Note: I have included very few links in this piece because I find the message boards and websites linked to Anonymous to be so objectionable. I have no desire to add to their web traffic or in any way associate this site with theirs.

The Rape Culture of “Meatspace”

Feminist theorists have consistently argued, in what seems to me clearly logical and transparent ways, that we live in a rape culture. Our lives are controlled by the constant threat of rape. To be clear, I am distinguishing between “fear” and “threat.” Although it may be accurate to say that all women fear rape, fear is something specific to the individual. I'm talking about systemic control. While the fear of rape may influence the way that an individual woman engages the world around her, it is the threat of rape that controls the way that we all, men and women, are culturally conditioned. In Against our Will: Men, Women and Rape Susan Brownmiller made the first comprehensive attempt to conceptualize rape on a macro level. The basic principle is that because we are immersed in a culture that frequently sexualizes and decriminalizes acts of rape and because as women we are taught to be ever-vigilant in protecting ourselves against rape, the threat of rape functions as a mechanism for control and domination. According to Brownmiller “rape has played a critical function...a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear” (15). As I write this, over thirty years later, I have the benefit of decades of research and theorizing on rape and its social functions. As a result, I am more inclined to understand this issue as a systemic one, perpetuated by a patriarchal culture (in part contributed to and continued by individual men) that enlists rape as a method of social control. Still,deflecting all blame on the institution of patriarchy isn't sufficient , since institutions are created and upheld by people, men and women. Patriarchy is not the rapist and not all men are trying to control all women through the threat of sexual violence. Nevertheless, patriarchal systems of inequality provide fertile ground in which individuals are encouraged to implicitly (even at times explcitly) condone acts of violence. An imbalance of power relations among the genders as well as among those of different racial, ethnic, religious, and class background (to say nothing of the blatant hostility to same-sex relationships) is the scaffolding that allows a rape culture to go unchecked. As Andrea Dworkin noted in her 1983 address to the Midwest Regional Conference of the National Organization for Changing Men, by not actively working to dismantle this rape culture that is inherently beneficial to men, makes them accomplices in the terrorization of women. The failure to act makes us all accomplices in a culture of violence, misogyny, racism and homophobia.

Is there a rape culture in cyberspace?

In the Spring 2008 issue of Bitch magazine, “Whack Attack--Giving the Digital Finger to Blog Bandits,” Jaclyn Friedman discusses this summer's attacks on feminist blogs. Friedman, while guest-blogging on the popular feminist site Feministe, “got word that a loosely organized cybermob known as Anonymous was attempting to crash feminist sites, including Feministe, flooding comments sections with misogynist rants and threatening feminist bloggers with rape and other violence” (45). Friedman and other bloggers believed at first that the posters were trying to silence them and so they “decried these attacks in blog after blog;” they fought back, refusing to be silenced. As Adrienne Rich has said: “silence is oppression, is violence.” Only these posters weren't trying to silence the women and men posting on these feminists sites; on the contrary, they were trying to piss them off; they wanted them to respond. So, unwittingly, the bloggers gave Anonymous just what they wanted--“hostile chaos” or, assuming you aren't the one whose site is being attacked, lulz.

So,what is this “lulz” of which you speak?

First of all, the word “lulz” is described as a bastardization of “lol.” Basically, it's “doing it for the laughs” and there is an online demographic that devotes part of its time to generating “lulz”. (I refer to them as a demographic rather than as a community because their anonymity prevents the organizing necessary for a community.)

Well, their idea and my idea of humor happens to be different. Threats of rape don't constitute humor to me. But what about the female members of Anonymous (lulz)? We must assume that there are female members, although by their very nature groups like Anonymous maintain a level of secrecy even amongst other group members making such determinations difficult. They don't frequently publish demographic, statistical data. So, I don't know how many women or men belong to this group and assuming that they are all male further relies on a stereotype that only men are capable of such acts of violence. Encyclopedia Dramaticae, itself a lulz site, has the most comprehensive coverage of Anonymous. The other sites that I located had such offensive material on the first page that I found myself disinclined to look further...at least not from my home ip address. Much of the content is racist and mysoginistic. For example, according to E.D. (pun intentional) there are No girls on the internet and those who are (I realize that their is a bit of a logical flaw here, but it's their website.) should show their tits or leave. For those who will surely respond with an “aw, there just joking around,” read this comment posted by a self-proclaimed member of Anonymous to Women's Space blogger, Heart:

