For my project, I wanted to look at internet culture and how it affects women – treatment towards them, their reactions, and the environment as a whole. Obviously, that’s too big a scope to tackle. I narrowed it down to an area I’ve become very familiar with over the last few years – the hockey fandom. Specifically, in regards to hockey Twitter and its hostility toward women. This isn’t to say women aren’t on hockey Twitter – there are, at the very least, thousands of us. It's a huge community, filled with all
The thing about hockey Twitter is that it’s one aspect of fandom. And fandom is supposed to enjoyable. It’s a place where we can get together, especially online, and chat with people across the globe about this thing we all love. It’s meant to be chill and fun and safe. The safe space is important. It’s necessary. No woman should have to be pushed away from the internet, a space where men roam freely. Well, white cis men usually. Racism has found a home too on the internets, including hockey Twitter, as well as transphobia and homophobia. Anything that keeps people from participating as an equal is something that needs to be changed. The backlash towards women who have come forward with their stories of being sexually harassed become pretty vile and that is wholly unacceptable.
Overall, Twitter is a huge force of social media. On any level, even within sub-communities, it’s difficult to try and keep people from being antagonistic when disagreements break out. But treatment towards women easily falls back onto sexism and misogyny, completely with making it about a woman’s place in the world, her physicality, her looks and the like instead of her knowledge on the subject. This is something that women battle every day in their real lives. Women also battle unwelcome sexual advances in public from strangers. Many times, we shrug it off because it’s not always worth the fight. However, when those advances come from an acquaintance on the internet, in a private message, completely unwarranted and out of the blue – we realize there is no safe space at all. And that’s when we can do something about it.
So for the actual project, I decided I would interview (via podcast) several women who are vocal and well incorporated on hockey Twitter. The focus was their own accounts of their experiences, what they’ve witnessed and been a part of/privy to on Twitter as well as experiences with hockey, the league, and rest of fandom as a whole. Some good, some bad, but all across the board it’s noted that this is not the most welcoming of environments. At the same time, each woman was optimistic that there would be a shift in mentality and culture. We’ll have to wait it out for a couple of years but it’s doable. And as we wait, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing now - taking part in conversation, calling out sexism, paving the way for the next generation of fans, and doing everything we can to make it a better space.
What I intended with this project is to continue and add to the education of what it really means for women to be a part of internet culture. The women I interviewed represent a very small percentage of the women on hockey Twitter but each of them brings their own story, experience, and point of view. It brings this reminder that women speak out for feminism but each woman knows her story is not anyone else's. We speak out so everyone can be heard. Because that's really all we can do - continue to educate, opening eyes and ears to all narratives. There isn't one blanket statement for all women; each woman who participated in this tells a unique story. And hopefully, with each interview, people will start to understand where it went wrong and what can be done to change things - to be better. Because really, that's what we, as people, strive toward doing. Or at least we should be :)
And finally, a huge thank you to the women who agreed to be interviewed: Zoë, Heather, Laura, Kat, Ashley, Toni, and Sarah. All of them were great, super helpful and informative, and I cannot express my appreciation to them enough. (everyone should follow them on twitter/read their stuff because they’re awesome)
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