Of course shes absolutely right. But, don't you think that just making this video will make the "internet ass holes" even more vicious? Also, i think that both her, and Vi are incredibly attractive. Mainly because they are so articulated, and intelligent.

I'm not so sure it's about the assholes. It might be more about the rest of us who put up with them.

..and yeah, articulation is a good quality in a woman.. helps with storage. ; P

It is true that I had never seen any of her videos, until this one.

She is one of my favorite vlogers, highly recommended

I kinda don't know what to make of this vid. At one point, she makes an appeal to others not to be apathetic to anonymous Internet comments, but I don't see how starting a flame war every time someone makes an inappropriate comment solves the underlying problem.

Plus, I don't see a person who makes those kinds of comments seriously reconsidering them after watching this vid. And if, as she says, those kinds of comments are a small minority of the feedback she receives I'm not sure exactly what the problem is.

She equates it to bullying, but that reminds me of this Sift where the reporter did the same thing after receiving a single email about her weight (a vid which produced a pretty extensive VS debate thread on the topic):

http://videosift.com/video/News-Anchor-Responds-to-Viewer-Email-Calling-Her-Fat?loadcomm=1

So... yeah. Some people are mean/clueless/crude/outright insulting/sexist on the Internet. She seems to think this is preventing women from keeping vlogs about STEM topics, but doesn't really offer any evidence to support this.

In fact, if her supposition were true wouldn't you see that trend across YouTube? Basically if it were true, YouTube vlogs would be dominated by men since the women are too what... delicate? Afraid of dealing with negative comments? In a way, her hypothesis itself seems kind of insulting to women, suggesting that they wilt in the face of these kinds of comments and just give up.

She isn't going to change the trollin assholes but what about those people who make those comments who genuinely didn't think that they might be offensive. I know in the past I had to change the things that I said as I didn't realise how it would make someone else feel. She is being sexulised unnecessarily and its only happening because she is a woman.

Well done and well said!

Unfortunately, you can only ever control your reaction to people.

Sure, you can moderate em out, ignore em, try to educate them, shame them, plead with them, but I doubt anyone is such a wordsmith that they could change a persons entire way of thinking with the online equivalent of a note on the fridge...

That doesn't mean you stop trying, but acceptance appears to be generational for the most part. When I was growing up, being a 'computer nerd' (ie. messing around with Apple II's) was seen to be a "very bad thing" generally, now everyone has some sort of smart device and/or a PC (yeah, fairly trite example but you get what I'm talking about). As the message of equality and acceptance is taught, it becomes pervasive. Mebbe one day everyone will treat each other with the courtesy and decency they deserve.

In the meantime, however, I'd still bang her... X D

She's attractive.

There are others than Vihart?

You are my new favorite person.

Yep. This.

You might consider reading Megsakimbo post above, since you clearly missed the point of her video.

Vi Hart - How To Toothpaste has been added as a related post - related requested by bareboards2 on that post.

Unlike normal human beings trolls do not seek the approval of others, rather they thrive on condemnation. That's what feeding the trolls is.

And that's why the conventional wisdom is not to engage trolls. But, she has made me rethink that. By engaging trolls you at the very least give some solidarity and support to the victim. And by ignoring them there's the risk of giving the impression that we find their degrading sexual harassment acceptable.

Hard to know what to do. I think all you can do is give up on the hopelessly toxic social environments like youtube comment sections.

..good thought.
Yes, I think maybe voices speaking against sexism should be at least as prevalent as those reinforcing it.
. It is also pretty clear that sexism is, at least on the Internet, more widely tolerated than racism. Perhaps some of that is due to a shared inherent tendency to view people with a sex/gender that we are generally attracted to differently. "Wow, she's attractive" may be an inevitable thought, whereas "people with that skin color are usually dumb" is not.
. Still, the ramifications of expressing those thoughts need a more prominent place in the public consciousness. Most of us have learn not to grab asses when it would be hurtful, we should learn not to comment on them in similar contexts.

