What it's like to be a woman on YouTube

[maniamsmart]

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So I just thought I'd share this video I saw today on Facebook. I can't say I disagree because I've been on many videos where people just comment about a woman's appearance, background, or anything about themselves and don't actually care to comment on what the video is even about. It's pretty stupid, and sadly, most of the time it is the guys; which just makes me even more annoyed because I am a guy myself, and very respectful towards women and then you get this bullshit.

Have you witnessed anything like this? Have you done anything like this? Share your thoughts and experiences.

[CosmicNoodle]

What of the abuse that men get? If I'm going to give a shit about this video, I want a video defending men on YouTube as well, until you provide that, no shits will be given, you want equality, here it is.

[maniamsmart]

What of the abuse that men get? If I'm going to give a shit about this video, I want a video defending men on YouTube as well, until you provide that, no shits will be given, you want equality, here it is.

Great point! One I was thinking of myself after watching this video too. Perfect example, the guy that makes videos who has a second persona, Francis, and makes rage videos. I haven't seen any publicly shared and widespread videos defending him, or any other men for that matter. Could this just be another close minded feminist viewpoint?

Thanks for your opinion and I agree with you :) Then again though, part of it leads to me to wonder that maybe there aren't many videos defending men because men are usually the ones who don't have a problem if a girl comments something about him that has nothing to do with the video, it's usually girls that just get offended; but that'd just be stereotypical.

Would love to hear more opinions on this.

[Miserabilia]

Or you know they could just choose to ignore those comments. It's not " harrasment ". Nobody is spamming her, stalking her, going up to her in person and shouting at her.
It's just a bunch of people commenting whatever they want because they can, most of the time sarcastic internet memes.
Not to mention, people of all genders and colours get comment hate and trolls. So no.

[CosmicNoodle]

Great point! One I was thinking of myself after watching this video too. Perfect example, the guy that makes videos who has a second persona, Francis, and makes rage videos. I haven't seen any publicly shared and widespread videos defending him, or any other men for that matter. Could this just be another close minded feminist viewpoint?

Thanks for your opinion and I agree with you :) Then again though, part of it leads to me to wonder that maybe there aren't many videos defending men because men are usually the ones who don't have a problem if a girl comments something about him that has nothing to do with the video, it's usually girls that just get offended; but that'd just be stereotypical.

Would love to hear more opinions on this.

Gotta love boogie :) But gotta hate BuzzFeed, it's where feminists and people who don't understand news, to go get news.

One thing I should say, is that they are stupid comments on the internet, if you get offended by what's on the internet, do, not, visit, the, internet. People get offended far to easily.

[lyhom]

Yes, bigoted YouTube comments are usually made by people who are either complete fucking idiots that will never be worth anything to society, or trolls who are looking for reactions just like the video gives.

I don't need a terrible website like god damn Buzzfeed to tell me this.

[Typhlosion]

It's not easy being anything on youtube. Selecting certain types of comments will not prove your point if you don't show the proportion of hate vs not-hate. Plus, there might be a lot more behind the insults beyond just being female. May be her content is disagreeable.

You have to remember that the most common thing on teh webz are ad hominems. What the hell are you going to do, police the fuck out of everything so that nobody gets offended?

[Karkat]

Or you know they could just choose to ignore those comments. It's not " harrasment ". Nobody is spamming her, stalking her, going up to her in person and shouting at her.
It's just a bunch of people commenting whatever they want because they can, most of the time sarcastic internet memes.
Not to mention, people of all genders and colours get comment hate and trolls. So no.

Most women do get a LOT of harassment (especially sexual) just for being women on the internet. So while YouTube comments don't NECESSARILY fall into this category, it is still problematic.

[maniamsmart]

Most women do get a LOT of harassment (especially sexual) just for being women on the internet. So while YouTube comments don't NECESSARILY fall into this category, it is still problematic.

A female speaks up! Yes, I agree it is problematic, but I can't tell how much more problematic it is compared to males being "harassed" as well. Love the points you all bring up though :)

[Karkat]

A female speaks up! Yes, I agree it is problematic, but I can't tell how much more problematic it is compared to males being "harassed" as well. Love the points you all bring up though :)

Well the thing is, men usually are not threatened with rape, etc. There are, of course, exceptions, but women are usually the ones who receive the unsolicited sexual comments, regardless of what they do or wear.

