Don't Quote Me: Online Anonymity Fosters Prejudice (page 3)
by Kim Ficera, October 5, 2006
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Although the web enables people from all over the world to share their thoughts, favorite music and videos, it also appeals to the not-so-well-intentioned and the just plain thoughtless and gutless. And the main reason for that is because anonymity is welcomed. Users can upload their comments or images without revealing their real names to the public.
To be clear, anonymity is only as bad as the person hiding behind it. It serves some online communities, including the gay community, very well by allowing honest expression without fear of repercussion. But anyone with an ounce of common sense can see how anonymity can and does invite unethical behavior and abuse of free speech rights.
In atmospheres where no accountability is demanded, little is offered, and prejudice — especially socially acceptable prejudice — thrives. So it's no wonder I feel beat up.
The primary victims of prejudice on these sites are women and queers — people society still approves of degrading. Sure, there are racist comments on the sites, but I challenge anyone to find 9,000 videos of people in blackface singing minstrel songs on YouTube.
The LGBT community has been one giant victim of socially acceptable prejudice for countless years. It's no secret that while we're notoriously fun and even titillating, the overwhelming consensus is that our power must be limited. And the best way to limit our power is to degrade us.
Want to emasculate a straight man? Call him gay. Want to insult a strong woman? Call her a dyke. And how do both men and women jive their contempt for lesbians with their sexual attraction to us? Strip us of everything but our ability to sexually arouse and entertain.
But as I saw clearly this morning, in addition to being directly targeted by anonymous cowards, gays and lesbians are also being indirectly wounded in the vendettas of the selfish and thoughtless. We are the collateral damage of the damaged.
Plenty of straight women know exactly how we feel, and that's precisely why I find the volume of prejudice against queers on these sites especially harmful. Anonymity allows not only the usual suspects to cash in on society's homophobia, but also the unusual suspects — those who have been similarly victimized: women.
Learning from the pain of prejudice is apparently not as satisfying as inflicting it. Just ask the women who post on DontDateHimGirl.com. Reeling from being lied to or abused in some way, they want revenge, and they don't care about the queers they abuse to get it.
It's not right, but sadly, it does make perfect sense.
Abuse is cyclical, and society supports the notion that gay people can be exploited and victimized. And that's a lesson learned young, as evidenced by Schreiber and Todd's assault on their principal. It will be interesting to see what becomes of them, as well as Hollis' attempt to fight back against Joseph's DontDateHimGirl.com.
Thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”), Joseph might get to abuse all our rights to free speech for as long as she'd like, or until her conscience or karma catches up to her.
Who will win in our courts of law is still anyone's guess. But it's clear to me that if these folks, and all who demean and avenge from behind a wall of anonymity, were to be judged in courts of decency, they'd all be pronounced losers.
Kim Ficera is the author of Sex, Lies and Stereotypes: An Unconventional Life Uncensored. Her bi-weekly column Don't Quote Me is dedicated to all the folks in and out of Hollywood who talk without thinking or who don't know when to stop talking. Email her at kim@kimficera.com.
