Fear and Weakness
March 27, 2007
I have a really, really strong stomach. Much like the Seinfeld episode, I have a non-vomit streak that goes back into the 80s. But I came really, really close tonight after reading an email from Mogull, and following a link on his site to a recent entry from Kathy Sierra’s blog.
Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a believer in humanity – I believe that people generally are good, smart and always try to do the best that they can with what they have at the moment. But sometimes, I find something that makes me question that belief. Kathy’s post did that for me tonight. I’ll leave it in Kathy’s own words:
“I do not want to be part of a culture–the Blogosphere–where this is considered acceptable. Where the price for being a blogger is kevlar-coated skin and daughters who are tough enough to not have their “widdy biddy sensibilities offended” when they see their own mother Photoshopped into nothing more than an objectified sexual orifice, possibly suffocated as part of some sexual fetish. (And of course all coming on the heels of more explicit threats)”
Reading Kathy’s story, I’m disgusted. But, more than that, I’m amazed that people could be so afraid of a brilliant and strong woman like Kathy. One thing I learned in the schoolyard – the bullies out there have two methods of attacking you. If they think that you’re weak, they’ll attack what you do and what you say. If they can’t attack those things, they’ll attack you personally (physically if necessary).
That these people could be so weak and fearful that, rather than taking it up directly with Kathy or attacking her ideas. To attack her with misogyny and threats on her life is pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
I hope that Kathy writes again. And I hope that the people who did this get the retribution that’s coming to them. If a brave man (or woman) dies once, and a coward dies 1000 times, the morons who wrote this should probably be up there in the millions for the magnitude of cowardice that this shows.
Comments
One Response to “Fear and Weakness”
This is how it is though. The interwebnet, I mean. We live in a world that worships the individual. It seems particularly the case for Americans (but others are not at all immune). People believe they are the centre of the universe and that nothing they do can be wrong. I often get a “WTF?” moment when I look around the web. I think people feel alienated, and express it in hatred of the world that has abandoned them. They can’t do it in the day to day, so they take their opportunity online.
And in interwebnet discourse, people use the tools that work. These people could not hope to win in a friendly, civil discourse, so they used more effective means to “win”.
I’ve trolled a bit on Usenet, and I’m not afraid to use aggressive and unpleasant language with others in the right forum (although I have never wished anyone dead nor have I attacked women in this way). But the right forum for me has always been one in which all participants understand and accept the way things are. And never with rancour. It’s always been fun, a game. Maybe these guys think that Kathy understands the rules of the game they think they are playing. Maybe they think she is playing too. I don’t know. As I say, I’ve never felt any rancour or anger against others, and I find it really hard to understand. Like you, I have faith in others, and I find it hard to reconcile the deep animus I see expressed with that.