A. Friend | ie@gmail.com | IP: 66.90.103.37

Heart, this is horrible. I’m sorry that this is happening to you. These people want nothing to do but to hurt you and your cause. I feel for you. In fact, I want to feel you now. I’d like to tie you down, take a knife, and slit your throat. I’d penetrate you over and over in all orifices, and create some of my own to stick myself in.

Not Spam — Aug 4, 1:57 AM — [ View Post ]

Since this post was made, the Women's Space blog has been removed from public access and can be read only at the invitation of the blog owner. This may not mean complete silencing, but they have certainly muted this blog. By forcing the Women's Space bloggers to take their words “underground” and transform their discource from a public one to a private one, Anonymous creates silence thru the threat of rape, a kind of double violence.

On the other hand, popular tech blogger, Kathy Sierra, was completely silenced by similar attacks earlier in 2007. Bitch magazine writes about Kathy Sierra's ended blogging career providing a further sobering glimpse into this “humor”:

Her Web site, Creating Passionate Users, was about “the most fluffy and nice things,” she said. Sierra occasionally got the random “comment troll,” she said, but a little over a month ago, the posts became more threatening. Someone typed a comment on her blog about slitting her throat and ejaculating. The noose photo appeared next, on a site that sprang up to harass her. On the site, someone contributed this comment: “the only thing Kathy has to offer me is that noose in her neck size.”

On yet another Web site came the muzzle photo, which struck her as if she were being smothered. “I dream of Kathy Sierra,” read the caption. “That's when I got pushed over the edge,” she said. In what she intended to be her final blog post last month, she wrote:

“I have cancelled all speaking engagements.

I am afraid to leave my yard.

I will never feel the same. I will never be the same.”

Still, if we take to heart the definition posted on 4chan.org, which is cited on numerous sites as being the main Anonymous image board, then it would seem that either: a.) the writer of this post has not read the guide to nonsexist language usage; or b.) Anonymous is comprised entirely of men.

Who is “Anonymous”?

“Anonymous” is the name assigned to a poster who does not enter text in to the [Name] field. Anonymous is not a single person, but rather, represents the collective whole of 4chan. He is a god amongst men. Anonymous invented the moon, assassinated former President David Palmer, and is also harder than the hardest metal known to man: diamond. His power level is rumored to be over nine thousand. He currently resides with his auntie and uncle in a town called Bel-Air (however, he is West Philadelphia born and raised). He does not forgive. (4chan.org)

Of course, there must be at least a few female members, as evidenced by girlVinyl, a Encyclopedia Dramatica contributor. Her status as female has been confirmed by her public appearances at Lulzcon. There's another irony here that I'd like to point out. It has been said that works of literature and quotations attributed to Anon. were probably written by women. Anonymous was a woman.

Free Speech or Hate Speech?

With Anonymous' postings we have the issue of free speech to contend. Seriously? Free speech? Is the man (I refer to this user as male because of the reference to genitalia, which may or may not indicate the user's sex/gender ) who says he wants to create new orifices that he can use to continue raping a woman exercising free speech? Is this what we fight to protect? The right to terrorize and verbally attack others in an online forum. I'm not talking about espousing unpopular beliefs; I'm talking about harassment. If someone stands on a street corner and says those same words, would we not expect someone to take action? Ah, but our problem is that no-body is doing it. This seems to me to be not unlike the KKK supporters who wear their hoods and cloaks before they make public attacks. Hiding behind their white sheets, they can remain anonymous and are no longer bound by the same social codes that govern their face-to-face interactions. They don't have to worry about their neighbors knowing what kind of cruel and racist human beings they are. Hate speech. Other aspects of anonymous' “work” can be debated separately, but it's the words that I want to examine and I want to question their right to write them and our responsibility to do something about it.

These are our online identities. Why is it that they seem so familiar already?

To be continued...