The internet can be a scary place, especially if you’re a woman with opinions.
If John Oliver was a fandom, you could be damn sure we’d cover it on Hypable. The weekly HBO show Last Week Tonight covers important, topical news stories with an edge of honesty not often found on television.
This past Sunday, Oliver’s main topic was online harassment, specifically directed at women.
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Hypable readers are obviously well versed in online culture, and we’re sure most people active in fandom have been the subject of harassment, of one form or another.
In terms of fandom, you might be insulted, threatened or mocked if you like or dislike a certain character or actor, if you prefer one franchise film to another, or if you’re a shipper.
Basically, expressing any form of opinion online is dangerous, and people, especially women, have long been subjected to “victim blaming” when they try to fight back: they’re usually told to either get offline to escape it, or it grow a thicker skin if they insist on participating in Internet culture.
Well, on Sunday, John Oliver delivered quite a smackdown of that ultimatum, in his usual no-nonsense fashion.
With a focus on the gaming community, which is infamous for its at times horrific treatment of female gamers, Oliver reveals to the masses that death and rape threats are indeed a reality for many prominent women online.
And obviously it’s not just gamers. Online harassment can be targeted at, “Any woman who makes the mistake of having a thought in her mind, and then vocalizing it online,” as Oliver (who, by virtue of having such a radical talk show, is a frequent victim of harassment himself) points out.
Oliver also addresses the “revenge porn” phenomenon, and just how difficult it is for women to reclaim ownership of their own bodies after they’ve been exposed online.
Ultimately, Oliver is calling for us to “fundamentally change how we think of the Internet.” Not an easy feat.
But if anyone can do it, maybe it’s Colin Hanks and Rob Heubel, in their hilarious yet poignant AOL ad parody.