Is Online Harassment More Common For Women Than...

[quote=Searz][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuNIwYsz7PI]Last Week Tonight really stirred up the pot with their last video on online harassment.[/url] The problem is that they focused [b]entirely[/b] on the female side of things (let's ignore them bringing up proven liars like Anita and Brianna). Male harassment was hardly even mentioned. Yet there seems to be no shortage of studies that show men to be receiving more harassment, on average, than women online. Here are two examples: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/04/men-are-harassed-more-than-women-online.html http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/10/22/online-harassment/ So I'd like to start a discussion on this. Are women actually being harassed more than men? I'm not gonna claim to have read all the research on the topic, but from what I've read that claim seems false.[/quote]

[quote=TheSilverDust]Both genders are both targeted for online harassment. I even experienced it. :([/quote]

[quote=Nebrasketball]Who cares[/quote]

[quote=Searz][quote=Nebrasketball]Who cares[/quote] A lot of people do. Don't bother posting if that's how you feel.[/quote]

[quote=Latest Legend]I kind of agree with Nebra. I don't care about the gender of someone who gets threatened to get raped and/or get their head cut off. Maybe the show falsely created the assumption that it only happens to women but I think that the most important point has been made. All I can say is that I'm pretty sure I'm not being harassed, and that I have a penis. Or they're just doing a very bad job at it. Though I can imagine you being interested in it. I honestly have no idea. On the internet the average physical difference between genders doesn't really matter so I can imagine the (male harassment /man) / (female harassment / woman) ratio to be more near to 1 online than offline.[/quote]

[quote=sirell]I can see that there'd definitely be a qualitative difference in harassment (different content), but I'm hesitant to remark about the quantitative difference. The media certainly portrays a lot of female who are sexually harassed online far more than male, but since when has the media been a reliable source for these things anyway?[/quote]

[quote=sirell]I don't know about not offering much room for debate. A discussion never really has to end in one side trumping another, but rather a presentation of facts as we ourselves know them (basically a more informed opinion) and then up to us individually to weigh what does or doesn't persuade us. I might write more later, I'm a bit busy at the moment.[/quote]

[quote=Searz][quote=idmb22]As Sirell pointed out, the media makes a big deal of female cases, whereas nothing never ever seems to happen to males, is it really like that? I do not know.[/quote] It definitely isn't like that. It's hard to be specific, but until otherwise proven I think it would be reasonable to assume that both genders experience roughly the same amount of shit. [quote=sirell]I can see that there'd definitely be a qualitative difference in harassment (different content), but I'm hesitant to remark about the quantitative difference. The media certainly portrays a lot of female who are sexually harassed online far more than male, but since when has the media been a reliable source for these things anyway?[/quote] Exactly. There seems to be more sexual harassment and stalking for women, while men seem to receive more of the other kinds of harassment, like death threats and such. [quote=Latest Legend]I kind of agree with Nebra.[/quote] Oh, I thought that was about online harassment in general. I didn't think of the fact that I chose a question as a thread title. Still, it's not exactly like his comment was especially worthwhile.. [quote]I don't care about the gender of someone who gets threatened to get raped and/or get their head cut off. Maybe the show falsely created the assumption that it only happens to women but I think that the most important point has been made.[/quote] I definitely agree. We shouldn't care. The problem is that many people do think we should care about the gender in these sorts of cases. The reason for asking the question is whether there are actual reasons to treat the sexes differently. Because far too often do I notice initiatives out to help the poor woman, when the reasoning behind it seems flimsy at best.[/quote]