Calling somebody attractive is internet bullying?

Attractive people problems.

No, when a male makes a blog about science, it's not littered with "wow, you're hot" the same way a female's is. That is sexism. When it's ok to do it towards one sex but not the other.

Plus, if her video is about magnets, what does her being attractive have to do with it? (Yes, I know, I left that one wide open for puns, mostly because I find them so polarizing.)

Also, it makes those who are not attractive (one of the points she also made) feel like they cannot join the STEM vlog's because they will be called ugly, fat etc. So yes, it is bullying.

You do see this trend across YouTube and also on TV.

There are plenty of women who are seeking attention, in whatever form it comes, and will post vlog's for the sake of those comments. It's not healthy or positive, but it happens.

I know it's strange to think, but many women have been raised to feel inferior to men and to be more "delicate". Plenty of studies show that older generations systematically trained females to feel helpless. For instance, if a male child falls, they tell him to suck it up, but if it's a female child, they coddle her, or worse, they refuse to let her also play because she might get hurt.

So when you have women who are already fighting these self-esteem issues, they are not going to throw themselves to the wolves to be hounded by comments. Also, this may be a shocker too, but some people actually get caught up on negative comments. Some people will read 10 comments about them, but only remember the one negative one.

So after spending all day be bombarded by sexualized ads, hyper-sexualized and unrealistic portrayals of women, and dealing with men who have also fallen prey to this, many are not willing to hoist themselves up for all to tear down.

Instead, she's encouraging them to do just that. To throw themselves out there and for the rest of us to help support them by telling sexist assholes to shut the fuck up and grow the fuck up or get the fuck out. *ahem* I mean, STFU or GTFO.

It happens to men all the time. That's part of talking in front of a camera. You get evaluated on appearance. If a guy got up there with a neck beard and schlubby clothes people will tell him to get himself together. That is if they don't tell him to eat shit and die first.

Being called both beautiful and smart isn't bullying.

The problem isn't sexism. It's lookism.

Men aren't judged by looks as much as women. And you're talking about clothing and things easily adjusted, such as shaving. Both of those are generally considered unkept, for good looking men or ugly men. Has nothing to do with physical merit.

Plus, if you look at, for instance, TV Anchors, how many of those men are in super good shape? Especially sports announcers. How many overweight men do you see on tv, and how many over weight women? Save for Candy, of course. (Wasn't her name Candy? Cindy? Mandy? Andy? Damn I'm bad with names grrr) Point stands, women are held to a much higher standard for physical attractiveness than men in order to be considered "worthwhile" or "have anything relevant to say".

I agree, I restricted my point to things that can easily be changed. That was intentional. Those were the sorts of comments she was complaining about (e.g. that she's being "intentionally unattractive"). Men would receive similar criticism. If straight up sinewy stud wore baggy assed stained hoodies to his weatherman job, or thick rimmed glasses and a pocket protector with suspenders then a handful of people would give him shit for it. I promise you. They would. A handful more will talk about how they don't give a fuck and want to jump on his magnetic pole. The rest will talk about how they hate "wintery mix."

You seem to miss my point. I think it's demeaning to suggest that being sexualized is the problem, or even that it is gendered. Cat calls, come ons and so forth should be seen for what they are. Compliments. The problem is exactly what you said in the last paragraph. What you look like, and the value of what you say should be seen as completely orthogonal dimensions. Unfortunately, in this world they aren't. That's lame.

Also, @shatterdrose, who are all these overweight male news anchors?

I'd suggest talking to as many of your female friends as possible and find out from them whether or not they enjoy being catcalled. You'd be surprised by A) how many of them actually find it demeaning and B) how many of them determine if it's demeaning by what the other person looks like (I won't even go into what this says about them.)

Yeah, I've had the exact same experience but I'm curious if you were talking about in person (i.e. the person mentioned you were making them uncomfortable) or on the Net. Because I can see that happening in real life, but on the Net where people just leave drive-by comments or intentionally troll I gotta think engaging with the comments isn't likely to change anyone's mind.

