[EliRivers]

Why would women be harassed for blogging about programming

There are a great many total dickheads on the internet. Really. It's hard to comprehend just how many utter dickheads are running around out here. The exact reasons why? I've never really understood all of it. Some of it is because it makes them feel like big men, showing off to their dickhead friends; I've seen them come back to crow about it and they seem to get some kind of approval from their peers.

[Ntrails]

> There are a great many total dickheads on the internet.

I really hate this line of thought. The internet is not a different place to the real world, and the truth is that there are a great many people in your town/city/country/world etc who are kinda obnoxious.

[tbrake]

> The internet is not a different place to the real world

In certain vague, slightly pointless ways (i.e. "it's just people doing things on a thing" ) they're exactly the same, sure.

The specifics of what is possible in terms of breadth and time are vastly different though.

With regards to the topic at hand - and assuming I am a jerk - I can find 50 different programming blogs and write sexist epithets in the comments in ten seconds flat.

I cannot do that in the real world to 50 different people in that time frame nor with the same lack of repercussion.

[geon]

> The internet is not a different place

People act differently on it, though.

[EliRivers]

I've never seen anyone (outside a playground) identify a woman talking about something, run over to her shouting "stUPiD BitCH geT baCk iN tHe kiTCHeen!! lol lol lol!!" before returning to his chums for admiration and approval.

The effect does happen, but in a far more insidious way.

[tim333]

Yeah but the internet is more anonymous.

[douche]

If you act like a total dickhead in real-life, you're apt to get your teeth knocked in, which tends to modulate dickheadsian behaviors.

[coredog64]

I would also add that it's easier to be a dickhead online. You don't have to be particularly witty in real-time, and once you've gotten a working schtick, what wit you do have can be replicated via copy-n-paste.

[geofft]

There are a great many total dickheads in the real world, but in the real world, it is much more difficult to mask your gender than on the internet.

For a good account of total dickheads (in a nerdy subculture, no less) in meatspace, see http://latining.tumblr.com/post/141567276944/tabletop-gaming... If this were online, I bet the author would have assumed a gender-neutral / default-to-male pseudonym in a heartbeat.

[tomp]

You haven't really answered parent's question.

[EliRivers]

Perhaps I need to repeat it in fewer words; "because they gain peer approval by doing it".

I also edited what I said to remove some of the additional discussion and data, to make it simpler to see where I said it was for peer approval.