Shaheen Shariff, an associate professor at McGill University whose research focuses on legal issues related to cyber bullying, said the FHRITP phenomenon is part of a pattern of escalating misogyny on the Internet, in schools and in the public domain generally.
“This stuff just sustains the pattern that we are seeing in our research with kids and undergrads … that the more outrageous and misogynist and violent you get, the more impact” on the web and the more hits, she said.
“We are finding people are saying they aren’t thinking about victims or who they are hurting, they just want to get hits and make people laugh. … But what this is is a slap in the face to women. The more powerful women become, and the more equal in terms of occupations and status and sexual liberation, the more violent the behaviour. It is a backlash.”
She said the legal community needs to “start taking this more seriously and stop slut shaming and victim blaming.”
- Date Published:03/26/2015
- Original Publication:Montreal Gazette