Published in 2013
45 pages
Laurie Penny is an award-winning author, columnist, journalist and screenwriter. Their seven books include Bitch Doctrine, Unspeakable Things and Everything Belongs to the Future. As a freelance journalist, they write about politics, social justice, pop culture, feminism, mental health and technology for places including the Guardian, Longreads, TIME, Buzzfeed, the New York Times, Vice, Salon, The Nation and the New Statesman. They were a 2014-15 Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University. As a screenwriter, Laurie has worked on ‘The Nevers’ (HBO), ‘The Haunting’ (Netflix) and ‘Carnival Row’ (Amazon). Laurie Penny is based between London and Los Angeles.
What is this book about?
The Internet was supposed to be for everyone… Millions found their voices in this brave new online world; it gave unheard masses the space to speak to each other without limits, across borders, both physical and social. It was supposed to liberate us from gender. But as more and more of our daily lives migrated on line, it seemed it did matter if you were a boy or a girl.
It’s a tough time to be a woman on the internet. Over the past two generations, the political map of human relations has been redrawn by feminism and by changes in technology. Together they pose questions about the nature and organisation of society that are deeply challenging to those in power, and in both cases, the backlash is on. In this brave new world, old-style sexism is making itself felt in new and frightening ways.
In Cybersexism, Laurie Penny goes to the dark heart of the matter and asks why threats of rape and violence are being used to try to silence female voices, analyses the structure of online misogyny, and makes a case for real freedom of speech – for everyone.
