Again, a bit of a rant. It's my recent personal experience with some truly bigoted people on the internet .
I recently posted a vlog on youtube . I'll be the first to admit it was a stupid thing to do. Not only was it not very well thought out, but it was twenty minutes long.
I deleted it the day after I posted it.
But there is a bit more to the story than that.
I originally did the thing to post on facebook . I had seen a lot of people who seemed perfectly nice do disgusting things on the site. One of the main ones was a "piece of flair" that went around my high school. I deleted it as soon as I got it, but perhaps I should of saved it to. I can only say it was similar to this:
Yuck
The main difference is it also showed two same sex couples, which were labeled "perversion".
Yuck, right? It was also sent to my out male friend, by a girl who we both knew. She had always seemed nice and polite. I found it shocking that she could turn into such a bigot.
I've also gotten sick and tired being blasted by people I consider my friends for considering myself a feminist. Not to mention all sorts of little things I see every day in the high school environment .
So I ranted to a webcam for twenty minutes. I intended to post it on my facebook , and hopefully get all my friends on there to stop and think before they send people things, say something, etc.
Then I proceeded to make a very stupid decision. I posted it on youtube . This was Monday .
I then went to bed, got up, and went to school. I checked a on my youtube a couple times through out the day. I got one comment, which was quip about my neurotic tendencies . During a period where I had already taken my final and had access to a computer, I posted one here about the comment, and other ways people have tried to get minorities to be quite.
I came home. I left for a little bit, as I had other things to do. When I come back, I was in for a surprise. I suddenly had over two hundred views and and pages of comments.
Unfortunately, almost all weren't exactly nice.
Here are a few example:
- MAKE ME A SANDWICH
- wow you suck at speaking please sew your mouth shut put a bag over your head and stay in the kitchen
- IM A VICTIM! BAAAAW !Get back in the fucking kitchen, dumb cunt.
- AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
men rule the world for a reason you should keep ur mouth shut before we stop allowing u to speak - you best be trollin ' if not goback 2kitchen and we are all the feminists so butt fucking ugly prolly cause the hot chicks can get what they want so they dont
- *Sigh* don't mess with 4chan . You dam thing/object. Only ugly women bitch and complain. You don't deserve to marry and ahahah JEW don't care holocaust was a good thing. Wait you ARE FEMALE you look like a male whos balls didn't drop.
feel "oppressed".
My two personal favorites have to be these(the later being on my profile after I took the videos down):
- You're not bi. You're an over reacting pseudo intellectual Jew-bitch who needs to get over herself.
- Aaaaw poor feminist can't? handle a bit of ribbing, so you put your video up to tell everyone about feminism, then take it down when people start making sexist comments, your not a feminist, your an ugly bitch who can't get laid, so you claim to be a feminist.
Wow, that's almost funny. First, someone feels the need to deny my sexuality and bring my culture into the discussion. I only mentioned being Jewish a couple times through out the video. Yet for some reason this was of concern to them
The second is just effing funny. The fact that someone decided to call me an "ugly bitch" and tell me about my sex life(since they are obviously an expert on a complete stranger's ability to get some) is just amusing.
So, I deleted the videos. Not because I can't handle "a bit of ribbing," but because I a)would like to continue being safe, b) realized the video wasn't well thought out, and c) because I didn't want to limit my options. I've heard horror stories of things that have happened to female bloggers . And if that video had stayed online , it could of fallen into the "wrong" hands. I could of offended some people who actually have power over me(i.e teachers), rather than just those who spent their time watching random youtube videos. The thing is still up on my facebook , but only my friends can view it.
I can't say I'm shocked at how bigoted most of the comments were. But I can say I'm disgusted . The internet is an anonymous place. People are willing to say things that they would never say in real life. This can be a good thing, but this can also awful. I think the comments are a showcase of how much intolerance still exists in the world today. People just hide it better.
It also makes me laugh at how just how many people seemed proud of the fact they called a sixteen year old girl fat and ugly. Almost. But it's also pretty frustrating that so many people think they have a right to act like this just because they don't have to show their face. Just because they don't have to deal with any real consequences.
I also wonder what the reactions would be if I looked like Jessica Alba, or I talked about Twilight rather than a real issue. i think this brings up an interesting problem in society: "Pretty" woman can be seen and even heard as long as they talk about something frivolous, "ugly" woman might as well kill themselves, unless they can find some way to serve men.
Really, even with completely non-threatening videos made by those who are considered hot in the mainstream, I still see all sorts of ugly comments. One that comes to mind was a character from the fake vlog series lonelygirl 15. The character was named "Gemma ," and ever other comment on her entries was asking her to show them tits or get on camera in something skimpier. Interestingly enough, when the creators provided a character that was considered "hot" but was considered a "whore" and even -gasp- a feminist, the majority of fans reacted with all sorts of sexist comments. In the section of the forums where people could interact with the characters of the series, every other thread was calling her a whore and asking the character to kill herself. I stopped watching after that. I haven't been back to the site since.
I don't really know how to end this post, so I'm sort of going to. I'd enjoy questions, comments, etc. But they are not needed. I just thought some of you might like to know about this.
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well, I must admit that whenever I've looked at videos on Youtube etc. I've trained myself never to look at the comments, because Every.Single.Time. I have, morons of the world have left ridiculous comments that piss me off/disgust me/scare me. I have to wonder why people go out of their way to look up videos online that they are looking to bash and be assholes. Apparently that's their purpose: spewing out their hate and immaturity.
