A Woman Online

Sexual Harassment Online

Okay, that title sounds a bit too serious. This post isn't going to be some horrible stories about sexism and stuff online, although I'm sure there's plenty to choose from. This is just some... observations/another case study... Nothing too bad and a lot shorter.

So, I started writing this post after we first started talking about danah boyd's chapter on online predators. While I've never had a real encounter with someone as depraved as that online, I have had several... interesting conversations over the years. 

In my short essay for I final I mentioned how if any "sexual solicitation", even those not meant maliciously, were counted like they are in the TV ad then several people I talked to online would be facing jail time. All because of some lobby trash talk before the game started. I want to expand on that. So, here are two stories about not so great things that happened online... I'm trying to make these shorter.

Club Penguin

Yup. You read that right. Club Penguin. Thinking back, that place had some messed up people if you stumbled into the wrong areas at the wrong times. The were some weird things that happened in the pizza place... weird things. Oh and if you go to someone's igloo and it looks like a dance club or a dungeon just leave. They're not worth the two minutes it will take for them to thoroughly weird you out. 

One time, I was wandering around in like... fifth grade or something and I had ended up in a group of people doing some sort of text based karaoke contest in the lighthouse. We played some mini games for a while before one of the users invited us 'girls' to his igloo. 

As an adult, I now know how creepy that sounds. Back then, it was normal to show off whatever cool furniture item you got. (I had a badass pink igloo with one of those half-floors... what?) So, we went to this guy's igloo. At first, I was just amazed. He had a multicolored dance floor, a disco ball, the one of the igloo walls that were super expensive, and all sorts of miscellaneous items that made it look like people could party there. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't admire the furniture much because thirty-seconds in he starts typing A/S/L and the likes... a lot. Two penguins disappeared immediately. I hung around because I didn't actually know that A/S/L meant 'age? sex? location?' at the time, but I learned quickly. It's a bit foggy since it was so long ago, but I remember at least one girl playing along. I don't remember if she was being serious, or if I ever even found out. I do know I left pretty quickly after that since things started getting even weirder. 

[Not the actual igloo]

Xbox Live

I played a lot of Halo online during middle school, specifically Halo 3 and Halo: Reach. Back then, you could talk in the pre-game lobby to both your team mates and the other team. I liked being able to talk to my team mates during the game, so most of the time I had my mic on. 

Of course, it doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out I'm of the feminine variety and this sometimes lead to some... "teasing". Sometimes even from people on my own team. Me being me, I generally brushed off what they were saying, but that didn't stop me from being a bit annoyed after the hundredth time of hearing "HA! Get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!" and the whole 'where do you live' bs. I mean... they could have tried to be a little more original.

Well... some were. I remember one time while I was playing Halo: Reach a guy on the opposite team started teasing me. He insulted my ability to shoot, whether I even knew where the grenade button was, and of course the traditional line of being better suited for the kitchen. To my relief, one of my teammates actually started to speak up for me and a bit of a verbal fight ensued. An extremely rare occurrence. 

My teammate and I ended up working together to absolutely crush the other team in invasion... and boy was the other guy not happy about that after the game... or during the game for that matter. I distinctly remember one instance where I'd managed to get behind the jerk and he was more than happy to fill the space with expletives before he respawned. 

I'm still friends with the guy who backed me up. :)

This doesn't really happen much anymore. In Halo 4 they actually cracked down on any sexual harassment. You could get a several day ban, if not a permanent one for any sexist comment. Now a days, you can't even tell who's on your team before the game starts, or who you're even talking to so I don't really bother with the lobbies anymore. I'm always just in a party with some friends.