But I do see how providing support for the person the comments are directed at can be helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWKXit_3rpQ

Do you have any female friends that rarely get catcalled? Ever spoken with them about the women who always complain about how men are always interested in sex?

I know that women find it demeaning. I'm saying that's like being angry you ate too much steak and don't have enough room for dessert. Internet bullying can lead to suicide or severe depression. I find it sick that you (or she) would equate unwanted favorable attention with outright verbal abuse.

Why call it unwanted FAVORABLE attention if women find it demeaning. How is anything demeaning favorable? It seems to me being verbally demeaned could be or is a form of verbal abuse.

It refers to the attitude of the speaker. If the speaker means to praise the subject along any dimension it is favorable attention. If instead the speaker intends cruelty toward the subject it would be decidedly unfavorable attention.

Is this not an obvious difference to all of you? I don't think this is a gendered issue at all. I find it cruel to equate unwanted (if you prefer) sexual attention with the complete debasement accompanying internet abuse.

If you want to stop youtubers from talking about your boobs you should probably solve the whole global warming thing first. At least that one you can get out of the way quickly in comparison.

Would be nice to see what are the proportions of women looking at science videos. I'm pretty sure (pun intended) the problem stems from that, at least partly: how to engage women in these traditionally patriarchal fields.

Another thing... I'm straight male and intelligent women "get me going", big time.. commenting on appearance kind a defeats that.

One person is NEVER responsible for another person's emotional state or reaction to stimuli. It is not YOUR fault that an entire nation of emotionally damaged, abused, affected, incapable, ineffectual, developmentally-disabled human beings are now covering the landscape like a fungus...HOWEVER:
Self-preservation, species advancement, psycho-spiritual evolution, and the innate sensibilities that afford humanity a chance to get the goddamn molecule off-planet being the prime directive, one should when given the opportunity assist said molecule so much as is does not cause undue stress or fatigue to one's body, mind, or soul.

YouTube comments mean jack and or shit, as does most of the prattle filling servers faster than they can be manufactured. Get over it Missy, yer sexy to some, ugly to some, stay on task, make yer magnet videos, eat, shit, fuck, sleep, and die like the rest of us so the planet can produce more coal, fishes, coffee and mosquitoes, life goes on.

Sexism, racism, ism ism motherfucking isms, get the fuck over yourselves you bunch of self-satisfied, privileged, whining cake-hole stuffing fucks, and BIG HUGS for everyone with sandy vaginas, hashtag, smiley-face, fuck-off.

Oh yeah, and TROLLS??? That's YOUR emotion state telling the molecule to be un-molecular. Everyone commenting on the internet is a goddamn troll, in case you haven't figured that shit out yet, get a clue.

Ant?? You're a MONSTER!!!

Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum
Division of Biological Science
University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812

People are just too spoiled through our society. You grow up as a child, being dragged away and saved from even the slightest bad stuff. In TV you only see happy happy stuff that causes grown ups to feel the urge to barf (Teletubbies for example), and even as a grown up, you are not encouraged to deal with bad stuff and just ignore it with phrases like "its below your standard".

The fact of the matter is that there are many, many very unhappy people, who cant just swallow their misery and poop it out as a smile as many of us may have learned. I mean look at Facebook. Why is there no dislike button? Why do people always get so personal and defensive when you criticize them or their work even objectively? Especially women tend to see things much more personal than men because most of the time they have been cared and "saved" much more, and thats also part reason why there are less women channels, as she put so well.

There are simply people like this and the Internet allows them to openly say what they think. Not to mention that a huge part of those are just stupid jokes that are not meant to hurt anyone. Thats the fucking Internet and society and also shows us problems that need to be fixed PROPERLY. If you cant deal with it, you should go somewhere else where you can concentrate on your mental rainbows only.

