“Gender, Work, and Cyberspace” With Emma Andrews, Stacy Keltner, & Ashley McFarland

 

KENNESAW, Ga. (Nov 5, 2015) — This panel explored the complex and tricky issues that surround gender, work, and the Internet. The panel presented a video to the class where a woman, Amy Davis Roth, who a skeptic and artist had been targeted by “internet trolls” for just having her own opinions. She found that she was not the only woman out there who was being attacked and by the same people and groups. So together they formed a group and turned the hate that they received into an art project to help show the world what it was like to work on the Internet and just be bombarded with hate mail. They printed out all the hate emails they had received and turned them into items you would find in the office as well as plastered the walls and ceiling so that the entire room was filled with this very visual image of hate and opened it to the public. It had a profound effect and they are also willing to recreate it again. As the video ended and the class engaged with the panelists about their experiences or asked their questions it seemed to show that there was a concern but also a divide between male and female students on how they perceive things that are on the Internet. The conversation was incredibly interesting and it also gave way to the thought that what they saw and heard left with them as they left that classroom. Laws are ambiguous with hate and threats that are generated on the Internet and there has to be a change to help keep women safe.

Student Review by Andrea Putala

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