And worse yet, usually the VIOLENT and/or derogatory ones.

Men get "Ryan Gosling is my future husband!"
Women get "I want to bang her on the table until she screams for mercy."

There are, of course, exceptions, however it seems to be a bit of a trend.

[dirtyboxer55]

who cares, why are people so sensitive

And fuck her right in the pussy, never forget that!

[fairmaiden]

Well I obviously don't like the fact that other women are put down by rude/nasty comments on their videos, but I think that loads of people, regardless of their gender, are trolled on Youtube. Say, if you look at a random guy with glasses on YouTube who posted a video, you'll see people commenting ''take the shitty glasses off'' ''ugly af'' ''nerd'' etc.

Yes it's rude and it shouldn't be happening, but these women should ignore the comments and just accept the fact that there are ignorant/sexist/nasty/rude people out there.

[maniamsmart]

Well I obviously don't like the fact that other women are put down by rude/nasty comments on their videos, but I think that loads of people, regardless of their gender, are trolled on Youtube. Say, if you look at a random guy with glasses on YouTube who posted a video, you'll see people commenting ''take the shitty glasses off'' ''ugly af'' ''nerd'' etc.

Yes it's rude and it shouldn't be happening, but these women should ignore the comments and just accept the fact that there are ignorant/sexist/nasty/rude people out there.

I understand your point, and I agree with it. I think that if people are going to post stuff on the internet, then they should be ready to deal with the internet as someone said above. But on another level, you could argue that it's wrong for people to be so disrespectful, so in a sense I can understand the frustration and complaints but by now people should already know how fucked up the internet is. And that's the sad fact about it.

[CharlieHorse]

What of the abuse that men get? If I'm going to give a shit about this video, I want a video defending men on YouTube as well, until you provide that, no shits will be given, you want equality, here it is.

The problem is that there's sexism significantly directed towards women. This is trying to raise awareness to that so that it can be stopped.
But then that won't be equal, you might say. Sure, but it's one less issue in society. Equality isn't going to happen over night, but smaller issues can be addressed. Those who speak up on those issues are actually making a difference, not the ones who are sitting back and yelling about what is equal and what is not.

[maniamsmart]

The problem is that there's sexism significantly directed towards women. This is trying to raise awareness to that so that it can be stopped.
But then that won't be equal, you might say. Sure, but it's one less issue in society. Equality isn't going to happen over night, but smaller issues can be addressed. Those who speak up on those issues are actually making a difference, not the ones who are sitting back and yelling about what is equal and what is not.

I love it, preach it on! Some very good points though that you bring up and you're right :)

[fairmaiden]

I understand your point, and I agree with it. I think that if people are going to post stuff on the internet, then they should be ready to deal with the internet as someone said above. But on another level, you could argue that it's wrong for people to be so disrespectful, so in a sense I can understand the frustration and complaints but by now people should already know how fucked up the internet is. And that's the sad fact about it.
I agree!

[maniamsmart]

I agree!

Thanks for the support, glad we share a viewpoint! :D

[Babs]

What of the abuse that men get? If I'm going to give a shit about this video, I want a video defending men on YouTube as well, until you provide that, no shits will be given, you want equality, here it is.

Basically what Charlie said.
Also, I'm pretty sure girls who make video about misogyny make them because they have personally experienced it and understand what it's like to be a girl. It's kind of hard to speak about an issue you personally will never understand quite well, such as a woman making a video about misandry. I think that's something to consider.

[Horizon]

I think people want to start attaching their gender, and their race, and their sexuality to everything when something happens that displeases them. If you are a youtuber, I don't care who you are, you have been more than likely subject to the same kind of abuse as anyone else. People make pokes at race, sexuality, and gender, regardless of your race, sexuality, and gender. People on the internet are collectively rude towards everyone. The moment that we start saying it's a gender issue is the moment we lose sight of reality.

