The Internet is Light Years Behind with Attitudes Towards Women

People show their true colours on the Internet, so the problem is not really the Internet, it has more to do with people being insincere in real life.

Well its a bit of a cop out perhaps but there is a "dark corner" whenever there is some for of art/media.

There's racist music, rape games, every type of literature you can think of. The difference with the internet is people can finally spew out bile without any thought or few of consequence. As I said before though I believe most of these people are making sexist comments to enjoy the fireworks it causes with people who disagree. Rather than inherent sexism. Either that or they are simply children who have no real understanding of the world....who will grow up to have wives and girlfriends who change their attitudes.

I fully agree its wrong, but i do think its inevitable, sometimes funny, and certainly not worth fretting over.

Do people still not understand trolls in 2014?

Don't judge the majority opinion by the vocal minority. When some people are biased and made mad about an opposing opinion instead of trying to argue some just go to insults. It has little to do with sexism. Cause the same happens to most races, fat people, skinny people, short people, gays, ugly, religions, so on and so forth. Anything that makes you unique will be insulted on the internet. Ignore the trolls

I think the OP takes a look at internet trolling under too tight of a microscope. It's not just women who bear the blunt of ignorant remarks on the internet, EVERYONE is a target of trolling with the advent of nearly repercussion-free platforms of speech. It's a nearly universal problem of assholes being able to say pretty much whatever the hell they want with the only repercussions being the disabling of a (free) account that only requires a (free) email address to create in most cases. Often these comments aren't necessarily representative of a person's personal beliefs, but crafted in a way to maximize the chance of riling up the target "for the lulz".

Yeah, it was hypothetical, but many people adhere to the mindset that women can't be touched under any circumstances, even if it's a person's life at stake. There are men who would rather be beaten into a pulp than defend themselves from a female aggressor. Not sure if these attitudes are in Europe, but they exist here in America.

What isn't these days?

You're kind of right. What it does is give people a voice, a way to express themselves without having to suffer the repercussions that could come with having their names attached to their comments. It's not incorrect to refer to that as "a false sense of importance", and it's not incorrect to say that it's about giving them the illusion that "their opinion actually impacts those outside of their immediate circle." Those things are kind of true.

Just be aware that both of those things sort of boil down to "a sense of empowerment by letting me express who I am to the world, without consequences." The underlying principle behind both of those things is "this is me, what I have to say is worth listening to, please pay attention to me." Internet comments are trash, but in a way they are a LOT like genuine artistic expression. Again, the goal here is to communicate ideas, to provide a way to present internal beliefs and values to a larger audience. That's what people are doing even when they don't know they are doing it. And no, you CAN'T do that without revealing something about yourself.

Even if you're misrepresenting your beliefs for the purpose of trolling, chances are that you tend to only troll certain people. WHO you troll is a genuine reflection of who you really are. Even if you're lying, WHAT you lie about is a reflection of who you truly are. And even if you troll everyone just for shits and giggles, and don't pick sides when it comes to trolling, that says something about you too.

I'm not saying that writing internet comments is an art, but it's LIKE art. Internet commenters are essentially writers and they are trying to communicate ideas. That's what novelists do, that's what screenwriters do, that's what poets do. And that's also what all other artists do, albeit in a different medium. And the thing about those people is that elements of who they really are DO bleed into their work, whether they want that to happen or not. The mere act of expressing ideas reveals elements of one's true self, it's simply unavoidable.

I think that's kind of a fair middle ground to agree on. You're right that what you comment on and what you say certainly does have some kind of reflection on what a person believes. The whole point of my argument was to point out that the writers these comments are usually directed at typically don't care what people commenting have to say. I know this first hand because you actually referenced my profession in this post, and internet comments are a complete afterthought. What people say and how they react typically aren't indicative of how they behave in real life. Being a professional writer, you occasionally interact with people who read your work -- both fans and people who dislike what you have to say -- and both the supporters and aggressors typically display polite, well-adjusted behavior.

I think that's kind of a fair middle ground to agree on. You're right that what you comment on and what you say certainly does have some kind of reflection on what a person believes. The whole point of my argument was to point out that the writers these comments are usually directed at typically don't care what people commenting have to say. I know this first hand because you actually referenced my profession in this post, and internet comments are a complete afterthought. What people say and how they react typically aren't indicative of how they behave in real life. Being a professional writer, you occasionally interact with people who read your work -- both fans and people who dislike what you have to say -- and both the supporters and aggressors typically display polite, well-adjusted behavior.

Ridiculous.

See, here's the thing...remember how I said that elements of a person's true self come across during artistic expression? The problem here is that that's also true of ALL expression. And "expression" doesn't need to refer to internet comments. "Expression" can also refer to "whether or not I hire this guy" or "whether or not I treat this Wal-Mart employee like shit for being too slow ringing up my order."

