Web Sexism Spurs Meltdown

Salon Editor-in-chief Joan Walsh admits that sexist web trolls are a serious problem, despite her own longtime dismissal of the issue. Her mea culpa follows the implosion of programming instructor and game developer Kathy Sierra's blog after Sierra was assaulted, on her site and others, by crude sexual insults and finally death threats.

After years of telling Salon's women writers to blow off the nastiness—to "man up, " so to speak—Walsh observes that even at Salon commenters'  "criticisms of women writers are much more brutal and vicious than those about men." Now she wonders whether her advice has been tantamount to "telling them to stop wearing such provocative outfits online, lest they get what they deserve." (More feminism stories.)