How to Be a Woman Online
Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"Blisteringly witty." Kirkus
"An essential guide." Publisher's Weekly
"Timely." Booklist
When Nina Jankowicz's first book on online disinformation was profiled in The New Yorker, she expected attention but not an avalanche of abuse and harassment, predominantly from men, online.
All women in politics, journalism and academia now face untold levels of harassment and abuse in online spaces. Together with the world's leading extremism researchers, Jankowicz wrote one of the definitive reports on this troubling phenomenon.
Drawing on rigorous research into the treatment of Kamala Harris - the first woman vice-president - and other political and public figures, Nina also uses her own experiences to provide a step-by-step plan for dealing with harassment, abuse, doxing and disinformation in online spaces.
The result is a must-read for researchers, journalists and all women with a profile in the online space.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Foreign affairs analyst Jankowicz (How to Lose the Information War) delivers a concise, functional handbook for women looking to combat online abuse. Contending that harassment is "the norm for many women engaged in public discourse," Jankowicz's advice ranges from "cyber hygiene" practices like two-factor authentication to a darkly humorous psychological analysis of trolling personalities and how to manage them. Jankowicz also discusses the harassment policies of online platforms, and offers ideas on how to build a supportive community of female peers and mentors. Though she provides plenty of data about the ubiquity of sexism and harassment online, she grounds her advice in her own experiences and the experiences of several other high-profile women, including cybersecurity journalist Nicole Perlroth, Guardian columnist Van Badham, and game designer Brianna Wu, who was targeted in the Gamergate harassment campaign. Jankowicz's advice is strategic, focused, and eminently usable, and her assertion that women need to be there to help one another while also fighting for change feels simultaneously supportive and motivational. This is an essential guide for women interested in standing up for a fairer, safer online world.
