Neue Studie: Männer, nicht Frauen, am häufigsten Opfer von Online-Belästigung

Eine neue Studie bestätigt das Ergebnis einer früheren Untersuchung:

Young women, those 18-24, experience certain severe types of harassment at disproportionately high levels: 26% of these young women have been stalked online, and 25% were the target of online sexual harassment. In addition, they do not escape the heightened rates of physical threats and sustained harassment common to their male peers and young people in general.

Overall, men are somewhat more likely than women to experience at least one of the elements of online harassment, 44% vs. 37%. In terms of specific experiences, men are more likely than women to encounter name-calling, embarrassment, and physical threats.

Wenig überraschend ist, dass Journalisten vor allem die Erfahrungen weiblicher Betroffener problematisieren. Die männerpolitische Website A Voice for Men hat sich diese einseitige Berichterstattung genauer angeschaut. Ein Auszug:

Women, according to the poll, are more likely to be harassed for a sustained period of time, to be stalked, or to be sexually harassed. However, in the category of sustained harassment, the difference between men and women was within the margin of error for the survey. Additionally, the terms "stalking" and "sexual harassment" have become rather blurry lately.

If somebody were to call a woman "cunt," for example, this is now commonly deemed as sexual harassment. To call a man a "dick" is just considered an offensive name, if even that. Even "bossy" has been deemed a form of sexual harassment by many throughout the world, yet telling a man to "man up" or "take it like a man" is socially acceptable.

(...) How unwanted sexual advances or gender-based name-calling is more severe than being threatened with violence escapes me. I am regularly called a "dick" if something I do displeases someone, or told to "man up" if I show the slightest bit of emotion. I have received sexually explicit material from unattractive women on the Internet. I’ve also been threatened with physical violence. Care to guess which bothers me more?

Saying that "sexual harassment" is "more severe" than physical threatening just because women are reporting it at a higher rate is nothing short of misandry. Apparently, Pew, CNN, The Washington Post, and USA Today all think that men are just supposed to put up with threats to their safety, but the world must be called to action to stop women from being offended on the Internet.