The sad life of a troll.

Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Cyber-bulling… in this day and age? The taunts haven’t changed over time just the name for it has, this new method of cruel teasing is known as trolling.

Trolling is extremely easy due to people’s anonymity on the internet. Internet trolls can say anything in the public sphere and remain anonymous or use a fake identity. The main intention of a ‘troll’ is to get attention from their remarks. Many women have been subject to public misogynist remarks and some are starting to feel scared to post online as they fear the backlash from males. Laurie Penny has been frequently threatened and subjected to feminism; she stated that “It would be nice to think that the rot of rank misogyny was confined to fringe sites populated by lunatics. But it is found all over the web – and it’s silencing its victims. Fighting it is not the same as censorship.”

In a recent BCM112 lecture Dr Tanja Dreher presented us with interesting facts and ideas about trolls and online misogyny. She revealed to us that the male presence and power online is much stronger online with only 1 out of 10 of the most influential people online was a woman, Arianna Huffington. Also she spoke to us about gender-bias sites and online segregation with Pinterest.com users being 97% women and only 3% men, whereas the site Dartitup.com user percentage was 88% men and a mere 12% women.

It clearly isn’t every man that is trolling women and it isn’t every person that is trolling in general, however, there are many sites that prove that online misogyny and trolling is extremely present. Laurie Penny mentions the site “Don’t Start Me Off!” which is a prime example of misogyny online and she stands up for women by exposing this terrible site to the world. There are many sites that are finally trying to bring an end to this trolling, some sites include #mencallmethings, The Anti-Bogan and Destroy the Joint.

The participatory culture of the World Wide Web allows for these people to say these hate-filled words publicly and until gatekeepers are more vigilant, this will continue.