I personally believe people really just need to suck it up. Most of these youtubers complaining about it live in first world countries where the freedom of speech is important! We can't start policing and putting limitations to that freedom, because then it becomes okay to do it more until we may as well not have the right to it at all. This isn't to say that some of these comments geared toward female youtubers aren't driven by sexist, or misogynistic tendencies, because it would be entirely wrong to make that claim. But it's just not a woman's issue. I don't really see it as an issue either, but I believe that we can't police people's freedoms. What we can do is create more campaigns and try to change society through protest, speech, and progress. Christina Sommers is a feminist with a degree in philosophy, and is currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She does a video series hosted on their channel known as the Factual Feminist. She had a colleague touch on this subject on this subject in one of their videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm8nBt9rQBo

I suggest giving this a watch, and possibly watching their other videos. I have to note, it's clear to me that women TEND (not all of them, and not always) be the ones who care about these types of comments, whereas men tend (not all, and definitely not always) to not care about these comments. I can see two reasons why this could be. It could be that society does have a way of making people care more about what other people say, but the men seem to care less. The other is that among gender feminist activists online is a popular narrative that women should be able to make decisions in life without people having expectations or judgements for them. I feel like it comes more from the latter, just from what i've seen. What do you guys think?

[Vlerchan]

It's more or less equal as far as harassment-in-general goes though woman tend to encounter more severe forms of harassment.

The [Pew] survey (http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/10/22/online-harassment/) found that, in general, men are more likely to experience online harassment, but they are experiencing less severe forms and significantly fewer emotional, personal or perceived reputations harms. Men are more likely to be “called names” or be targeted by people who set out to embarrass them. Men are also more likely to say that they get “physical threats.” Young men in particular were much more likely to report that their harassment took place in online gaming.

Women, on the other hand, report higher rates of more extreme abuses and related impacts. “Young women,” researchers concluded, “experience particularly severe forms of online harassment.” They report experiencing much higher rates of sexual harassment, stalking and sustained abuse.

There is clearly a difference between being “called a name” and being stalked or sexually harassed, sometimes for weeks, months or years. The violence we know exists offline, where women between the ages of 18-24 are more likely to be harassed, stalked, raped and killed by intimate partners, has clearly manifested itself online. Women surveyed by Pew were more likely than men to report that their experiences with harassment online has been “extremely or very upsetting,” almost 40 percent of harassed women compared with 17 percent of harassed men. Of those who had been stalked or experienced sustained harassment – mainly women – more than a third felt that their reputations had suffered harm.

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/23/why_women_get_attacked_by_trolls_a_new_study_unpacks_the_digital_gender_safety_g ap/

http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/10/PI_2014.10.22__online-harassment-02.pnghttp://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/10/PI_2014.10.22__online-harassment-03.png

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/10/22/online-harassment/

[Saint of Sinners]

It's youtube comments. What do you expect. I've seen worst shit there than in other... More disreputable sites.

Youtube comments are just nope. Full of hatred to everyone. I usually don't even bother to reply to stupid bullshit cause u just get a flame war that clogs up the fucking Google plus.

[eli_w]

It's very easy to abuse free speech when you're masked behind the anonymity of the internet, and as long as you have your comment sections/social media totally out there in the open and free for anyone to post on, it will always be a thing. You just have to ignore it, really. Same as if you were harassed in any other situation

Threats are different obviously, though

But that's what crazy popular Youtubers like Jenna Marbles and Ray William Johnson do. Retaliating to it only adds fuel to the flame. I think this video is unfortunately more harm than it is good

[Saint]

posting whatever content you make on youtube makes it vulnerable to critics,haters and the general public,which i think most youtubers are aware of.

But when it comes to women on youtube,from what I've personally seen,it just seems like the attacks are amplified. not that men don't receive hateful comments,but i've seen more comments that are sexual in nature towards females than males. attacking how they look,their features,and nothing on the actual content that they're producing,which is what makes the difference between actual criticism and plain hate.

I don't think anyone should judge or trivialize the issue if people are offended by what they've been receiving. again,these comments aren't criticism,they're hate. and being people,our emotions aren't universal,so even if it's easy for you to say "suck it up",that's just entirely yourself. they have every reason to talk about an issue that's bothering them and to speak up about it,hoping that it reaches the demographic of people that'll comprehend the issue and do something to make a difference for the better.