Topic > Feminism's Toxic Twitter War by Michelle Goldberg Summary

Many of the women Goldberg interviewed can agree that "many of the most hardcore digital feminists will tell you it's become toxic" (Goldberg 13). In this article, it appears that the majority of women interviewed have been victims of online bullying and assault. Of course they will say it's a toxic environment. The women interviewed said they were afraid to write blogs or publish articles for fear of being rejected by their ideology and seeing the equivalent of an angry mob appear on their computer screens. Goldberg even states, “Many second-wave feminist groups tore themselves apart by denouncing and ostracizing members who demonstrated too much ambition or presumed to act as leaders” (Goldberg 14). So even though these feminists try to argue that women's rights are equal to men's, they are not allowed to compete with each other to better themselves. Goldberg could tell us that this online movement should not have a leader, or a specific feminist who overshadows the others. The women end up hitting each other and ruining each other's reputations. Courtney Martin is quoted in this article as saying that, “Part of it is the product of new technologies that create more superficial relationships, and part of it seems like this age-old conundrum within feminism” (Goldberg 14). So the problems of feminism may be older than the actual introduction of social media onto the scene. Certainly in this article Goldberg leans heavily on the negative side of feminism's problems; mention some of the positive things that have happened thanks to social media. In one of his interviews there is a statement about how the Internet is a place where there are people coming together and doing meaningful things that affect everyone (Goldberg 14). An example mentioned in the article states: “When breast