Let's make it clear that I'm operating under a pretty big assumption here, one which I don't have solid evidence to support. So you can agree or disagree, but it's just how I'm calling things based on my anecdotal experiences with people. But the assumption is this: most people have a pretty poor understanding of who they are and why they do many of the things that they do.

This is why you can go up to an internet troll who defends his hateful comments by saying, "I don't really think that, those comments don't reflect me, I'm just having some fun." And then you say, "okay, if that's the case, then why is it that you exclusively troll feminists and minorities and liberals?" And a lot of the time, the answer that you get is "I don't know, stop overthinking things."

As an art student, I have a particular perspective on this. I can't count the number of times I've noticed other students consistently making art about certain things or consistently making art a certain way. But ask them WHY and they're usually like, "beats me, I just like it this way."

The point being, people are who they are, and they do things for a reason even if they have no idea what the reason is. This isn't just something that happens in writings or art, this happens in basic human interaction. Some people think that thoughts don't matter, only actions matter. I disagree. Thoughts CAN be bad, particularly because one's thoughts DO influence behavior. The things that we do are run through the filter of what we think or believe. That is ESPECIALLY true when we don't know why we do things, because then we've let our guard down and can't adequately defend ourselves.

Now, back to hateful internet comments. This is precisely why I find "I just did it for the lulz" to be an insufficient reply. You (the general you, not you personally) could have insulted ANYONE for the lulz, but what I continually keep seeing happen is people CONSISTENTLY directing their trolling towards certain targets. Saying that it's for the lulz doesn't explain why you keep picking certain people out. WHY THAT GUY? I'm not saying that you're a racist or a misogynist or a homophobe, but there's some deep seated reason why that theme keeps coming up in your trolling. Something that is a genuine reflection of who you are. And you'd do well to figure out what the hell that's about. Because until you do, you're remaining ignorant of WHY you make the choices that you make. And until you figure out why you do what you do, you're gonna keep on doing it in some capacity. Not just in internet comments, but in basic human interactions.

@gamerguru100: Strange country haha

I wouldn't agree with that. It has a lot to do with sexism. Trolls will definitely insult everyone on the internet but more often than not when it comes to females the nature of the comments is sexual as opposed to just rude. I would actually say that racism hardly ever appears on sites like these from what I have seen.

How can I hate women? My mum's one.

Bit harsh!

Not going to lie, I didn't read all that. Nor will I read the replies to this thread as they'll probably make me die a little inside.

I do want to say that its not the internet that has a terrible viewpoint of women (might as well include racial minorities, LGBT people, and disabled people into that). Its the entire world. I don't know why people like to pretend that the internet is some magical place separated from reality inhabited by imaginary people. The people posting bigoted bullshit online are the same people we eat, sleep, play, socialize, work with and pass by on the street. You could say anonymity is the problem but I don't know, I've seen people post dumb shit under their real names on twitter, facebook, tumblr, etc.

We have a long way to go before we reach true equality.

And then there's you, posting long rants on Gamespot and thinking it's going to change something. Do you even have a Facebook account?

Either my fan is screwing up again or I can just smell the irony.

One question I gotta ask is what kinda equality is the goal here. Where people are less insensitive because we all know each other to a deeper extent, or a more repressive one where people just act nice because they're really afraid of more and more social and legal repercussions.

When some humans have a vendetta they don't have a cap on their insults. It doesn't even have to be a slur against one's gender, race or sexual orientation, its wherever the pressure point is, and some people don't have a cap. They'll go for the jugular regardless.

There are hundreds of social psychological ways that people find to make us feel like less of a person (besides going for on race, gender and sexual orientation) and though I'd like a safe playground, the amount of social engineering, big-brothering and brainscanning to make that utopia a reality among the human population would ultimately rob humanity of its freedom of expression. NSFW would become NSFL. *cringe*

Meanwhile learning to laugh at ourselves, the way comedians have demonstrated has already made some progress in our collective unconscious. If we believe we are completely perfect, beyond reproach, and NEVER annoying, dumb sometimes or NEVER fit a stereotype that's easily fertile ground for warfare. Some people really need to turn of their "HOW DAAARE YOU" meters, and learn to pick their battles.

We like competition and the thrill of conflict deep down in our animalistic core, but we have boundaries. As long as people recognize when they go too far, and stop beforehand or honestly apologize or play fair depending on the situation, thats the most you can ask for.

@platinumking320: That's an interesting point to get me thinking! What I don't want to see is public spaces becoming impossible for certain groups to be involved with. I don't want to see forums censored or people not voicing their opinion because of legal threats. I want to see people become more understanding of how damaging some negative comments can be. Of course there will always be trolls but from what I have identified, certain groups such as what you have stated get especially hateful vitriolic abuse and that can often be enough to force people into stop entering forum areas such as this.

As you said, competition and making fun of each other can be fun and I do that a lot but I just want to see those comments focusing on the actual debates and issues rather than often going into tangents about someones gender/race.

Thanks for the feedback