In a book she wrote this year, the Biden administration’s misinformation czar said she will not be “silenced” on social media as she fought back against what she saw as “abuse” from males anytime she aired her ideas online. She says that the internet’s “infrastructure is constructed for guys.” Nina Jankowicz’s new book, “How to Be a Woman Online,” addresses a number of issues concerning the blowback women encounter online, with a particular focus on how males react to what she has to say.
“We accept that harassment of women is a cost of their social media participation, or, worse, that women are supposed to suffer harassment and silence in the name of “free expression.” It’s past time to alter that “she said in an excerpt from the book, which was published in April.
Jankowicz also claimed that negative online feedback from males violates her “fundamental democratic and human rights” and is intended to “suppress” her and other women, concluding that male remarks “alter how women interact online.”
The never-ending barrage of online sexism to which I and millions of other women who want to participate in public debate have been subject irritates me at times “she said “I may have thicker skin than others, but it’s difficult to see thousands of strangers insult my appearance, experience, and skill. It’s difficult to see them objectify me.
She said that “being a woman online is an intrinsically risky activity.” “The attacks we are subjected to are intended to silence us. They’re supposed to persuade us to stay at home and perform ‘typical’ female duties rather than participate in politics, journalism, activism, academia, or public life in general. There is lots of evidence that these assaults impact how women participate online, no matter how absurd, false, or misinformed they are. ”
Jankowicz stated that as a “straight, cisgender, white woman,” she can’t understand how a woman “from another ethnically, racially, or sexually oppressed group” copes with online interactions. Those women are “much more likely to be targeted, and the attacks are likely to be more brutal,” according to Jankowicz.
Jankowicz described her view of online encounters with men, citing activist Van Badham’s term “the engagement boner,” and telling readers that “it is helpful to be acquainted with their various incarnations before you encounter them so you do not mistake their initial approach as anything other than bad faith.”
“I’m doing this because the internet is an important public arena for conversation, politics, activism, and expression,” she continued. “We aren’t truly equal anyplace until all women regardless of ethnicity, sexual identity, religion, or ability — have an equal voice there.”
Republicans have slammed Jankowicz and the Biden administration’s new misinformation board, which was set up under the Department of Homeland Security, calling it a “minister of truth.” Jankowicz’s prior advocacy of deception, as well as her efforts to hide real news developments that were bad for Democrats, have been cited by Republicans on Capitol Hill.
