I've been saying this for a long time. Women are not actually being singled out, they are now equal with men. But for some reason, they feel they should have special treatment. We need to find ways of combating all harassment..not just for women.<p>About 10 years ago, I had a programming blog that talked about topics such as Mysql VS Postgres and other topics I was interested in discussing. I got death threats, harassed, and emails telling me some of the worst things in the world (including the rape of me and my family members). I never really took it seriously, but it still happened on a constant basis.
A Very Small Sample of Selected (Celebrity/Public) British Men are harassed more than Selected (Celebrity/Public) British Women.<p>Watch #gamergate on twitter for just a minute and you'll get the opposite impression. By far.<p>*Edited to emphasize the celebrity/public status, as I think that might attract harassing a bit.
It's worth noting that the article is generalizing from a very limited study among British celebrities and journalists. It's entirely possible that abuse and threats happen differently in different countries, and you certainly can't assume that celebrities are treated the same as non-famous people. Furthermore, the article explicitly mentions that their sample size was so small that classifying a single famous, controversial journalist as either celebrity or journalist had a dramatic impact on the results.<p>What also matters is the nature of the abuse. Is the abuse aimed at men just as sexual/rape oriented as that aimed at women? It doesn't say.<p>All in all, my impression is that the article selects and presents the data in a way convenient for the point it's trying to make.<p>(That doesn't change the fact that of course all harassment and threats are bad, and they all need to be fought.)
Well, yeah. As much as anonymity is necessary for political dissent, whistleblowing, etc, it does come with the cost that it promotes douchebaggery. Which means the internet is hostile to everyone.