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 | ie@gmail.com | 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 ]