I think that it has been very highly sexualized, and that s one of the problems that women are going to have coming to terms with the technology. So it s not, again, that women are intimidated by the tools, but that once they get there, they just find the spaces so offensive that they don t want to deal with it. Here s this thing that s in the privacy of your own home and you re supposed to be able to enjoy it, but you log on and you re put in a position of reprimanding people and feeling like you are the police. You don t necessarily want to create all-woman chat groups, but again, we re put in the exact same gendered spaces that we have in our everyday lives. So, it s very frustrating.
Freedom of speech is on the books, too.
But that doesn't mean much anymore. I think it s another strategy of fear. Even if it s not officially on the books, it might keep you from talking about these issues. For me, it s that simple. I think that s because there s such an element of fear.