ChatRoulette is a new video networking service of mysterious origin. By clicking a link, you connect via webcam with a stranger who can chat with you or reject you by hitting "next." Of course, you can do the same. The effect, according to an article in New York Magazine, is familiarly jarring. Not since middle school, author Sam Anderson said, has he been rejected by so many people based on a single glance. But beyond the adolescent deja vu, ChatRoulette offers a seductive dip into the amalgam of humanity. No other venue allows real-time video interaction with so many people from so many different walks of life. Anderson chatted "with Pratt students in Bed-Stuy, with a man inexplicably sitting on his toilet, with a kid waving a gun and a knife, and with a guy who went to my wife’s old high school in California," he wrote. "We saw Chinese kids in computer cafés and English kids drinking beer. We danced with a guy in his bedroom to the entirety of Michael Jackson’s 'Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough.' We talked for half an hour with a 28-year-old tech writer from San Francisco."
Sounds fun, right? Well not if you're a woman. Here's what Anderson noticed when his wife tried ChatRoulette: "People are endlessly soliciting nudity, both in person and via signs (“FLASH TITS FOR HAITI,” etc.). Roughly one out of every ten chatters is a naked masturbating man, and even they will usually hang up on you, one-handedly, before you can click away."
ChatRoulette, which is overwhelmingly young and male, has the tenor of an online comment thread, in which individuals use the cloak of anonymity to unleash sexist or menacing commentary. Fast Company's Saabira Chaudhuri elaborated on this problem when several readers commented with vicious screed after an article she penned on women in new media. "The comfortable anonymity offered by the Web allows people, in this case men, to say whatever it is they actually think deep down," she wrote. "And their feelings are incontrovertibly sexist. These are the same people we all run into in real life. But in the offline world, like the Ku Klux Klan when their masks are put away, it's hard to tell who's who. Men offline would never dare claim ownership to the ludicrous statements they so freely spout on the Web."
ChatRoulette, of course, isn't totally anonymous. It is a video service after all. But that doesn't appear to dampen participants' propensity for sexist behavior. It only means that split-second sexism has a face and a body, in addition to words. -Naomi (Thanks, Coby, for the tip.)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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11 comments:
I'm trying this out right now... it's not just women who get the masturbating men.
I was wondering about that. So it matches you up with people of all genders? Is there an option to choose just one gender? From the wording of the article I was wondering if some of those naked men were clicking away so fast because they were waiting for a man on the other end.
Yes, ChatRoulette matches you up with people of all genders. I'm not so disturbed by the myriad of masturbating men so much as I am the way that women are received on the program. It seems to me that women, because they are such a novelty on the site, become insta-sex objects, cajoled into taking off their clothes for the viewer's pleasure.
If they had an option to check that said "Yes, I am interested in nudity and/or sexy time," and otherwise you would not see the sexual behavior (and would be able to report people who did engage in it) would that solve the problem for you, Naomi? Surely some of the women who use the service do so because they are interested in engaging sexually with others, including being prompted (however crudely) to remove their clothes.
It makes me think of the music festivals I used to attend where lots of guys would have signs that read "Show your tits for a lollipop," or would just scream and harrass every passing female. I do wish that kind of behavior had been officially discouraged, as I and many other participants were minors and/or disgusted or threatened by it, but I also saw plenty of women willing to oblige the men. I eventually stopped attending the festivals because of this and similar behavior, but I wish there had been an option to just block it out and keep participating in other ways. With the internet, we do have that option, if the software designers decide to offer it.
I think your suggestion would make me feel more comfortable with ChatRoulette, Adrienne. But it's unlikely to happen. Part of the appeal, it seems, is the sheer randomness of the interactions you are thrown into. You're right, many women probably visit the sight seeking out sexual experiences too. I suppose my fear is that men on the site will feel free to behave as misogynists because of the relative anonymity the site provides. Of course, you can click away if you're offended, but those tiny moments are still impacting.
I have to say, I agree with Adrienne on this one... the site would be much improved if you could exert some sort of control over the the content you're exposed to. As a dude I found the masturbating offensive and weird, and in many ways it seemed to undermine what was really incredible about the site: its ability to create, through sheer randomness, a truly global community.
Personally, I'm not too worried about the random misogyny, for perhaps obvious reasons. In my brief experience, I didn't find the douchebaggery (people calling me "faggot" and whatnot) to be that much more extreme than it is in the world outside of chatroulette. The public masturbation certainly was, though...
I'd also be willing to bet that, if the site managed to police the masturbation a little better, more women would feel more comfortable there, thereby altering the tone of the site.
Just a hunch.
The masturbation/nudity is my primary reason for not wanting to check out the site, not because I think it will be anything new, but exactly the opposite: I’ve been masturbated at in public enough times that even thinking about coming across it on the internet brings back the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and makes my heart race.
Naomi’s absolutely right about the “tiny moments.” Each time it’s happened to me I’ve only seen the guy’s dick for a second, but in one case I couldn’t go to my favorite park for months afterward, and in another I had to walk blocks out of my way every time I went south from my apartment to avoid the place where it happened. I can only imagine having to associate that feeling with being on my computer, so I won’t even risk it. I do wonder if the relative anonymity gives some of these guys license to expose themselves to unwilling people online when they may not have done it in real life. On the other hand, I can see that if a person gets off on exposing hirself to strangers, a site that offers people the chance to do that consensually could be a really valuable thing.
In regards to the guys who try to cajole every woman into taking off her clothes, though… as I said there are surely women who get off on that, but there needs to be a separation between people who consent to it and people who don’t. I’ve been wondering, too, if those music festivals I referred to offer a similar kind of anonymity in this regard: would those guys behave that way at an event in their home town? One could look at tourists generally for more examples. Online environments such as ChatRoulette, though, offer that extra protection for the offender of being able to flee instantly if confronted about their behavior.
There IS a report button, the effectiveness of which I question. The reason for the quick-skips by the masturbators is likely to duck out before you are able to use said button.
To be seen as a sex object is the luckiest thing in the world.
Already peekattack.com lets you specify your gender and what you're looking for (male/female, nude/clothed). You can't lie about whether you're nude, the person you connect with makes the call. Surely more sites will emerge with similar features. This is just the thing that's needed to get the aroused people together and out of the way of people who just want to chat.
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