A Reflection: On Race, Gender, and Politics

This week’s lesson was really eye-opening. Sure, I was aware of the issue of Internet trolls, and even did some research into the matter before this class, in regards to the online hate campaign of Gamergate. It’s worrisome to see just how hurtful and abhorrent that Internet trolls can be, when you have a medium that allows you to stay anonymous behind a screen. 

On the other hand though, it was refreshing to see all the good that social media can do too. It can create communities for transgender youth who may not be able to make those connection in real life. It can create movements like Black Lives Matter, bringing people together over the issue of police brutality towards an entire race of people. It can even inspire the biggest march in U.S history, the Women’s March on Washington. 

To quote the Doctor, for a moment: “The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.” 

In this case, I am comparing “every life” to social media. For all the bad that social media can do, there is some good too. I don’t think social media is entirely good, but it isn’t entirely bad either. It’s up to how you use social media that determines whether or not you’re adding to the “good or bad” pile. 

I think the Women’s March is a prime example of how social media is used to bring people together over an issue. People used social media and created the hashtag #WhyIMarch, but it didn’t just stop there. One of the biggest marches in U.S history happened because of one Facebook post. Social media is a powerful tool.

This article puts social media in a positive light, as it helps build a community for transgender and gender non-conforming youth, helping them find friends and others who may be going through similar experiences as them. 

“Having somebody that’s being themselves in the media helps out so much, for children and for adults alike, to feel valid with who they are,” said Talia. “It’s just really nice to know that somebody’s out there that can help you.”

Gina Cochran

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZAxwsg9J9Q)

In this discussion from TEDxWomen 2012, Anita Sarkeesian, the founder of Feminist Frequency, shares her story of how she became the center of an online hate campaign known as #Gamergate. The comments on this video were disabled, because the same people who harassed her online began to harass the comment section of the video. It really speaks to the damage that can be done by Internet trolls, and it’s eye-opening what people say when they are hidden behind a computer screen.

The Internet is the realm of the coward. These are people who are all sound and no fury.

Megan Koester (”How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet”)

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(spotted in the floor 3 kitchenette)