“Girls, Become AnonyMiss” Against the Male Domination of the Network

Even within the world of hackers and activists, Anonymous has become famous for the attacks against Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, in defense of Wikileaks and  it opened at the end March an “action organised by women”, called AnonyMiss:

So you want to be a modern girl.
You want more freedom.
Do you want more power.
Do you want to have fun.
Do you want to prove that women are more courageous then men.
And you love the Internet.
We need you.
Welcome on board, AnonyMiss.

Some Anonymous have mocked the initiative; others have claimed the women within Anonymous do not feel strong and intelligent enough. “Is the next step Gaynonymous?” someone asks. “Anonymous is Anonymous. Sex, race, religion, politics should not have any face here”. But there are those who say that the mask adopted as a symbol by the group, the logo (the man in jacket and tie) and the mentality are originally male if not male dominated.

Sonya Zink is a member of “AnonyMiss” (but continues to be a member of Anonymous), but she does not lead attacks. She writes via email:

Being a woman influences every aspect of my life, including my activism. There is a part of me that wants to nurture, to help the world to cure itself, to try to empower rather than give orders to others. I believe that the limitation of information is the biggest challenge for self-determination and I believe that “Anon” is a good vehicle to change some things. Information is power. I think that Anonymiss is a brilliant idea. The culture from which Anonymous was born is very masculine, even misogynistic. It is probably due to the average age of students involved, but it is always a challenge for girls and women. Have you ever had a look at the origins of culture anon 4chan (message board anarchy online ndr) on Encyclopedia Realmente Dramática? Do it and you’ll see how 4chan sees(va) women on the web. Whatever, in my experience I have noted that among the Anonymous that I follow (on Twitter, blogs, IRC): there is a different attitude or they are more grown up. It is more likely that the second hypothesis is correct.

For OpPinkPower, AnonyMiss is simply another operation of Anonymous.

She suggests some possible activities, for example shopping more “ethically”, but she stresses that the main objectives are: human rights and freedom of speech – beyond the differences between men and women.

Emma_A, one of the members of Anonymous who have been the most active in the development of AnonyMiss, believes that it is more than an isolated action:

“It is the genesis of a movement of women who may try to include both women and men, working together, for the freedom of women from the lowest classes of all societies,” she said in an interview with another activist.

Now AnonyMiss has also a newspaper: the AnonyMiss dail

Meltem Arikan, a Turkish writer and journalist (writing for the women’s magazine called “Kazete”,has won the publishers award for “the freedom of thought” in 2004), also does her part in the movement AnonyMiss.

“One of my novels, which concerns the reality of incest in Turkey, has been banned in my Country,” she emailed me. She defines AnonyMiss as “a group of women who seek to upgrade the awareness of women and men on the need to fight against censorship and for freedom of expression. We support the people protesting against dictatorships and against the governments and organizations which censor the facts and the free flow of information. For example, we are supporting the compaign for Iman al-obedi.

We are in a period of transition from the analog world to a digital world. In the analog world, the patriarchal system dominates. But in a digital world there will be no patriarchal or hierarchical systems. I believe that in a digital world women and men will reach a higher intellectual, social and emotional level.

Since the basic infrastructure of the nature is female, women should have the courage to push men to ask for more freedom of thought and speech to liberate themselves from ideologies and religions. Therefore, the traditional media are no longer the ideal methods of communication. Social media, and in particular Twitter, Facebook, and the internet in general, have superseded the press and tv, and are more effective in allowing communication without censorship.