18. The Dark Psychology of the Sexist Internet Commenter

This article by Olga Khazan, a staff writer at the Atlantic, digs deep into the roots of the sexism that occurs online. Khazan was inspired to learn more about the psychology behind the sexist online commenter, when she received negative feedback from a comment about women she made on a forum. With this, she began to explore the sexism that occur and concluded with some research that a large percent of negative sexist comments were made by men, but surprisingly, an equally large amount of commenters were found to be female. The sexist comments were then divided into three sub-parts; blatantly sexist, justifying gender bias, or denial of gender bias. The straight forward and blatantly sexist comments only piled up to about 5%, while the other two types of comments dominated the forum. Khazan also notes that the positive and supportive comments are left only by women. It is easy to become a sexist and hateful being on the open internet, because of how free we are to express ourselves; even the dirty and socially unacceptable parts. However, this problem is limited to the internet, because of the social norms we follow when meeting other people in-person. You simply wouldn't burst into hateful and sexist remarks in an office meeting.
This article is written very well with plenty of clever writing and humor surrounding a serious topic. Khazan well introduces the topic of online sexism and eases the reader into the gravity of the growing problem. Her writing is in defense of the most commonly attack group of people online, women, but she remains calm and is not provocative toward the opposite sex. She writes in a casual yet informative manner, which eases the topic, while still keeping informing of the problem and its seriousness.  

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/the-dark-psychology-of-the-sexist-internet-commenter/384497/