So someone on Reddit did a little experiment that confirmed what we already know: that Reddit is overflowing with misogynist douchebags. Here’s the experimenter explaining her somewhat casual experimental protocol:
I noticed after two months as my female username I was constantly having to defend my opinions. I mean constantly. I would post something lighthearted, and have people commenting taking my comment literally and telling me I was dumb or I didn’t understand xyz. People were so eager to talk incredibly rudely and condescendingly to me. People were downright hateful and it made me consider leaving.
Then I decided to experiment with usernames and came up with an obviously male name. While people still disagreed with me which is to be expected, I had more people come to my defense when I had a different opinion and absolutely no hateful or condescending comments. I am completely shocked at how different I am treated since having a male username. I am not saying Reddit is sexist, well kind of yes, but I think it’s really interesting and thought that some other girls on here would want to get male usernames and see the difference for themselves.
She posted this in TwoXChromosomes, a subreddit devoted to women and women’s issues that is regularly overrun with angry MRA dudes and an assortment of FemRAs. This time the MRA squad didn’t take over the discussion, and numerous 2XCers reported experiences similar to that of the OP.
earthpeesfire noted:
I had a feminine user name years ago. Fuck that. It was like having a target on my back.
cantstopthe tried to duplicate the experiment on a smaller scale:
Just wanted to say that I made an alt yesterday with a female name, and continue to post the kind of things I normally post under this account. And today I was told I should be raped.
That has NEVER happened in all my 4 years of being on this site with various neutral names.
misscastaway also tried posting with a clearly female name:
I just tried posting on an discussion from this account. Immediately an insult including the word cunt and remarks on how I’m making a fool out of myself.
Might be a coincidence but when posting from my regular account (which is very gender neutral) that I use for discussions related to science, fitness, books etc I have never received this kind of behaviour. Not even when it turned out someone knew more about the subject and I was wrong/short in my knowledge. Then I was given another point of view, with a source – that was it.
I guess I’ll keep using those accounts in parallel now just to see if this was just by chance or if it really makes such a difference.
fatchick400 reported on the results of a similar experiment:
I created this account a few days ago to comment on some fat-hate, and have actually found it really interesting to see reddit from a different point of view.
The biggest surprise for me is the difference in how fat women are treated vs fat men. There is so much more hatred towards the fat women. A lot of people even refer to these women as “it”, completely negating their gender all together.
Meanwhile in the posts about fat men there are a few hateful comments, but they’re mostly full of light hearted jokes. In a few posts where the guys were obviously morbidly obese, barely anyone commented on the guys’ weight at all. Yet in posts with woman who are maybe 200lbs , mocking her weight always seems to be the main focus of conversation.
twofish added her experience to the pile of anecdotal evidence:
Most people on reddit assume I am male until I make it a point to say otherwise. More often than not, once it’s discovered that I own a vagina I’m no longer taken seriously, my opinions are belittled, and a slough of sexist and misogynist jokes/accusations get thrown my way.
I love Reddit for many reasons but it is one of THE most hostile places on the internet to be a woman.
Over on the Men’s Rights subreddit, meanwhile, the locals largely dismissed the experiment as unscientific and biased. As DavidByron put it:
Just seems like someone who set out to “prove” her own biases. She was biased to begin with, she ran the “experiment” in a biased way, interpreted the results in a biased way and then presented them to support her initial assumptions.
It’s the usual princess feminism which says men have it easy and women have it hard even while the exact opposite is happening. Why wouldn’t she say which usernames she used in her “test” so others can look at her methodology? Of course it’s not serious but then that’s the point.
Others explained that they weren’t really sexist because they’re such earnest fanboys of GirlWritesWhat, a woman who is able to bypass the usual MRA misogyny by pandering to the misogynists’ fantasy of male martyrdom.
The woman who posted about the experiment in the first place has now popped in to the r/menrights thread, and has (very politely) suggested to Mr. Byron that he try the experiment himself. I guess we’ll see what happens.
Welcome to the internet. When people are allowed to be anonymous, they’re not nice. Get over it. Come back when you can handle it.
proof that there are no females on the internetz
I have posted as a female on the internets before: Sounds like people on Reddit are just scum
Kelly, ah, nice to see you upholding the rights of assholes to be assholes.
Which they have, as you demonstrate. On the flip side, decent people have the right to say they are assholes, which you are.
People are just assholes on the internet. If you identify as a black person, you WILL be called a [slur removed –DF]. As a Hispanic, [slur removed –DF]. Asian – [slur removed –DF]. Woman – cunt, bitch, etc. Male – cunt, bitch (as well).
Actually of those slurs, the male/female one is probably the least specific to a particular group.
Either way, my point is: on the Internet, not everyone is going to be courteous and respectful. If you identify with a particular group, there WILL be jerks that WILL USE some misogynistic/racist/whatever slurs against you.
EVERYONE deals with disrespect on the internet. If you reveal part of your personal life, SOMEONE out there will use that and try to bring you down with that.
The effect is lessened for “white” and “male”, because they’re just a majority on reddit. That’s just how it is.
This isn’t reddit-specific behavior. It’s internet and anonymous behavior. I don’t know why you think that identifying as a female (which is generally a minority demographic on many sites, not just reddit) wouldn’t be used against you. Any group you identify with will face harsh criticism from SOMEONE. If you open yourself up to that by divulging personal information, be ready for the flak. That’s all it is. Use your heads.
