Rachel Gambling is a health promotion specialist for Brook Southend. In her spare time she writes poetry and creates content for the @girlblogzine website dedicated to the arts and culture of Riot Grrrl. Here, she describes a brief story of the rise of online misogyny from her own perspective.
In 2010, Hunter Moore became famous at MySpace for the adult website Isanyoneup. The site has hosted thousands of explicit photos of women, often alongside links to MySpace or Facebook profiles. Many of these images were uploaded by former partners to an act that was now widely recognized as “porn revenge”, the deliberate exchange of intimate images without consent. Some victims were even teenage girls. Others had their private photos hacked from email accounts. This content, unfortunately, developed. Eventually, Moore was held to be held accountable by Vigilante Hacker Group Anonymous – and later sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
As it went on in 2010, the apparent misogyny, such as the one that Moore started facing a new challenge: a wave of online feminism. This movement found a home on the micro-blogging tumblr platform, where people discovered feminist theory, cross-sectionality and queer identities.
As a teenager, we developed in Tumblr. I could discuss my emerging sexuality anonymously and without shame. I learned about patriarchy, misogyny and sexual objectification. For the first time I realized that the unwanted sexual comments I received from the men were unacceptable.
Based on this growing discussion, the feminist creators began to reach a wider audience. One of the most important voices was Anita Sarkeesian, who began the feminist frequency of YouTube’s channel and videotapes against women in video games. It analyzes sexist narratives in gambling and how they fueled negative attitudes to women.
The reaction was immediate and bad. The gambling community dominated by men began a targeted harassment campaign, later known as Gamergate, which included death threats, threats of sexual attack, hacking and doxxing. Sarkeesian even sent drawings depicting their rape of video game characters.
Gamergate soon became a gathering point for those called anti-SJW (anti-social warrior of justice warrior) and Alt-Right. These groups were presented as defenders of freedom of speech while promoting a reactionary agenda.
I remember this explosion on YouTube during my teens. Because I often watched the feminist content, the platform algorithm began to constitute anti-SJW, anti-feminist and alt-right-round video that used similar keywords. These creators focused on mocking and underestimating honest feminists, teachers and sex activists, framing their work as harmful to men.
In 2016, director Cassie Jaye released the red pill, a documentary that explores the men’s rights movement. Jaye finally concluded that men “had worse than women”, an attitude that has since been widely criticized and is now often associated with communities. Although the film is badly age, it marked a moment when the far -right, misogyny ideology began to be treated as a legal opposite point in feminist politics.
Fast forward by 2020: During the world pandemic we spent unprecedented hours on the internet. Some people started podcasts or passion projects. Others raised conspiracy theories and extremist ideas that previous generations had largely rejected.
As they emerged from the lock, the social media algorithms were shifted again. The platforms realized that the controversial content is keeping people moving, so they pushed inflammatory figures such as Andrew Tate, Fresh and Fit and Bonnie Blue in our feed. Their rhetoric repeated previous misogyny voices from Hunter Moore in Gamergate. This time the audience was bigger and the mainstream media was aware.
Today we are at a crossroads. We need to question misinformation, but in this way we risk reinforcing the people who exploit social media for attention.
Technological giants such as Meta, X (formerly Twitter) and Tiktok are now having an excellent influence on public opinion. I often wonder: How do we keep these platforms accountable when they are literally sitting on the palms of our hands and consume hours of our day?
Individually, we can mention content that promotes hate speech, but very often these references are rejected despite obvious violations of Community guidelines. We can put pressure on the Members and encourage government action against platforms that promote extremist, right -wing content. However, with social media chief executives such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg who attend the inauguration of Donald Trump, the first convicted criminal to serve as US president and United Kingdom politicians, such as Keir Starmer to validate anti-Trans and anti-transnationalism.
So what next?
Should we boycott platforms like meta and x? Do we have to use them to note reliable information on our channels? Do we have to focus on maintaining our governments to account for their complacency?
The discussion must continue, but our words must be transformed into action earlier and not later.
