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.
Quackers: I think you need to relax more than anything. Your questions are irrational… but yes, you are leading him on.
“. I feel for your sister and I hope she can get away from these types of men which include you! A good brother would try to help her out of the situation, not laugh at her for “being stupid.””
See… I knew someone would say this. That is the complete opposite of what I should do. What would happen is that I would get all big and bad and go fight some guy that she would turn around and screw anyway. That is the very definition of a White Knight. No thanks.
“So if you’re so logical and unreactionary, why is there always this burst of ridiculous reaction every time you get “trolled?” Shouldn’t you be immune to this type of hysteria? Just for the record, all the feminists who ever said anything remotely misandric were just trolling too. ”
I’m not shocked or anything. Feminism is a troll movement. They can’t exist on logic and reasoning and accountability. That’s why you have these made-up stories of rape on reddit.
Buttman: so much facepalm. “Helpin g your sister” is not the same thing as “beat the crap out of her boyfriend”.
Funny, because you’ve exhibited none of those things.
@Buttman
So he tells me I’m a good friend who is there when he needs me, I stayed in the hospital with him, he initiates a lot of our hanging out yet I’M the one leading him on and the irrational one? Lol.
you really are a troll, no one can be this stupid. For your sake I hope you are trolling for the lulz, but you MRAs really blur the lines sometimes. I’ll be sure to tell my friend someone on the internet thinks I’m leading him on and offer to never speak to him again if he feels that way though!
Also, which seems like more of a troll movement to you? Feminism or the MRM? Is it the one that works tirelessly to organize events, promote college courses, petition the government, and publish research …or the one that entirely involves TROLLING on feminist websites? I gave you an easy hint.
“Another tiny problem: why should a women be “held accountable” for getting beaten?”
Because they’re suppose to be rational, thinking human beings? I saw one talk show where a woman was trying to marry the man who murdered her brother. That’s how primitive some women are. You don’t think that women are accountable for their actions when they willingly choose to go with men who are violent or have been violent in the past?
Buttman, everyone’s trying, but it’s really hard to have a rational debate with you flailing like this. Go to the next room, have a goid cry and a cup of tea, and come back when you’re calmer. Ok? Ok.
Now, I’m very curious as to your definition of rape as “any sex a woman regrets.” Could you please direct me to your sorces?
Also, if we’re discussing the “taking responsibility” issue, let’s talk about all the men that women apparently keep hanging around in the hope of achieving pussy, despite never being allowed access to it: where is their responsibility? Why do they keep coming back?
Also also, if they just can’t help themselves, doesn’t that point towards men being irrational? I mean, as you present it, women are coldly and in a calculating manner keep men around to use while not giving tjem anything (not nice, but rational from a cost-benefit POV), while men hang around, giving setvices ang gettin’ nothin’. So who’s rational in this scenario?
Aaaaand that’s “good” and “sources,” “them” and “services” because I suck at proofreading and also typing on an iPad is hard.
“Oh come on, Buttman. You can do better than this. Are you sure the bill “completely” wipes out a father’s rights? Are you sure Beck’s goal wasn’t kinda about clarifying the law for the parents’, adoptive parents’, and child’s benefit? Think before you answer this time.”
Look at the headline. “Fathers of Illegitimate Children Would Lose Rights to Adoption”. Read the article. It is clear that they are trying to take away a father’s right to choose because they are butthurt that a father won custody of his child. We have a clear case of a feminist writing a bill that hurts MEN and children. They are placing ridiculous obstacles(prenatal financial support, paying for medical care when you haven’t even had a paternity test). They will do anything to shirk their responsibilities. They refuse to pay child support to the father like they should. That’s why I say it’s only rights and no responsibilities for women. It’s not in her body anymore so we that the whole “my body” thing is just a gimmick to deny men their rights.
Oh I missed this one. Pity party? hardly. I don’t stink up the internet with comments whining about how dudes wont date me even though I’m so nice. I don’t expect men to change or drop all their preferences like nice guys expect women to drop all of theirs simply because these men can do a basic thing like be nice. I compared it to being fat because men don’t care how nice a girl is, if she’s not attractive they wont date her. I’ve accepted this and live with it and somehow most women have managed to either accept, or sometimes downright mutilate themselves to change it, so maybe you should shut up and accept that women have physical or personality preferences as well. Hint- it’s not about being nice because nice guys aren’t nice, they’re manipulative, entitled assholes.