On your 'friends' who have disappointed you with their bigotry: I'm queer, and I have many lovely moments with people I meet and befriend, and somewhere along the way in our friendship, before I even have a chance to come out to them, they make a homophobic comment (which tends to always catch me off guard) that I call them out on, and out myself to them as well, and they get all flustered then say "Oh, but you don't LOOK like a lesbian??" I know that doesn't help, but I can relate to your disappointment.
It's frustrating because either way it sucks. You "look straight" and pass and have this inner battle as to whether or not you should come out, how it will work etc. and "choose" to be treated accordingly by crappy people, or you "look gay" and people will base their judgments on you the moment you meet them.
Sidenote: I discussed this with my friend and he said "well, minorities etc. as well as your gf (who is strongly genderqueer/boi) don't tend to have the liberty you do, to 'choose' whether they can be discriminated against, so it seems pretty cowardly and disrespectful towards your gf if you do make the choice NOT to purposely come out," and I thought that was a really good point, which made me think about all this even more...
sorry for the rant...
Wow I can't believe people would write things like that. Well, I can, but I just don't get it.
As hurtful as those comments are, you should remember that these people are clearly threatened by you and your beliefs. They wouldn't have said such horrible things if they weren't. That has got to make you feel at least a little bit powerful, right?
Also, the horrible grammar and spelling mistakes highlight the hilarious stupidity of these people. If they can't take the time to spell words properly or use periods, then don't take the time to worry about their comments!
I know it's hard and if I were you I would probably be in tears and feel so disillusioned with the world. But, you have the feminist community to back you up, and we most certainly will.
Ebaumsworld hates you :-(
Sorry for the trolls, folks. We're doing our best to clean up the mess but having some software probs that are making it difficult. As soon as we can ban folks, we will.
Hey sister!
Just wanted to stop by and voice support. I have no idea who these Ebaums people are, but they are just jealous that you have figured out your own life, adn who you want to be. They just sit in thier moms basement and look at anime pornography that is anti-woman! Women will never stop being strong and we'll always stand up......
oh shit, my husband is home and I'm not allowed to use the internet...
He's really pissed!
he's beating me up!! help!! Please feminist army!!
Oh well, I did deserve it. I'm a dumb ass woman who should gb2kitchen.
I dont understand why people care so much about it either way. I mean, yeah, maybe it could seem a little wierd if someone you have known for all of your life turns out to be bi- or homosexual, but why do people care either way about complete strangers? Just this summer, I was at the beach with my girlfriend (i'm a girl) and my mother, just minding ourselves and trying to get a bit of sun and relax. Well, these two guys in their thirties or late twenties walked by and and one of them made a couple of not-so-subtle remarks about my appearance at one point. Well, long story short I got fed up and started to make out with my girlfriend, and see if they got the hint. They hurled some generic abuse at us before they walked on, but we took it in stride, and really din't pay attention to them then, but in hindsight, i wish we had. Later when we were done for the day, we were walking back to the parking lot, and saw them standing by the entrance. They saw us when we were 30 feet away, and one of them stepped infront of me and my mom got scared, she said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'. I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said 'FRESH' and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I can say this cab is rare, but I thought 'Naw forget it' - 'Yo homes to Bel Air'
I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8, and I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'. I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, to settle my throne as the Prince of Bel Air.
I am not here to be an asshole, but my advice is to let this go. Anon has a pretty sick idea of what is funny, and if you have any sense you will let this blow to your pride slide (they seriously are not joking about credit-card/viruses though, it has happened before).
In case you are not convinced, well I tried. Just to let you know though, no matter what you think, no matter how counter intuitive it may seem, Anon does not feel threatened by you in any way. You may be operating under the delusion that you are making a stance against male bigotry and standing up for womens rights, but in reality you are just throwing yourself in harms way so they can have a few lulz. Most of them are probably even nice guys in real life, but douches online.
Anyway,g2g
The links in the post don't work.
I really have no idea what to say--I was just disgusted by all these comments and wanted to post something, uh, more nicer.
The cultures at YouTube, Ebaumsworld, etc are--just deplorable. I would mention Penny Arcade's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory but it's slightly inaccurate, because the people posting these are not normal, and are in a much greater minority than they think.
So yeah, uh... you go girl. Internet people suck? I am bad at trying to say pleasant things to wash out the disgusting taste these individuals have left :-/
haha...I have a good friend who's really into Penny Arcade. Really has nothing to do with the conversation but I felt compelled to share.
My brother is a big fan of Penny Arcade, and has shown that strip to me several times over the years. It's pretty amusing. But like you said, these people aren't "normal."
Yeah, that's the thing about the Internet. It creates communities out of groups of people that wouldn't otherwise be able to get together. Unfortunately, "assholes" happens to be one such group. Lone assholes tend to be relatively weak and timid, but a pack of assholes can be very dangerous.
you hit the nail on the head when you pointed out how pathetic these guys are in insulting you. They're the ones who aren't getting any, and won't in future, when women hear them speak. Guys who score don't bother posting hateful stuff on YouTube comments :)
Hmmm...it looks like I got deleted in the troll purge somehow. What I had said was that there's part of me that wants to tell you to say fuck the trolls and leave your video up. YouTube comments aren't exactly representative of intelligent humans. But I understand how hard it can be to read negative comments about yourself or your work.