For Tuesday: Hess, “Women Aren’t Welcome Here” (pp.51-72)

NOTE: There is some disturbing material and graphic language in a few passages of this essay. However, it’s important for the author to reveal the language of her stalkers so we understand what she’s going through. Feel free to skim/skip these passages if they disturb you, but also consider that this language could be directed at any of us—so we might have to deal with it at some time whether we want to or not (which is her point in writing the essay).

PART I: Definitions (define the following words even if you think you know them; and don’t be afraid to look them up if you don’t!)

1. Noxious (52)                     6. visceral (61)

2. misogyny (54)                  7. unequivocal (61) 

3. ruse (57)                            8. proliferated (66)

4. vitriol (59)                        9. banality (67)

5. vagabond (60)                  10. Sisyphean (69)

PART II: Questions: answer TWO of the four questions in a short paragraph—at least a few sentences. These are not “yes” or “no” questions, meaning they require a little thought and have more than one clear answer. Try to respond to the questions as specifically as possible using support/ideas from the article and avoid answers like, “yes, because that’s what it said,” etc.

1.         On page 61, Hess explains that “one person is feeling the reality of the Internet very viscerally: the person who is being threatened...It’s a lot easier for the person who made the threat—and the person investigating the threat—to believe that what’s happening on the Internet isn’t real.” Why do you think Internet crimes/harassment seem less “real” to everyone but the victim? Why do victims seem to have less right that perpetrators?

2.         What does Hess mean when she writes that “On the internet, men are tourists and women are vagabonds” (60)? Why does the internet, in her opinion, privilege men over women, and why can’t women find a stable ‘home’ there?

3.         According to the article, why do many people, including Twitter, object to policing the internet? Even though terrible abuses are occurring every day, what stops companies and/or the government from protecting victims like Hess? What makes this such a complicated and hot-button topic?

4.         Hess, a victim of online harassment and rape/murder threats, claims there is a “monetary penalty for being a woman” (67). Why do women have to pay more for the right to be online and enjoy the same freedoms as men?