(Actress and Writer, Leslie Jones, looking gorgeous at the Ghostbusters premiere)
Social media basically runs our lives these days. We use it to stay in-touch with friends and family, stay connected to the news, vent, and date. But I want to address the fact that men and women experience all of this in very different ways. If you're not a white, cis-gendered male, then anything you say and do online is under scrutiny by antagonizers waiting like snipers for the chance to scream at you and call it "free speech". Anything goes when you're wearing the mask of cyber inconsequence. In the news last week was a story that women, especially women of color, know all too well. With the recent release of the new Ghostbusters, starring four amazingly talented women as our spectral-lassoing heroines, came a different sort of creepy-crawly that likes to lurk about and terrorize the masses; Internet Trolls! The sexist torment actually began with the release of the trailer several months ago and it hit a spike when the movie was released July 15th. One of the movie's stars, SNL's Leslie Jones, was the target of a disgusting display of male importance on Twitter. She was bombarded with racial slurs, pornography, and was likened to a gorilla. I was outraged to read one of the tweets that suggested the actress could play "Harambe"- the gorilla who was killed at a Cincinnati zoo after a toddler wondered into the enclosure- in a movie about the animal's demise. She was brought to tears by the hate she witnessed,though, in an interview with Seth Meyers, she said she wasn't unfamiliar with the specific insults. Thanks to Leslie's strength in speaking up and the Twitter team many of the offending accounts have either been warned or permanently terminated. This was an important but admittedly small step in the right direction for all the women who experience these types of attacks.
(Pew Research Center Harassment Chart, 2014)
Ms. Jones' horrific experience was what prompted this article and my digging into the statistics of harassment of women online. What the writer-actress endured is something no person should have to worry about when logging onto social media. It's meant to be a space where you can have fun and relieve stress. But the reality is, people misuse it everyday for malicious means, to hurt others and cause pain. According to the Pew Research Center in a 2014 study, ""60% of internet users said they had witnessed someone being called offensive names. 25% had seen someone being physically threatened. 19% said they witnessed someone being sexually harassed and18% said they had seen someone be stalked." Those are pretty solid numbers that we really shouldn't be seeing in a civilized society. According to the same study, young women (18-24) received a "disproportionate" amount of online sexual harassment and stalking in comparison to their male peers. 26% of the women surveyed by Pew said they were stalked online and 25% revealed incidents of sexual harassment. I wasn't exactly surprised by these numbers. Just googling "online harassment" brings up overwhelming amounts of literature and personal testimonies. Many fear that it's become the norm.
Online, women experience the whole gamut of denigration and verbal assault. From cyber-bullying (harmful name calling and belittlement) to actual threats on their physical person. A lot of women report having men threaten them with rape. They threaten to find them and kill them. "It's not just words. Those words are chosen very specifically to make women feel threatened in ways that it might be difficult to make some men feel threatened," said Tara Moss - Canadian author, UNICEF ambassador and women's rights advocate - in a quote to CNET. The site also reported on a study done by the Norton security firm that shows 47% of women surveyed in Australia report having experienced some form of harassment on the internet. The article goes on to say that the number jumps to 76% when you look at just women under the age of 30. In a case last year a young woman named Olivia Melville (age 24 at the time) had her tinder profile captured in a screen shot and posted to Facebook with the caption "Stay Classy, Ladies." Melville recounts the incident as "terrifying" because her image was plastered everywhere. A 25 year old Australian man is now facing jail time because of the 50+ comments made on the picture, most of which were threatening and sexually explicit. The man made the threats after Ms. Melville's friends attempted to defend her online. Some of his derogatory comments included: “I’d rape you if you were better looking,” and “[women]deserve to be taken back to the 50s [where] you’ll learn to know your role and shut your damn mouth.” After the aggressor was arrested he claimed he didn't realize it was against the law because it was online. Court documents quoted him as saying he was "trolling a group of feminists that were harassing me and my friends".
This is where the laws begin to fall behind on the times. Cyber harassment laws vary greatly globally and nationally. This instance in particular takes place in Australia where, because of this case, the law stating "using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offense" now includes online harassment, making it a criminal charge. America is just starting to catch up. Law Professor Danielle Citron of the University of Maryland who wrote the book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace, emphasizes that we're only just now treating these incidents as actual threats. But the sentence in Australia is a win for women who've been victimized by cyber hate anywhere.
