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.
Is it too late to add my own story? I’ve posted about it on my blog. http://johnnykaje.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/anonymity-gender-experiments-and-animal-masks/
Wow, someone turned being called bad names by 12 year olds into a full on article. Go back to digg, both people that use it will probably welcome you in.
From your post (which I enjoyed):
It’s absolutely not just you. I used to spend a lot of time on a forum where, due to the particular nature of that forum, virtually everyone’s usernames were gender-neutral, and it was a running, rather bitter joke among the female posters that we would always, always, always be assumed to be male up until we literally and explicitly stated otherwise – at which point people would be shocked and go, “Wait, you’re a CHICK? WHOA!” as if a woman on the internet was still a deeply shocking proposition. Some female posters took to creating signatures that read “I AM A WOMAN” or “MY PRONOUN OF CHOICE IS SHE” out of frustration at continual misgendering. It was particularly amazing how many other tacit assumptions people would override before remembering that not everyone online is a dude – most notably, mentioning the existence of a boyfriend or husband would very frequently get the reply, “Oh, I didn’t know you were gay!” (And it’s not like this was some Forum Of Ultimate Maleness in which the “everyone is a dude” assumption might make some sense – polls taken of the users consistently put the male-to-female ratio somewhere around 60/40.) It was bizarre.
Yes male is the default. Listen to children. When they aren’t sure of gender its always he. Despite being raised by a single mother, my daughter was telling her friend that she “wasn’t sure if he was male or female” when talking about a new stuffie she had just gotten. Its pretty much everywhere, and when a masculine object like tools are being sold to women, they are made smaller and painted in that hideous Komen pink.
Jay, thank you for your trenchant and scintillating commentary.
Wow, someone turned being called bad names by 12 year olds into a full on article. Go back to digg, both people that use it will probably welcome you in.
so… you hang out with twelve year olds
cool story brah
I haven’t done the Turing-test style experiment where you’re chatting, I did a forum experiment once where writers submitted paragraphs and people guessed the gender of the author.
With 138 votes cast on 15 paragraphs, the results were 46% correct.
Hey Jay… care to explain why you decided it was 12 year olds who were being jerks?
Wait… you can’t.
Just go to r/trees you won’t be degraded or anything everyone on r/trees is friENTly
You should check out 4Chan. It’s better than reddit and they guys are much nice there! 😀
So, buttman, you have never heard of men who make irrational decisions for the sake of what they think is love (http://www.heart-2-heart.ca/men/page4.htm)? And you’re completely oblivious to the notion that maybe, just maybe, your sister is being scared into staying with this guy because maybe, just maybe, he is threatening to hurt her even worse if she leaves? Or maybe he’s got her so wrapped up in the cycle of abuse that she can’t figure out which end is up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_of_abuse). This stuff has been documented by people who are much smarter than you so you might want to open your eyes to the possibility that you don’t know everything and aren’t above anyone.
But yeah, go express some of that male logic and beat his ass… or… you know… encouage your sister by helping her get into a battered women’s shelter, help her get counseling, tell her she’s worth more and that you’re there for her, do anything but bash her on the internet and laugh at her horrible situation.
But if it was a man getting beat up you’d probably make excuse after excuse for him and cry about how it’s some grave injustice. But because it’s a woman she’s just a dumbass. Awesome MRA!!! I also really hope you don’t actually have a sister. I really hope that trolling feminists is the only interaction you have with women in general.
Right? One of my brothers is a little shit but at least he’s not spreading my victimization all over the internet as anecdata and blaming it on me.
Write an article about something that matters. Equality on the internet? Fuck off.
Duh. I mean… duh. I feel like I’m from 1990s California, but… duh. It’s not just Reddit. It’s the internet. The veil of anonymity allows assholes and douchebags, misogynists and racists an open and anonymous platform from which to spew their vitriol. Nine out of ten docotrs agree: anonymity brings out the worst in a person, and the last doctor is an asshole and I think he’s gay.
butman has an incredibly nuanced solution to this problem that just happens to rhyme with lego lunch spout..
@jame
preggo punchout?
Geez, what happened here? This thread is a mess. Jumbofish: That’s a comment Sharculese made the other day, verbatim. Jame took it and made it his own with TWO PERIODS. It’s like found art. Found commenting.
Grand Moff: I am somewhat confused what being gay has to do with one’s knowledge of whether anonymity brings out the worst in a person.
I think this whole “anonymity makes people assholes” thing is overblown. Anonymity makes people THEMSELVES. Including– or especially– the bits of themselves they’re afraid to admit. The bits that aren’t suitable for polite company. Uncommon political or religious opinions. Odd fetishes. Histories of mental illness, or abuse, or rape. And, yes, assholery.
But if you’re an asshole when you’re anonymous… sorry, you were an asshole THE WHOLE TIME. You were just too cowardly to show it before.
Also I knew a lot of dudes like the Reddit dudes and they’re like that in meatspace too.
It’s like found art. Found commenting.
Nice. (Although I’m glad Jumbofish said the answer, because I totally couldn’t work it out.) And yeah, someone linked to this thread or something, because it’s suddenly full of trolls.
I smell troll dung!
The thing is, though, it can only bring out the worst if the worst is already there to be brought out.
I mean, I’ve been using pseudonyms on the internet for years and years, and not once have I felt the least desire to say horrible, bigoted things. I totally could! I could, right now, spout some racist slurs, maybe throw in a little homophobia, and threaten to rape someone – but I don’t know why the fuck I’d want to.
And that’s the part I don’t get, and the part “it’s the internet, it’s anonymous” just doesn’t explain. Why are so many people so chock full of hate in the first place?
@Steve
Why don’t you fuck off and show us how it’s done.
Oh you are right…..WTF
Why would he do that on the same thread/same page?
What is going on in this thread even?
I THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY WHEN I SAID IT AND IM GLAD SOMEONE NOTICED EVEN IF IT WAS A WEIRD PUNCTUATION ADDING TROLL
i asked a painter
why the roads are colored black
he said, steve,
it’s because people leave
and no highway can bring them back