And if we’re going to compare anecdotal evidence, I know plenty of actual nice men who are in successful LTRs. Some are my personal friends and some are people I went to school with.
Yeah, so is the dude beating your sister, supposedly.
Obviously your sister should leave this guy, but do you have any knowledge of abusive relationships at all?
You MRAs always do this. You blame the person getting beaten or raped, but never the person DOING the beating and raping. You don’t realize how fucked up that is?
“You MRAs always do this. You blame the person getting beaten or raped, but never the person DOING the beating and raping. You don’t realize how fucked up that is?”
There are laws and criminal penalties for beating a woman(no so much for women beating a man but that’s another post) The thing that would be best is for women to take some responsibility for their choices and PREVENT any abuse. I’m sure there are situations where things start off nice. I’m talking about women who get with men that they know are violent and stay with them after abuse. If feminists would stop playing the victim and start holding women accountable then you would see some reduction in abuse.
Also Buttman really makes me grateful that I have such an awesome, non-evil brother
Does anyone else just quietly savor the taste whenever the little darlings try to ape what feminists say about assholes? Because it’s delicious, almost as much so as Warlock Tears (I do not believe I will ever find a form of irony as delicious as the tears of WoW Warlocks)
Here’s how you stop abuse Buttman: don’t abuse people you are with. Have a buddy you can call to pick you up when you feel like abusing. Carry a whistle with you when you feel the need to abuse. Call the cops when you feel the need to abuse. Stop looking at the person you’re with as the source of all your problems. Stop being around people your likely to try and abuse. Stop dating until you work through why you need to abuse. Instead of presenting yourself as a charming, interesting person to be around, tell people you are an abuser. Stop waiting for an innocent partner to prevent you from abusing them.
In the case of rape, I don’t think you’d care for my solution as to how a victim can prevent it.
“Does anyone else just quietly savor the taste whenever the little darlings try to ape what feminists say about assholes?”
Oh my god, the MRM talking points are so often like being followed around by a little kid playing that game ‘shadow’ where they repeat everything you say.
Oh and Buttman, thanks for telling me that as a child below the age of seven it was my responsibility to prevent my family from abusing me. I guess I wasn’t taking enough initiative when I told the school and a childrens aid worker what was going on. I should have built a mind control device or drugged much of my family into a happiness vibe.
Holy cow, this is a nasty thread.
Do people actually believe Buttman has a sister and this actually happened? I don’t.
It’s worrisome that Buttman thinks his only options are “she deserves it” and “beat up the bad man”… and he NEVER believes in beating up the bad man.
1. Really? are the laws gender-specific? citation needed.
2. Hmmm. You really know nothing about the psychology of abuse, do you? the whole point is that abusers create dependence in their abusees, so that they CAN’T leave.
3. Even if we assume no dependence, and that women are really stupid for going back to men who beat them and should stop… why are we focusing on them? I mean, what is this tendency MRAs (and a lot of non-feminists of all stripes, actually) have to treat men like forces of nature, or Acts of God, or something (like dogs, for example…). I mean, OK, so women shouldn’t go back to men who beat them… and MEN SHOULDN’T BEAT WOMEN (and women shouldn’t beat men, and men shouldn’t beat men, and…can we all agree that we really should all talk with our mouths and not our fists? y’know, like we learned on the first day of nursery school?). Why focus on the women as though they’re the only ones who can do anything? why not focus on getting men (and women) to stop beating intimate partners/children/dogs/anyone and everyone?
Cliff…slap him with the far too many reasons you can’t leave your lover post.
He’d either not read it, or troll it. Buttman is not here to learn.
But here’s the link: http://pervocracy.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-does-she-stay-with-that-jerk.html
@Quackers
“Philosophers, Priests, Lawmakers, Academics… they made their fucking LIVING off of hating women.”
Did they? I doubt it. But playing devil’s advocate, let us for the moment accept Quackers’ unsubstantiated, ridiculous projection. Back when women cheerfully accepted responsibility for their role as primary nurturer, they wielded their influence when said Philosophers, Priests, Lawmakers, Academics were children. For the most part, said Philosophers, Priests, Lawmakers, Academics only ever became what their mothers always wanted them to be.