We have forgotten how to deal with criticism and unhappy people. Instead we ignore them, generalize them, and make things even worse with that ignorance and then we are surprised when it comes back to us sooner or later at twice or more the power.
Seriously, especially from scientists I expect more thinking than this stupid generalization.
Criticism is an essential part of democracy, freedom and science.

Oh and that doesnt mean one should tolerate crap like that silently, but instead blame the culprit which is our society and that ultimately means we need to change ourselves. We cant change people, we can only change their surroundings, so they change on their own.

Ok, for any and everyone who says "we're just too weak": welcome to the hyper-macho culture. For starters, you're right, I know your husband beats you, but seriously, deal with it. Grow the fuck up and get over yourself. Right? No?

The problem with certain forms of abuse is that many recognize they may in fact be participating in it, and to defend themselves from feeling bad, they justify it. For instance, in extreme examples, SLAVERY!

I posted a link to another video which makes the point: when you start dehumanizing the subject of your intentions, it becomes okay because they're just objects. That's the real issue here: these catcalls become, if you want to call it, a gateway drug for dehumanization.

And I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks we've just become pansies and these women need to suck it up, well, I'm sorry but __|__

How is being denied a job because of your sex a "suck it up" situation? Oh, you wanted to get the manager position? Well, we gave it to your less qualified male counterpart for more money than we intended to pay you anyway.

Why is there still a pay disparity? Equal work = equal pay? Unless you're female. Not to mention all the women passed over for promotions because they're simply not pretty enough. Or hell, just go to a Hooters . . . or Tilted Kilt, Winghouse or any other establishment that's frequented by males who are simply there because of the "hot chicks". I doubt many of those places could exist on their food quality alone.

While stopping to asshole YouTube comments isn't going to solve women's equalities issues, it will help. Intolerance for intolerance will be the only solution. Letting these YouTuber's harass females (yes, it is harassment, not a compliment) and putting women into uncomfortable situations because you feel like you're giving them compliment will only make matters worse.

For instance, go to a gay club and see how you feel when guys are constantly catcalling you, telling you they'd love to fuck you etc. Trust me, when it happens to you, it's not a compliment. It's damned creepy.

Now, if your female friend did her hair, got a new dress etc and you tell her she looks pretty, that's one thing. Telling a random stranger "Hey beautiful" etc doesn't win you any favors.

@shatterdrose Not everything is a gendered issue. Just because someone draws a line and says that this particular problem doesn't reduce to sexism doesn't mean they support spousal abuse and sex trafficking (both of which are obviously gendered). Compare Emily's experience to this one: http://www.salon.com/2013/10/02/my_embarrassing_picture_went_viral/

Personally I would call the latter true internet abuse. Notice that by her own report most of the perpetrators were women. Equating these two concerns trivializes the issue. If Emily had said maybe women don't want to be STEM bloggers because in their country they are subject to genital mutilation, sexual slavery, or aren't educated then I would agree with her. Instead she ranted about her attractive white westerner problems.

Although I agree with the sexist, misogynistic bastards that think she's attractive, I also kinda notice the way she edits, and a lot of her mannerisms are A LOT like John Green.

I mean absolutely nothing by this. Just noticeable to me.

A sandwich is not a sandwich without you @chingalera , I'm glad you're around.

It's interesting. While I'd never make a comment like that, when I think about it honestly, I do find myself judging her attractiveness. I wonder if its a hardwired or learned behavior. I wonder if women are more likely to do the same with men or other women.

You don't really get irony do you? \= )

Well, since teh intertubes don't come with a tone of voice, and there is no irony box, and I'm not psychic, and there are some pretty awful things that can be found on teh intertubes....

You're right. I missed the irony.

My apologies.

Meh, s'all good.

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by eric3579.

All internet success stories are like this. The internet is half porn. It makes sense that losers with nothing to do but watch videos will act out their fantasies in any way they can. A certain % of them validate themselves through the reactions they get. Hence trolls. I used to receive death threats on a pretty regular basis when I ran a forum. A combination of jealousy and jadedness will cause young men to be like this. Women interpreting this as just sexism is a mistake.