...women, who make up about half the online community, are singled out in more starkly sexually threatening terms -- a trend that was first evident in chat rooms in the early 1990s and is now moving to the blogosphere, experts and bloggers said.

One can appreciate the excitement and glamor of enchanting a member of the opposite sex, or watching another woman do so. But to mistake this for "power" reveals a profoundly androcentric view of the world.

And the women (like me) who try to ignore them. Or at least I did -- until the Kathy Sierra affair.

Gee, a tiny bit of the rampant bullshit that’s directed at women online finally makes the news. Maybe now all those idiots who tell us it’s not a problem and we shouldn’t let it bother us with get a clue?

The blogosphere is passionately debating Kathy Sierra’s death threats and misogynous bashing at the defunct meankids.org.

...each time women have become the most frequent users of a popular and brand new communication technology, narratives emerge in the mass media and eventually in the popular psyche about the dangers awaiting women who use technology alone.

From Inside Higher Ed, more on women in academia.

Slashdot has become the hub of the tech world. So why do many of its users seem like sexist dicks?