The Constant Disparagement of Women on the Internet

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I don't go out and seek fights or venture much behind enemy lines on the internet. I don't visit MRA or incel forums, or feminist forums for that matter. I spend most of my time online outside of WP reading articles on non political things, research papers, and watching videos and the videos I watch, when not fictional, sometimes consist of videos that depict things relevant to me as a female, such as women engaging in things I am interested in, whether it be videos depicting female athletes, women's sports in general, military basic training for women, or women in their occupations, and I'm sorry to say but without fail, the comment sections are often filled with disparaging comments towards women. Men and boys being overly critical of a woman's failure. Men and boys making devaluing comments of a woman's success. Men and boys making statements that men can do it better. Men and boys making misogynistic comments such as "She should get back in the kitchen," or "Make me a sandwich," or "Women drivers"/"women shouldn't drive"/"That's what happens when you let a woman drive" at any chance they get whether a woman gets into a small fender bender, or prevents an accident from becoming a major one, and despite the fact that most vehicular fatalities are caused by young men.

These comments are almost everywhere and I don't understand why these men and boys hate women so thoroughly that they feel the need to seek out and attack them; particularly women who engage in activities that are considered to be male oriented in our society.

Have you ever read Alice Miller? Her books on child abuse and how so much human behavior comes from people's hate for their parents being misdirected have made me look at society and people very differently. That is probably what you're seeing with these men. When people criticize others' freedom and expression it's probably because they've been taught they can't freely express who they really are, so they become some ugly caricature of themselves and express that.

Women disparage men all the time. Maybe it's not as evident online, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. There is also a common attitude that bad women are the exception and bad men are the rule, which is incorrect. Women can be just as sh***y as men--that's one thing that makes them human. You're attributing a human behavior to sex and looking at a symptom of personal issues as if it's some inherent trait.

And if women are better, then who is raising these boys? All these men can't become monsters if their mothers are so great. Fathers aren't the only ones who abuse. If you see things that way, then this situation will always look confusing.

I don't know why Chronos but it makes me sad as a guy that so many of us try & control women or just boss them around. Not just online but offline too like how soo many male politicians try & control what women can & cant do with their down bodies.

Train yourself not to read the comments section. Or visit sites in which you have to click on a link to see the comments and don't click on the link.

Sadly, there is no shortage of misogynistic, insecure males in the world. I subscribe to an outdoor channel of YouTube run by a young Austrian woman who teaches bushcraft and survival skills. She's had to deal with a fair amount of comments of the type you're talking about. I guess some men just can't handle intelligent, capable women.

Male animals are usually naturally more aggressive, domineering, and often injure or even kill the females when forcing them to mate with them. The only difference between male animals and humans is that humans are probably the only species to question the morality of this behavior.

One of the worst things about the internet is that inconsiderate people are free to act their worst hiding behind their computer screens. You don't know the ages of those making comments. It's probable that some are immature, juvenile adolescents. That in no way excuses that kind of behavior, but teenage boys and girls can say and do a lot of stupid things. When I was young, kids wanted to look older by smoking cigarettes. I think kids today can try to act "cool" or older by trolling, flaming and generally being pricks and a**holes.

I agree with you that any talk like that is shameful. It's not only on the internet though. My wife HATES having to take a vehicle in for service because she says it's common for the male technicians to be condescending to her. She's been fuming before after such exchanges and then I call up or stop in to talk to them and they're respectful to me (which makes her even more mad). Because of this, I think a great business model in a metropolitan area (ie large population)would be for female business partners to open and operate an auto repair business. I think they'd make a killing at it.

I know it also happens to people gendered as women on the phone. An explanation may be that this is "pushback" for the equality gains that women have been making for the past few decades.

Another interesting thing I have noticed is on some of these videos, there will also be excessive posts of praise, I am guessing in keeping with the phenomena of male variance which translates to more males towards extremes of spectrums. And these comments tend to cluster. If one makes a disparaging commebt, others will. If one makes an excessively praising comment, others will. This, no doubt, is a manifestation of a tendancy towards "following the leader" in the male demographic so that accounts for some of the frequency of the comments I am sure.

Additionally, comments expressing respect tend to dominate when videos depict women taking on traditionally male roles or doing what our society views as traditionally male things out if necessity rather than out of pleasure, with the exception of driving and videos that depict women doing traditionally male work when the context of necessity is hidden and one can assume she had a choice in her occupation.