Sexing the Internet
71
Nevertheless, the general predominance of men as principal communicators in the
public sphere has not been successfully challenged in the course of the rise of the
Internet. In particular, the most infl uential bloggers tend to be men.
39 What consequently has also remained largely intact, despite the new communicators ’ claims to
“ unbiased ” information, is the “ male defi nition of news value. ”
40 It means that the
public sphere of politics as well as other spheres of “ hard news ” such as the economy,
fi nance, and science have remained defi ned as masculine or, to be more precise,
defi ned as “ neutral ” from a male point of view.
The global pervasiveness and longevity of this gender imbalance in both offl ine
and online news, as well as national variations of it, have been traced by the Global
Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), conducted every fi ve years since 1995 in all parts
of the globe.
41 The gender disparity in terms of what constitutes “ newsworthiness ” is
refl ected in the 2010 Malaysia GMMP report, where women make up only 15 percent
of all news subjects compared to men, who make up 85 percent.
42 The report also
found that women were more likely to be featured as celebrities, homemakers, students, activists, teachers, and nonmanagement workers, whereas men were more likely
to be represented as royalty, politicians, government offi cials, police offi cers, diplomats, and service professionals. This result clearly indicates that gender stereotypes
predominate.
The censorship of women and their points of view has come about through their
structural and ideological exclusion from the public sphere and its media, but it has
also happened more directly through the use of sexist language and threats of sexual
violence. Both strategies to silence women ’ s speech continue to thrive on the Internet.
Take for instance, Pamela Lim ’ s experience on a popular Web site, http://www
.loyarburuk.com , which provides a platform for discussing current topics in Malaysia.
On October 10, 2010, she posted a video of two police offi cers who she claimed had
behaved in an intimidating manner after stopping her car and asking her for a bribe
to overlook an alleged traffi c offense.
43 This video post received an unprecedented
number of hits on the site and more than 700 comments. A majority of the comments
that disagreed with her action were made up of personal attacks and employed racist
and sexist language to condemn her act of citizen journalism. For example, one of the
comments read, “ Oh pammy, you remind me of my f*ck buddy a couple of years ago.
A real ‘ miss-know-it-all. ’ She just couldn ’ t shut up even if she tried. There was really
only one way to keep her quiet and yes, she was a guzzler! ”
44
Here we fi nd a pattern common to many media, in which women as a gender group
tend to be predominantly confronted with attempts of censorship by nonstate actors.
Meanwhile the state might even promote equal opportunities, but without striking at
the commercial, social, and normative roots of gender-based discrimination, these
initiatives generally do not go far. This is why authors like Sharzad Mojab see the
“ censorship of feminist knowledge ” as a root problem, stating, “ I believe that the
71
Nevertheless, the general predominance of men as principal communicators in the
public sphere has not been successfully challenged in the course of the rise of the
Internet. In particular, the most infl uential bloggers tend to be men.
39 What consequently has also remained largely intact, despite the new communicators ’ claims to
“ unbiased ” information, is the “ male defi nition of news value. ”
40 It means that the
public sphere of politics as well as other spheres of “ hard news ” such as the economy,
fi nance, and science have remained defi ned as masculine or, to be more precise,
defi ned as “ neutral ” from a male point of view.
The global pervasiveness and longevity of this gender imbalance in both offl ine
and online news, as well as national variations of it, have been traced by the Global
Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), conducted every fi ve years since 1995 in all parts
of the globe.
41 The gender disparity in terms of what constitutes “ newsworthiness ” is
refl ected in the 2010 Malaysia GMMP report, where women make up only 15 percent
of all news subjects compared to men, who make up 85 percent.
42 The report also
found that women were more likely to be featured as celebrities, homemakers, students, activists, teachers, and nonmanagement workers, whereas men were more likely
to be represented as royalty, politicians, government offi cials, police offi cers, diplomats, and service professionals. This result clearly indicates that gender stereotypes
predominate.
The censorship of women and their points of view has come about through their
structural and ideological exclusion from the public sphere and its media, but it has
also happened more directly through the use of sexist language and threats of sexual
violence. Both strategies to silence women ’ s speech continue to thrive on the Internet.
Take for instance, Pamela Lim ’ s experience on a popular Web site, http://www
.loyarburuk.com , which provides a platform for discussing current topics in Malaysia.
On October 10, 2010, she posted a video of two police offi cers who she claimed had
behaved in an intimidating manner after stopping her car and asking her for a bribe
to overlook an alleged traffi c offense.
43 This video post received an unprecedented
number of hits on the site and more than 700 comments. A majority of the comments
that disagreed with her action were made up of personal attacks and employed racist
and sexist language to condemn her act of citizen journalism. For example, one of the
comments read, “ Oh pammy, you remind me of my f*ck buddy a couple of years ago.
A real ‘ miss-know-it-all. ’ She just couldn ’ t shut up even if she tried. There was really
only one way to keep her quiet and yes, she was a guzzler! ”
44
Here we fi nd a pattern common to many media, in which women as a gender group
tend to be predominantly confronted with attempts of censorship by nonstate actors.
Meanwhile the state might even promote equal opportunities, but without striking at
the commercial, social, and normative roots of gender-based discrimination, these
initiatives generally do not go far. This is why authors like Sharzad Mojab see the
“ censorship of feminist knowledge ” as a root problem, stating, “ I believe that the