People who misrepresent themselves
The women in the previous story were able to confirm the identity of their Casanova because he'd used his real name with all of them. In fact, while many WELL users have "handles," the WELL doesn't permit users to hide their real names from others. But many other services do. And some people take unfair advantage of that.
As long ago as 1985,
Ms. magazine reported on the case of "Joan," a
mute, crippled, and disfigured neuropsychologist who lived in New
York City. (Endnote #28) "Joan" was a
CompuServe user who spent a lot of time in
the service's chat area. She developed close friendships with a number
of other women on CompuServe. She was known for giving good
advice and warm support, especially to other disabled women.
Imagine those women's surprise when they found out that "Joan" was
really "Alex," a male psychiatrist who was neither crippled, disfigured
nor mute. (However, it's probably safe to assume that he
was somewhat
confused.) It seems that the "Joan" persona began as an experiment for
Alex: He wanted to find out what it would be like to be treated as a
woman and have female friends. But the experiment became an
obsession.
Note the similarity between this story and the previous one: In both
cases, the culprits were "experimenting." They believed behavior that
would definitely be unacceptable in "real life" might be permissible in
cyberspace. Their confusion was understandable. But they were wrong.
Sexual harassment exists online in many forms. In discussion groups,
especially in flame-oriented ones, men often post rude and sexually
demeaning messages directed at women. In the unmoderated feminist
newsgroups on
USENET (alt.feminism and
soc.women), it's been estimated that about 80% of the postings are from men, and from my
observation, about half of these are anti-feminist. (Endnote #29) In these groups,
Sexual harassment in discussion groups and MUDs
Contents ...
Index ... Netiquette Home