As a student straight out of high school, I believed Law and Literature to be chalk and cheese and was perturbed for having to choose between the two streams as a career to pursue. Little did I know that they were, indisputably, chalk and duster or cheese and bread!
Each day spent in law school and subsequently, in the courtrooms has been reminding me how both discourses are indispensable and are nothing but an interaction between culture and society.
We all would recall that when Charlotte Brontë sent a selection of her poems to a fellow male poet for comments, ten years before the publication of Jane Eyre (1847), she was advised against the notion of women pursuing a career in literature. The comment she received stands quoted as “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure she will have for it even as an accomplishment and a recreation."
Writing fiction for money was considered an unladylike activity during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. ‘Sense and Sensibility’ which was the first published novel by Jane Austen in 1811, was published with the tag ‘By a Lady’. Among other female writers who also published their novels anonymously or under male pseudonyms, are Louisa May Alcott, Mary Shelley, Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Ann Radcliffe, and even JK Rowling.
The Online Revolution & Women's Freedom Of Expression
The central thought here is that Anonymity has always been associated with women for most of history, so much so that a grant program named ‘Anonymous was a Woman Award’ was initiated by a New York artist in 1996.
The award was designed for women artists who are over 40 years of age to counter sexism in the art world. The Award has been named in reference to the line from the book ‘A Room of One’s Own’ authored by Virginia Woolf. It has been founded in recognition of all women artists who have remained anonymous through the ages for various reasons.
Anonymity, however, has supported women in particular, to tell stories which could otherwise get them into trouble. We may also recall the anonymous ‘Guerrilla Girls’ of New York City known for their anonymity, who began a movement regarding sexism and racism in the art industry, educating the public about intersectional-feminist issues in the art world by wearing gorilla masks.
The society now is in the midst of a digital transformation ie, the integration of technology into many areas of our personal lives, leisure, and work. It is important to understand that the online and offline worlds co-exist. A bird’s eye view, hence, is required to decode how structural oppression exists and re-manifests in digital spaces as it does offline.
In the present times, the Internet has become a significant means for activism, or redefined communications, or trying to reach outwards to build a community that reflects our needs and values or creates broader changes in the world.
It provides spaces for people to be open, bold, and expressive and make money out of it. That's the beauty of online spaces—the possibility to be ourselves or even multiple selves if we so wish and to curate the space that we desire, a space that mirrors us and our values. People shielded by pseudonyms speak about or write blog posts about their most secret desires. The digital space has allowed us to create heavily curated lives filled with Facebook comments we heart, WhatsApp groups we mute, Instagram reels we share, tweets we favourite and blog posts we like.
Identity Crisis, Troll Army & More..
Like all other facets of life, the internet also, is a double-edged sword. Although the path to finding ourselves is slowly and surely being built through the digital space, there may be some trolls under the bridge or our identities may not fit a specific mainstream life aesthetic.
Further, this increased space on the internet means that harassers are also able to engage online and it also brings up new mountains to climb in forms of violations of privacy, electronic surveillance and online harassment. With all the magic that digital spaces have generated, there are a lot of hiccups, most notably for women and other sexual minorities. With the rise of trolling on the internet, a great deal of the onus of protecting oneself lies with the individual.
A lot of women have pointed out that online harassment pushes users offline, making it more difficult for them to share their ideas and content. All this has many of the same effects as state censorship and surveillance.
There is indeed a lack of bonafide deliberation around the tests and interventions in these digital systems. A discussion for simplification and better understanding of the complex technology is required so as to make it convenient for the users to engage with it in the best possible way or even protest about it. The best course of action to protect free speech online could be to build in protections for vulnerable users who would otherwise be off staged.
The ostrich approach might no longer be useful to address the ongoing gendered digital harassment. The core issue which arise is how can we craft safe online and offline spaces that strengthen our ability to communicate and work online safely and enable our communities to communicate and collaborate safely. In recent years, there has been increased discussions on ‘safe spaces’ which are set up to promote better communication on the web which might not be very concrete.
Implications of Platform-Based Harassment
The issue of online harassment has been quite troublesome for digital platforms and human rights advocates all around the world. The debate regarding the thin line between free speech and harassment finds it traces from history. The novelty lies in finding the line between the free speech online and the harassment through digital modes. The question of who shall draw and how is it drawn goes unanswered, hence, the harassment continues.
One platform varies significantly from the other in its approach to managing harassment through content reporting, or flagging tools and punitive consequences. The design and architecture of a particular platform have a lot to do with the variances.
Twitter where most content is text-based may have different needs than Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat which are multimedia platforms. A user can flag the content for review, triggering a series of questions if she sees a piece of content she does not like. Content moderation, indeed, solely may not solve the ubiquitous problem of online harassment, but could be viewed as a piecemeal a broader approach.
Does Online Anonymity Help Women?
Digital violence is a genuine concern and a fly in the ointment for politically active women who want to use the internet to further their political cause, unlike may be the case for their male counterparts. The wellness implications of online harassment prevent women and the queer in particular from exercising their right to free speech.
With an absence of collaborative and effective national or international laws by the states or the United Nations and seemingly loose guidelines of social media platforms to address cybercrimes, online harassment and violence, there has been a rise in calls for action to online harassment among the socially and intellectually active population of the world.
A holistic approach to tackle online and offline gender-based violence with special focus on the global societal mindset might be the pressing priority which can lead to anonymous ‘not’ being a woman
(Mahima Garg is a lawyer based in New Delhi. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for his reported views.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)