sex·u·al as·sault:
1.an incident that involves sexual contact that is forced on somebody
No, it isn't the same thing as rape. I wish we had a different term. But dismissing this as "not sexual assault" is not a great place for this discussion to start, for a number of reasons.
I actually looked the term up online and copied and pasted it here because I generally agree with you that this is not a great use of the term (see my own previous blog post where I bitch about something similar: http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/11/a-woman-rant...). But, really, as someone who is very openly female on this forum, I am finding the discussion here kind of threatening and dismissive. The comments here create an impression that many men kind of think "Eh, no big deal feeling a woman up virtually. It isn't like it's REALLY sexual assault."
And I have been downvoted and your remark here has apparently been upvoted, which implies a general attitude of the overarching crowd, not just an isolated opinion being expressed. It is no wonder so many women are afraid of not only participation in VR, but even openly participating in many male dominated internet spaces.
> The comments here create an impression that many men kind of think "Eh, no big deal feeling a woman up virtually. It isn't like it's REALLY sexual assault."
I don't think anyone has at all insinuated that this would be acceptable behaviour, people are just reacting to the editorialized headline claiming this is sexual assault, which is a term generally used for more serious offenses. In the same way that people would almost certainly react the same way if you claimed that you were assaulted when someone knocked the books out of your hands. Technically true and no one is on the other guy's side, but (in that situation), you'd be being melodramatic.
I think it goes without saying that this sort of behavior is rude and annoying, but honestly it's not any different than other rude and annoying behaviour engaged in by immature people, whether they are tea bagging your avatar or calling you a faggot on the chat.
No, it doesn't go without saying and thank you for saying it because every single reply to me has been essentially dismissive. This is what a lot of women mean when they talk about rape culture. And I find it enormously frustrating that no one here seems to see why a woman would feel that a group of presumably all men responding in a consistently dismissive fashion would create a threatening atmosphere that has the potential to encourage bad behavior towards women of the sort described in the article.
Remember that little digression I told you about how the hundred-foot drop looked so convincing? Yeah. Guess what. The virtual groping feels just as real. Of course, you're not physically being touched, just like you're not actually one hundred feet off the ground, but it's still scary as hell.
First, contact can mean communication with someone. Second, the internet has moderators all over it because merely saying ugly things to or about people can potentially cause real world harm.
The article admits that no actual physical contact occurred. I agree the term sexual assault is problematic. But it is the norm for there to not be a ready made term for completely new, previously unavailable experiences.
Anyway, I am planning on stepping away from this discussion. I find it galling that it is being limited to simply dismissing what happened to her as if her fear and upset don't really count because "it was just pixels on a screen."
IANAL but assault consists of harmful or offensive contact, or the threat of same. Under this definition:
* psychological harm counts as harm
* an activity which has the same psychological effect as contact may be defined as contact under law, especially when VR starts to incorporate haptic feedback
* the law may still allow prosecution under the rubric that "virtual groping" constitutes a threat, as it certainly feels threatening
* many women's rights groups consider the use of certain language or communication to be "violence against women"; and some jurisdictions may prosecute it as such
The answer is it's not clear. The courts will eventually decide the issue.
Of course, the author would agree that it's not close to real-life assault. If I said, "I shot a bear in virtual reality," it would be missing the point to complain that it's nowhere close to real-life bear shooting. No one said it was real-life, quite the contrary.
The story does bring up a central trouble spot in multiplayer gaming: no mechanisms in place for holding players responsible for being an asshat.
If this qualifies as sexual assault then I have been murdered about 40,000 times between halo and cod. Articles like this do a disservice to actual victims of heinous acts.
Nowhere in this article does the author say she was sexually assaulted, and if this was the original headline it has since been changed to the original medium post's headline: "My First Virtual Reality Groping"
Being treated as a actual object is something every woman has to deal with.
In the real world there are laws and social norms, but in VR apparently nobody steps up if they see it happening. I can see this being a very unpleasant experience, and if behaviour like this becomes normal/acceptable in VR I can imagine it takes the fun out of it.
Also, groping in real life does not do the body any physical damage too. But it's still outlawed.
19 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 45.6 ms ] threadNo, it isn't the same thing as rape. I wish we had a different term. But dismissing this as "not sexual assault" is not a great place for this discussion to start, for a number of reasons.
And I have been downvoted and your remark here has apparently been upvoted, which implies a general attitude of the overarching crowd, not just an isolated opinion being expressed. It is no wonder so many women are afraid of not only participation in VR, but even openly participating in many male dominated internet spaces.
I don't think anyone has at all insinuated that this would be acceptable behaviour, people are just reacting to the editorialized headline claiming this is sexual assault, which is a term generally used for more serious offenses. In the same way that people would almost certainly react the same way if you claimed that you were assaulted when someone knocked the books out of your hands. Technically true and no one is on the other guy's side, but (in that situation), you'd be being melodramatic.
I think it goes without saying that this sort of behavior is rude and annoying, but honestly it's not any different than other rude and annoying behaviour engaged in by immature people, whether they are tea bagging your avatar or calling you a faggot on the chat.
[0] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/contact
Contact
the act or state of touching; a touching or meeting, as of two things or people.
The article admits that no actual physical contact occurred. I agree the term sexual assault is problematic. But it is the norm for there to not be a ready made term for completely new, previously unavailable experiences.
Anyway, I am planning on stepping away from this discussion. I find it galling that it is being limited to simply dismissing what happened to her as if her fear and upset don't really count because "it was just pixels on a screen."
* psychological harm counts as harm
* an activity which has the same psychological effect as contact may be defined as contact under law, especially when VR starts to incorporate haptic feedback
* the law may still allow prosecution under the rubric that "virtual groping" constitutes a threat, as it certainly feels threatening
* many women's rights groups consider the use of certain language or communication to be "violence against women"; and some jurisdictions may prosecute it as such
The answer is it's not clear. The courts will eventually decide the issue.
If I was the author I would choose different words to describe the experience out of respect of people who have been sexually assaulted in real life.
The story does bring up a central trouble spot in multiplayer gaming: no mechanisms in place for holding players responsible for being an asshat.
This is, by the way, a repost of the medium post that was previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12777340
I think this version adds nothing to the original version, which has identical text.
Also, groping in real life does not do the body any physical damage too. But it's still outlawed.