October 29, 2014
A recent art exhibition in Los Angeles, A Woman’s Room Online, modeled after Judy Chicago’s 1972 Womanhouse installation, exposed the prevalence of misogyny and harassment of women online.
“People say to ‘ignore it’ or ‘grow a thicker skin’ or to ‘just walk away’ when online harassment is brought up. But that advice ignores the fact that women have every right to earn a living and to peacefully exist online without being threatened. This is not about mere critique as the harassers like to frame it, this is about bullying, intimidation and the stripping away of privacy. It is also about silencing and the idea that women are not allowed to have their own space, their own opinions or even the right to their own bodyparticularly when online. There is a false notion that online spaces are not real. That what happens online does not have an effect on the regular day-to-day life of people.
Read the artist’s post on the blog Skepchick.
Warning – the tweets, posts, and emails displayed in the exhibition are extremely offensive.