Remember that it's important for you to stand up to people who think a computer screen can protect them from the consequences of their actions. Misogyny cannot be allowed to control the internet with an iron fist. We can't let it go on anymore! Death threats are unacceptable. A woman should not open Tinder to find that someone she has rejected has left a page long comment calling her an " ugly whore" and saying he was "throwing her a bone". That's not hyperbolic, I've seen tumblr blogs dedicated to the horrible messages women have gotten on Tinder and OKCupid. Hate speech both off and online should not be tolerated or ignored because its continuing to be a problem that too often leads to actual violence. We as a people have to remind the government that hate speech is not the same as free speech. Remember that words hurt and leave scars. Words incite action. Threatening someone with rape, degrading them, and shaming them in order to achieve the Alpha Male power you crave is disgusting! This power you think you wield over women because you've been taught that through violence you can control someone is a disgrace. You can't siphon your power from us anymore. We ain't afraid of no trolls!
Here's To Simone Biles, Olympic Champion, Survivor Of Sexual Assault And All-Around Amazing Woman
Coming forward took great strength for all of the gymnasts involved. Oftentimes, they are seen as indomitable simply because of their sheer power and strength.
Simone Biles has been a household name in the gymnastics world since 2013. She has racked up an insane amount of awards, earning the titles of three-time world all-around champion (2013–15), three-time world floor champion (2013–15), two-time world balance beam champion (2014, 2015), and, most recently, five-time United States national all-around champion (2013–16, 2018). On the 19th, Biles became the first gymnast ever to win five U.S. all-around titles, after she won every event in the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. This feat, alone, is impressive, but it is even more amazing taking into account that Biles took a two-year hiatus after the Rio Olympics.
Biles is often applauded for her poise, power, and grace out on the floor. But it is the fierceness and humility that she embodies in her work and everyday life that makes her so admirable. In 2017, Larry Nassar — former USA gymnastics team doctor — was convicted of child pornography charges and seven counts of sexual assault of minors... one of those minors being Simone Biles. Aly Raisman was the first gymnast to come forward about the sexual abuse that occurred, with members Maggie Nicols and Mckayla Maroney following closely behind (Biles and Gabby Douglas came forward later). The gymnastics sex abuse scandal rocked the nation, revealing a tightly-kept and dark secret within the industry.
Coming forward took great strength for all of the gymnasts involved. Oftentimes, they are seen as indomitable simply because of their sheer power and strength. Being able to push their bodies to almost superhuman limits falsely conveys the notion that they are invulnerable. But all women and men are at risk and can be targeted at any time, an important point to make in a world that is overwhelmingly consumed in rape culture.
Biles is an amazing role model for girls growing up in this generation. Aside from being a bad-ass gymnast, she shows young girls that there is a multitude of ways to achieve success and fulfillment. Social media has skewed the idea of what it means to be an influencer or to be famous. So many people are obsessed with attention and validation that they go about getting them in the wrong manner. "Trolling," aka deliberately making offensive posts or doing offensive things, has become popular by internet personalities like Boonk Gang, Woah Vicky, and Logan Paul, while young girls idolize Youtubers and Instagram models who are little known for anything other than being pretty or starting drama (Simplynessa15, Chandler Alexis, Tana Mongeau, etc.). Biles shows girls that hard work is rewarding and that they can be successful doing things they love, not things meant to shallowly draw attention.
Not only that, but Biles, and every other female gymnast, challenge traditional beauty standards and the narrative of what it means to be beautiful or feminine. Today's society is obsessed with being "thicc," which is unrealistic and impossible for many women. Biles shows girls what an actual healthy body looks like. We claim to be obsessed with fitness and being in shape, but oftentimes we worry so much about getting a bigger butt or bigger boobs that we don't place any importance on living an actual healthy lifestyle.
Even worse, we narrow-mindedly believe that large muscles are signs of masculinity. Not only that, but we kill ourselves trying to always be perfect: we need the perfect hair, makeup, outfit, selfie, etc., simply because we think anything less than perfection is not worthy. Among many other well-known girls her age, Biles is one of the few that posts pictures with messy hair, basic outfits, and subpar lighting. She isn't concerned with being perfect because she's unapologetically herself and she knows that's worth enough.
No, Simone Biles is not "thicc," nor does she always look like a perfectly polished model. But she is still unbelievably athletic, thriving, and beautiful inside and out... something that girls need to be constantly reminded of. Fulfilling beauty standards is not the only way for you to be seen or validated, and it is not a determinant of your worth.
Female gymnasts have been breaking barriers and inspiring others for years, and Simone Biles is no exception. Now, more than ever, we need more women who are strong, full of integrity, and unapologetically themselves.