Those of you who've been listening to me on Netroots Radio or reading my posts lately know I've been following what David Futrelle calls "The New Misogyny." I've covered Elliot Rodger and the Men's Rights Movement. I try to at least talk to some of the people I'm writing about. Most of the time, this just leads to them screaming at me on twitter, rather than engaging in any actual discussion.

But in covering GamerGate, one woman who considers herself to be a supporter of Gamer Gate was willing to speak to me, while a number of others attempted to just shout me down.

Her name is Liz. And this week, all of her personal details such as name, address, phone number, and similar information on her family, were posted online.

This is not the first time that Liz has been harassed. She's been sent rape threats, death threats, and in at least one instance, someone printed a photo of her, covered it with semen, and tweeted it at her asking if she liked the harasser's "Special blend of herbs and spices."

I don't know if she's okay right now, though I would bet that she's pretty scared. I have no way to contact her.

But what strikes me as so infuriating about all of this is that it does't matter what you believe. If you're a woman, you're going to get harassed by someone online. You could be, as Liz is, a significant voice in support of Gamer Gate, and you will still be harassed. Your beliefs will afford you no protection from the harassers.

This is absolutely disgusting, and it needs to stop. Everyone ought to be able to participate in debate without being threatened as Liz has been. Lizzy F, Randi Harper, Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu, there are so many names of so many women who are being harassed online, by men. It doesn't matter what they say, or believe, the fact that they're female is enough to make them a target of harassment.

No one is going to send me, a white guy, a snapshot of my picture covered in semen. No one would think to do that. It doesn't carry the same kind of threat, and the same level of objectification, that it does when it's sent to a woman.

They might shout me down. If I piss off the wrong group of trolls, they might Dox me. But they're not going to threaten me with sexual violence. They will however, threaten women I care about. Just look at the threats made against Israel Galvez:



People are quick to politicize this, and point the finger at the other side. Some are blaming gamergate. Gamergate is blaming its opposition. Some in the opposition are saying that gamergate did it to blame it on the opposition. And down, and down, and down the rabbit hole we go, because many of us can't deal with the fact that there are things we do not know. Conspiracy theories are a better fit for our brains than no theories at all. But in this situation, we simply have no evidence at all about who did this.

We don't know who doxxed Lizzy. We don't know what their motivations were. We don't know if they were, as Liz believed, third party trolls who only want to cause chaos. But we do know that she's been harassed in the past, by people she believed were 3rd party trolls, and we do know that she's been targeted because of her gender.

I hope we find out who did this to Lizzy so that they can be brought to justice for making terroristic threats. So that we can call them out in public, and so that there will be some kind of consequences for the actions they've taken against her.

But while we don't know who attacked her, we do know who's been participating in, and driving the hate mobs that are targeting women who work in the tech industry.

We're going to be writing about them, as well as writing about their victims.

There's so much to talk about here, and none of it is getting much attention, so I've teamed up with fellow blogger Margaret Pless to make sure these stories get covered.



If you or someone you know is being harassed online, there is help. Get in touch with your local authorities, and contact the Crash Override Network at crashoverridenetwork@gmail.com. If you're being threatened with violence, you can reach out to Safe Horizons, who can help find you a safe place to stay. If your address has been released online, you need to call your local police department immediately.