Is it fair? No. Welcome to the internet.
Fakename, what makes you think that women are a minority anywhere on the internet? Women use either gender neutral names or masculine names on a regular basis. Same goes with online video games.
Chances are good that at least half the people you’re interacting with online are in fact women.
Also, why does the internet get a pass in terms of not having basic human decency and accepted societal norms of interaction enforced? What’s so special about the net?
There are no girls on the internet! Except for the ones I’m mansplaining to right now, but other than them, no girls. Everyone knows that.
For extra special irony points, isn’t complaining about the fact that someone else is complaining about something a bit…oversensitive?
Apparently if you’re black, Hispanic, or Asian, you’re neither a man nor a woman.
(Also amused that David took out the racial slurs but not the gendered slurs. Pretty sure quoting that bit would throw me into moderation.)
Well, I thought about taking out the gendered slurs, but we discuss those terms here so often it seemed pointless. (I actually have removed the c-word from the filter.)
I’m not criticizing your edits, it just amused me. (And good to know about the filter.)
How are “c—” and “b—” not referring to specific groups of people? They’re attacking women. When used against men, they’re directly calling them female, as a recognised form of attack: it’s putting a man down to compare him to a woman. A slur that refers to women’s genitals is about as specific as it gets.
And as Cassandra said – why set the bar so low? Why is it suddenly acceptable to you to use such terms simply because it’s the internet? Do you think these attitudes don’t exist in meatspace?
Feminism: attempting to prop up the rapidly dropping value of female sexuality. “Wah, men won’t be slaves to my fat thighs!” Haha, losers.
willl: attempting to get the last word on a months-old thread with a rather sad little straw-man, lazy insult combo.
Oh jeez I didn’t realize that would leave a clickable link, though I should have. Emailing the big head so that our resident troll doesn’t get hit with all the spam.
Why did I say “resident?” Guys I really cannot handle my totally legal over-the-counter antihistamines. /wank
Said no feminist ever.
The zombie thread awakens from its slumber and demands BRAINS!!!!! Sadly, the visiting troll has no brains to offer. Zombie thread goes back to sleep.
We were decieved.
Looking back at the activities and actions that lead us to where we are now, I can say that it was our faults of hubris more than the brilliance of our enemies – a scant comfort in these dark times. It all seemed so reasonable, so good, so righteously noble that who could avoid pledging themselves to join the cause? Women are people, they’d say, women have emotions just like men, they’d argue, and we should take the time to restructure our societies to take care of women and deal with the people in it, as people, because we are all people.
Thy used the phrase people quite a lot. Humans, too , come to think of it.
It was a lie.
What they wanted wasn’t equal rights and equal pay for an equal job. What they wanted was the same thing that every large person desires. A worshipper rakishly attempting to copulate with their meaty thighs. Turns out the Feminist Movement had long since been co-opted by a very small and definite clique of kinksters.
And what can we do now that that the Thigh Troopers are marching on the last free strongholds of us men? Nothing. We have cast ourselves out from the high reaches of Heaven and in our arrogance assured that our children, and our children’s children will never know the touch of a thin woman. Never know what it’s like to lift someone up and hold them in the air, or maybe, spin them around in a dance of mutual pleasure. What remains is nothing but cellulite and despair, across a wasteland of fast food and mini bars.
I heard the hunt surgeons by night, chasing them down with tame manginas and screeching. Anyone who’s ever done a liposuction is branded a traitor against the Idealized Form, sent to the camps.
No one ever hears from them again.
I don’t think the camps are real. I think they eat them.
Why didn’t we listen when the PuA’s spoke out? Why didn’t we heed the words of the Red Pillers in their Reddit Bunkers? Those same bunkers, cracked by overpowering memes and derision. Nothing but corpses and pithy slogans there now.
Ah.
But in our arrogance, we were deceived.
—
Here, I’ve written you some apocalyptic fiction to go with your obsessive need to put down others. Enjoy.
What is it with assholes on the Internet using the word ‘slavery’ totally inappropriately? I mean, we had NWOslave, and that icon with a man chained to a high heel with a moutth, now this?
Also, my thighs brings ALL the hubby to the yard!
Proffers Fibinachi all the internetz, tied up in green satin ribbons.
Considering they equate two X chromosomes with being female, of course they’re idiots.
They’re horrible and mean to anyone who’s intersex, transgender, female, or anything not a white cismale. It’s disgusting. I only go there once in every blue moon and end up being upset after a few minutes of looking at it anyway.
You also need to work on your feminism. Saying vaginas and XX chromosomes are female is transmisogynistic and damaging to the minorities that are still fighting for their basic rights.
I can’t find the comment about XX chromosomes and I assume it’s here, not the OP idiots, based on your wording. Link? (As the resident answerer of non-binary questions, I’m curious who I need to explain what to, if that sentence makes sense outside my head [oh gods don’t let it be me when I was a n00b])
Is Allen/A’s comment referring to the name of the subreddit? From the OP: “She posted this in TwoXChromosomes, a subreddit devoted to women and women’s issues ”
(Hint: when saying “you” it’s a good idea to make it clear who’s meant. Also, necroing a thread from way over a year ago?)
Hm, maybe, that’d make sense as that shit doesn’t really fly around here.