One of the many pieces of “advice” we get regarding comment sections (and other areas) is “don’t feed the trolls”. One area we can manage – but seem not to – are comment sections. We block, remove, shut down as we want to create spaces we prefer – indeed, we even create our own tools when the providers themselves do not. Just as we shape our social lives in physical space, we can shape our digital space. To portray it as some disconnected space helps no one indeed it only provides ammo to those who would see it as a mere playground for their sadistic taunting. It’s not different to the “real world”, it’s part of it. The internet is the biggest, most diverse, most deep, most annoyingly beautiful space we’ve created: lives are entirely made here. This, too, dear wizards, is also the internet! Namely: cutting off the tongues that would shriek and outlining why their rage is horrible. That means we can and do take action and decide what kind of spaces we want to create: it’s for this reason, comment systems have blocking tools, social media sites have restrictions! People remain people, whether behind keyboards or at your dinner table. Second, in this assertion, the internet, too, becomes an amoral wasteland where only the “fittest” survive – and by “fittest” we usually mean individuals who rarely face prejudice or hostility premised on their gender, race, etc. As much as we should be treated equally, in reality, we come from backgrounds where we’re not – and we continue not to be treated fairly. This assertion gives no humanity to victims: everyone is a blank, emotionless internet user, with no history of being targeted for her sex, race, sexuality. Why should we accept this? ‘That’s just the internet’Ī lot of times when people express their hatred for people’s behaviour online, wizards emerge to inform us, “That’s just the internet. My friend’s article was not itself a place to engage her in discussion, nor the issues it became a platform of hatred, misogyny and all manner of awfulness. So this awful space now existed leeching off the good space above it. It’s about the awful way almost everyone is (and no, people are not treated equally in terms of receiving contempt but we all still receive it, even grieving daughters).
This wasn’t a special case it seems to happen every time a woman writes something that somehow defends some aspect of women’s autonomy.īut this isn’t just about the awful way women are treated. The site published it proudly – however, and inevitably, the comment section ended up a fat sack of misogyny hanging like an unwanted testicle below it. Every week brings a new reminder women are not welcome – especially on the internet. Recently, however, a colleague penned a piece that defended a woman – it doesn’t even matter which woman or what context. Every internet writer will tell you something different. But, since writing for sites that allow them, I’ve mostly taken the “don’t read the comments” approach – to my own and others’ writing. I’ve never really been a fan of comment sections and have often interrogated their necessity.
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