The internet degradation of women is our fault too

GERMAINE Greer is not the first famous woman to say that the internet has become a sewer of pornography and loathing of women. In a new documentary, the pioneering feminist claims that, thanks to technology, things are worse for women than when she started out and that the threats of violence to women online are shocking.

‘I never thought once you had social media there would come this terrible grab bag of loathing of women,’ she says.

Sarah Jessica Parker might agree. She has joined the chorus of bewildered female voices wondering what on earth she has done to become a target of such vitriol.

Greer contends that the malaise is a sign of male resentment at women’s progress in public life and that men are less tolerant of women now than they ever were. I’m sure there is a kernel of truth in that idea but as long as our keyboard warriors don the cloak of anonymity it’s impossible to challenge them. Also, we can hardly blame the relentless online portrayal of women as sexual playthings wholly on men. Women themselves seem to have no hesitation about posing in a sexually available fashion. It might all be harmless fun but the rise of the selfie can be partly attributed to the desire of women to present themselves in the sort of provocative pose more in keeping with a page three girl. This online hyper-sexualising of women is alarming, but what might be even more worrying is that women seem to be driving it as well as men.