There’s a big story in Canada this week about a bright teenage girl in BC – Amanda Todd – who just committed suicide after years of “cyberbullying.” What’s absolutely insane to me is that all the coverage I’ve seen or heard is so stripped of feminist perspective no one is even *mentioning* that the catalyst of her story is online sexual predation (she was flattered into showing her breasts after chatting with boys/men online and then systematically blackmailed with the images). Sexual harassment, predation, misogyny, gender relations — none of it gets mentioned. Just “cyberbullying.” In the age of Girls, have the inroads feminism has made been entirely paved over and neutralized by an antiseptic aversion to anything that explicitly confronts real social power relations? To the abuse, shame, and misery that — contra Sex in the City — feminism’s political content names? Doubtless there are many factors in Amanda Todd’s suicide. Let’s not allow a buzzword like “cyberbullying” to paper them over. Perhaps we should even ask if Todd’s own reliance on this word and the catchall “haters” in her final communiques suggests a tragic curtailment of the very vocabulary she needed to name and understand the sources of her own oppression.
10 comments
Yougotta bekiddingrename on October 12, 2012 at 6:42 pm. #
It IS sexual harassment. It IS. And It won’t stop until lawyers get involved. It makes me think of the movie North Country. The internet has become the wild west and people have reverted to neanderthal behavior (I’m guilty too). Law and order has to find it’s way onto the internet. This kind of harassment wouldn’t be tolerated in the workplace in the US so why do we allow it in schools and on the internet? The internet has become the workplace for a lot of men and women. Since IT is dominated by men a lot of those men (not all of course) are harassing women (online and off). And since they are doing it in the workplace most of the time, those businesses should start to consider whether they want to be held liable for harassment lawsuits. But women have the right to make a living online too so some brave person is going to have to get a lawyer. I also have a problem with the whole ‘it gets better’ movement. Kids know better. Most of us never get out of high school. What gets some of us through is knowing that since these people are genuinely trying to get you to kill yourself every day that you spend above ground is a kick in their …whatever.
Sarah Slamen on October 12, 2012 at 6:47 pm. #
Thank you, Andrew.
Michelle Lovegrove Thomson on October 12, 2012 at 7:03 pm. #
Good points Andrew. It’s interesting that we are now able to widely identify homophobic bullying for what it is, and also racism, but still misogyny lies at the outer reaches of identification.
The sexual nature of the bullying has been completely elided in all coverage I have seen. The overinvestment in the term “bullying” by newsmedia, parenting guides, student counselors, etc, reminds me of the overuse of the term “tolerance” in the late nineties-early 2000s. Distilled to a brand catchphrase, all-encompassing and completely devoid of meaning, the use of these popular phrases mask a deep misunderstanding. If this had happened in 1994 when I was her age, it would have been branded for what it was: stalking, sexual harassment, and abuse, and it would have been a criminal issue. This young girl did not commit suicide because people are mean, she was publicly eviscerated at the most private level. I feel horrible for her family.
Sidenote: I don’t really feel that the poor reporting relates to a lack of a feminist reading as you describe, but a lack of a reality reading. It’s almost a form of ageism: if you’re a teen and people treat you horribly, it’s bullying.
Andrew Loewen on October 12, 2012 at 7:05 pm. #
Thanks for the thanks, Sarah. One often deals w/ more pushback than affirmation, even in a teensy intervention like this. I’m grateful you took a sec to drop a kind line.
Andrew Loewen on October 12, 2012 at 7:13 pm. #
Super interesting (and frighteningly accelerated) historicization Michelle. Every point you make seems crucial to me. Love the move from feminism to reality. Ageism. What is going on with 21st-century conceptions (constructions) of adolescence?! These are superb insights. Consider writing a short post(?)
Michelle LT on October 15, 2012 at 8:02 am. #
Thanks Andrew. Bullying: the new Ageism. Will def work on a post!
somepeople aretalkingabout it on October 14, 2012 at 2:44 am. #
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/feminista/why-isnt-anyone-talking-about-misogyny-involved-amanda-todds-life-and-death
Andrew Loewen on October 14, 2012 at 9:46 am. #
Just saw that piece this morning thanks to FB. Thanks.
Cara Ng on October 14, 2012 at 1:58 pm. #
Great response. Thanks, Andrew!
S. Watt on October 23, 2012 at 12:24 pm. #
Thanks for the article! Talking about it and trying to DO something about it at http://s0lidair.tumblr.com.