Last week, the Conservative Government introduced a bill, C-13, that’s intended to curb cyberbullying in Canada. This comes after two high profile cases involving so-called cyberbullying led both Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons, two Canadian teenaged girls, to take their own lives.
The most noteworthy part of the legislation would make non-consensual sharing of “intimate” photos illegal.
In both Todd and Parsons’ cases, the “cyberbullying” that drove them to suicide was having sexually explicit photos shared amongst their peers without their consent. When their photos got around to their classmates and friends, they were called sluts, and tortured relentlessly.
Todd had to switch schools at least twice because of what she was going through. Parsons got messages asking her for sex after four boys allegedly raped her at a party while she was drunk, and circulated photos of the attack around their Nova Scotia high school.
The reason why I’m hesitant to give the word cyberbullying any legitimacy here is because what happened to Todd and Parsons was not cyberbullying.
When I was in grade eight a girl who didn’t like me told me I was ugly a few times on MSN. That was cyberbullying.
Being told by an older man that if you don’t “give him a show” via webcam, he’ll share a nude photo of you to your friends, being raped and then called a slut because of what other people did to you, is not cyberbullying. That’s called misogyny, and it’s the kind of misogyny that kills people. It’s sexual harassment and assault.
The government’s idea to make sharing these types of photos illegal is a step in the right direction. But it is just that—a step. What really needs to change is the culture that leads to these tragic incidents, and not the law.
The law didn’t stop the boys who allegedly raped Rehtaeh Parsons from raping her. The law didn’t stop the man who told Amanda Todd to take off her clothes on webcam from distributing child porn.
This culture told them they were entitled to have sex with a practically passed out teenager, they were entitled to share pictures of what they did, they were entitled to see a woman do what they want via webcam.
This culture told the girls’ classmates they should mock the victims of these crimes, because they were entitled to telling these girls their sexuality was wrong.
Maybe this post is in the wrong place since this is a blog about the Internet, but I think this issue needs to be taken off the Internet. It’s not enough to call it cyberbullying and to say that making this cyberbullying illegal will put an end to it all.
Girls and women don’t only experience this type of aggression online in the confines of Facebook or Instagram. This culture that tells (some) men they can look at you, speak to you, or touch you any way they want is everywhere. The idea that if a girl gets drunk, whatever happens to her at the hands of other people is her fault is everywhere.
If the government wants to see some real change, it’ll not only do the work it needs to do about what happens online, but it’ll take the message that the violation of a girl’s sexuality through rape or through sharing photos of her without her consent is wrong everywhere else too.
What do you think? Do you think this is the Internet’s problem, or is it a cultural one? Write a letter to op.ed@charlatan.ca.
