Defining a New Pattern of Online Abuse and Harassment against Women: Gendertrolling

In Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral, I lay out the experiences of women trolled in specific and patterned ways, detailing how the phenomenon I am calling “gendertrolling” plays out. I make the case that gendertrolling is not a unique phenomenon emerging from particular qualities of the Internet, as many people have suggested, but it is an adaptation of offline misogyny to the specific features of the Internet. By situating the phenomenon of gendertrolling within other English-speaking, European and American historical and contemporary patterns of misogyny characterized by harassment and abuse of women, I demonstrate how gendertrolling bars women from full participation in cultural, social, and political discourse, and shuts them out of professional opportunities.

Finally, I examine gendertrolling in the context of contemporary misogynistic behaviors: domestic violence, rape and date rape, stalking, street harassment, and sexual harassment in the workplace. Gendertrolling has much in common with these forms of harassment, abuse, and violence against women, all varied expressions of misogyny. Gendertrolling, much like these other behaviors, is widespread, but is largely unseen and unrecognized. Bringing these widespread and destructive patterns into social awareness and naming them empowers women. I argue that naming is a powerful and indispensable step toward implementing the changes to policies, laws, and social and cultural values that are needed in order to counter these behaviors. Like the other named misogynistic behaviors, gendertrolling is a form of misogyny that needs to be clearly named and defined so that changes can be implemented to address its harms.