It's easy to menace someone if you never have to face them

Some days past, Violet Blue wrote an article for SF Gate in response to her own experiences and that of a woman named Kathy Sierra. In short, it is not unusual for women in technical fields who blog to get exposed to seriously hideous levels of hatred and threats.

How interesting. If instead of Ms Sierra, a public school was subjected to such targeted animosity, you can bet the police would be politely delivering a flashbang wake-up call. If it was a government official or a popular celebrity having their residence(s) plotted with satellite photography and detailed scrutiny of their movements, you bet there'd be a few agencies jumping in to let the individuals know the error of stalking. Unfortunately, I don't think the legal system is even remotely capable of addressing the issue uniformly. The internet is too widespread and too dynamic for the laws to adapt rapidly. Throw in the endless loops of argument that any given asshat is merely exercising their First Amendment rights, and you're unlikely to see any sort of forward movement until someone is killed.

It's only a matter of time. It's the nature of the beast to push the limits. They'll gain confidence and contempt with every attack they make without consequence. It doesn't take much intellect to grasp that assassination is the ultimate destination for the pattern. And then the public outrage will flood the news causing the government to enact legislation immediately to please the mob, which will require at least a decade to unsnarl and attempt to rework.

I do disagree with one assertion that Violet seems to be making. She appears to believe that the objectification and defilement is sexually motivated. My belief is that it's just the most brutal tactic their minds can come up with. In many ways threat of rape is worse than threat of murder. Ask someone what their biggest fear of prison is, and I bet one of the very first things they mention is getting sodomized by their fellow inmates, especially if they're male. Catching a shiv in the kidney is bad, but it doesn't carry the taint, the implicit sin, of being forcibly used as a cock-puppet by half the cell block.

The logic chain might resemble something like this. If it's so traumatizing for a guy to contemplate his body being invaded, especially in the genital region, then it must be that traumatizing for everyone. Thus, it carries the weight of the ultimate threat in their subconscious.

So when some guy takes it into his head to hate some particular woman with seething endless fury for whatever sin he feels she's guilty of, it's only a matter of time before he'll introduce the spectre of rape. Given that women have historically been the preferred target of choice for that crime, it's not a threat without teeth. It has a gravity, a reality that is not present for most men. It gets a reaction. He knows he's drawn blood. She can't just shrug him off now, he's gotten a piece of her. Under most circumstances, men are just not exposed to such a threat which means they don't react in the desired way and so is rarely a threat that enters their mind to make. Otherwise, I doubt it would be quite as sharply gender-biased.

In any case, this is the sort of crap that makes me want to sever communications lines. At least that way it makes it harder for the bitter hatred and arrogant stupidity to infect further afield.

Too bad Ms Sierra can't call the bastard out and demand satisfaction, hopefully to leave his bleeding carcass stretched upon the grass. There's a point where consequences need to come into play. When livelihood is affected, it's definitely been reached.

Grrr.