In Cybersexism, journalist Laurie Penny exposes how the internet has enabled sexual harassers and become a hostile environment for women. She also discusses what is being done to change that.
Penny begins by contrasting old transhuman idealism about sex on the internet with her own experiences. The original widespread thinking was that the anonymity of online presence would allow anyone to assume any other identity and level the differences between sexes. Penny was initial attracted to this vision of the future, and first ventured online to escape the social pressures that came with her puberty.
However, she has become disillusioned with the utopian conception of the online world. She cites Clay Shirky’s writing as evidence that the common
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She first took up writing while confined in a hospital for “the mentally interesting” for anorexia rehabilitation. She hated being deprived of internet access while at the institute. This oppression spurred her to seek solace in journaling and her entries were lengthy, soulful, and copious.
After being released from the mental ward, Penny’s two hobbies were wedded when a friend introduced her to an online blogging site. An online audience helped her to further develop her talents. She feels that the internet allows her to network with more women and empowers her and her comrades to “change their reality.”
The segments headed “Ceiling Patriarchy” and “Patriarchal Surveillance” in fact constitute a single section of text and express a coherent theme. In this section, Penny expounds her theory of ubiquitous hidden cameras and online file sharing as a tool of patriarchy.
Penny first discovered the dangers of surveillance and the necessity of taking care with one’s online presence when she was nineteen. She and her classmates had taken nude photographs of themselves and, because they did not yet “understand that giving anyone a picture of your breasts … gives them power of you” they posted these pictures to social