Cyberbullying and Online Comics
Rene Engstrom, artist of my favorite comic Anders Loves Maria, is back after a short break.
Anders loves Maria includes sexual content and real life relationship situations that doesn’t shy away from the “land down under.” Which, for some reason, gave someone the idea that they were allowed into the artist’s personal life. After receiving menacing calls and comments Engstrom considered leaving the online community. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first we have seen of cyberbullying. Women across the web are becoming increasingly more aware of sexism and sexual harassment online. With disparaging and degrading comments, groups, and threads on facebook, livejournal, and myspace to conversations and slurs about candidates, it is quite apparent that there is no place safe from the -isms.
Thankfully, Rene has taken the time to recover and her comic is back up and running and she should know that she isn’t alone; other women are fighting back as well.
Sparked by the violent harassment of Sierra, one blogger started a “stop cyberbullying” campaign. This was picked up by hundreds of other bloggers and an international women’s technology organization, Take Back the Tech, a global network of women who encourage people to “take back online spaces” by writing, video blogging, or podcasting about online harassment. — Jessica Valenti