Laura Bates (2) (1986–)

The title is off-putting but the content is extraordinary. In a compelling style, using many examples and an easy-to-follow structure, Bates shows how the growing trend of misogyny is having real consequences of violence in streets, policy discourse and politics. Showing the many manifestations of misogyny and the tactics employed akin to radicalization of boys and young men, she unravels the impacts and seepage into public discourse. It's brilliant and it's alarming. As someone who works in show more cybersecurity, I can also say it echoes my experience.
The last chapter is dedicated to solutions and initiatives to combat growing trends but until it's acknowledged as the problem that it is, it will not be addressed adequately, and it will affect both boys and girls.
It's a fast moving environment (the books dates from 2020), and shifts can happen quickly, but the online hate is still strong and has ongoing ramifications for women but also all minorities as white supremacy gains a foothold all around the world. show less

This book deals with a difficult subject to read about: misogyny. The focus is online groups, such an Incels, pickup artists and various men's rights groups. The author herself has been the target of several online hate campaigns, receiving hundreds of hateful messages and threats for posting and speaking about misogyny.

The book gives graphic examples of the kinds of views expressed online, and how those views lead to violence in the real world. It also talks about how misogyny affects our show more society, including its effects on men themselves. Relatively few men's rights activists are fighting for more services for men; rather, they are focused on removing services and freedoms from women.

As a person with virtually no social media presence, I feel largely sheltered from the daily hatred spewed online. But that hatred has real world implications. The author argues that misogyny and violence against women because they are women meet the criteria for terrorist acts in several countries, including Canada, and should be treated as such. She says we cannot solve the problem of violence against women if we are unable/unwilling to identify it for what it is.

Disturbing stuff. But an important issue to be more aware of. show less

A profoundly important but devastating and draining text that leaves the reader feeling soiled. Bates takes us into multiple and thoroughly misery-inducing hellscapes. I'd have appreciated having each chapter end with a series of practical actions that could counter, challenge, and lay out the alternatives for a more positive feminist future. Questions to force a rethink of the underpinning attitudes that have led tech to these inglorious states. As it stands, the final chapter (The Future show more in our Hands: Solutions) is by far the shortest - just 15 pages. It draws ideas together to identify the ways the misogynistic practices and behaviours of tech in all the previous chapters should and could be addressed. But it feels too little too late to really fight against the soul-sucking violations that readers have put themselves through by this point. I also think that any chapter by chapter conclusion needed to be not just a paragraph but at least 30% of the preceding chapter length being devoted to actions to fight back. This would go some way towards forcing any reader into careful consideration of their own complicity and ways forward. Gender-based violence and harms damage us all. This book lays out the ways tech is built on and feeds to escalate this violence, but awareness is not enough, however graphically the issues are presented. show less

One of the bleakest and scariest books one can read, especially if you're a woman using the internet.
Laura examines different facets of the internet and technology, which are encouraging and pushing sexism and creating a dangerous world for women in the future, which we're already seeing unfold right now.
The book starts strong with a chapter on deepfakes, a technology that I firmly believe is useless to society - aren't there more important issues in the world that needs to be fixed with show more tech? Why on earth is money being spent on such useless shit?
Moving on to the Metaverse, which barely anyone uses yet, is already unsafe for women and minorities. In fact, they have the blueprints and ideas to make the VR worlds safer, but refuse to. I was not surprised, since we already know how Instagram is a clusturfuck of racism and sexism and these tech lords refuse to spend a few thousand on hiring content moderators. Why create jobs when those leeches keep the money to themselves?
The next chapters are pretty similar - cyber brothels, sex robots and image-based sexual abuse (revenge porn). The fact that there are males buying dolls that look like children is alarming. And that there are some people so deprived they abuse Siri and other female-voiced bots. Insanity.
The final chapter examines how Artificial Intelligence is going to be a hindrance against women if used in recruitment, medicine etc, because it's trained on information that's already misogynic and racist.
The solutions she offers to so many of these issues is hoping the governments take note and regulates how they work. Having read of so many depraved people using cyber brothers and creating deepfakes of children, the solution I have is to cull these disgusting people, they should not be a part of society. show less