetrate you over and over in all orifices, and create some
of my own to stick myself in.
Not Spam — Aug 4, 1:57 AM — [ View Post ]