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Another comment lit up Caroline Gleich’s Instagram feed. This one reads, “she’s a pretty face, that’s her paycheck.” Unfortunately, Gleich, a professional ski mountaineer, is no stranger to these types of negative comments. As a bystander, it might be easy enough to shrug these critiques off as meaningless, the work of just another hater. However, to a woman who has built her career from the ground up with a combination of brutally difficult physical training and exceptional talent, this kind of insult hits where it hurts. Caroline is not the sole victim either. Chronic cyber-harassment of athletes, especially females, is a pertinent and devastating issue of injustice harming both individuals and society on the daily.
Temporarily sidelining the vast issues surrounding gender inequality, as an athlete and even just a human, I am hyper-attuned to the stresses presented to us each and every day. I began competing internationally during my freshman year of high school, and firsthand, I have experienced those internal and external pressures balancing like the weight of the world on my shoulders. The task of training in itself is excruciatingly difficult physically, as well as time-consuming. Many nights have I lay awake before a competition, the anxiety of what’s to come filling my brain with thoughts, making sleep impossible. Unlike Caroline Gleich, however, I can find solace in knowing that most likely, should I roll over to check the time, there will be no hateful messages spamming my lock screen.
Athletes are some of society’s strongest members; they are role models and trailblazers for the next generation. When a country puts athletes forward in competitions, especially internationally, they are selecting representatives for their country and not just the event. These people will act as ambassadors, the face of a nation. They represent more than just themselves. One such athlete, cyclist and olympian Kirstin Armstrong, was also the victim of cyber-harassment, “two weeks before the Olympic Games, I didn’t believe I could compete.” Her message echoed that of Gleich’s, “I was so wound up and stressed, I couldn’t sleep at night. All I could do was think about what these people had to say.” You can almost hear the emotion and upset from this strong, passionate, and exceptional individual. Armstrong was the recipient of rude, spiteful, and unwarranted messages from fellow citizens of the US, yet still fought to represent us without our support. This bullying and its psychological effects can go so far as to harm these athletes in competition, when the worst thing they have done is be ‘too pretty,’ or ‘too old.’ How is this fair?
Consider Immanuel Kant, whose philosophy of deontology argues that it’s NEVER just to use people “as a means to an end.” Unlike a utilitarian (who may run a cost-benefit analysis on how much pleasure the harassers receive, and weight it against the pain experienced by the athlete), Kant would argue that this kind of cyber-harassment is always wrong. The action of bullying is immoral regardless of the consequences, which also happen to be negative. Innocent people like Gleich and Armstrong should not be subject to these injustices, because it’s unethical and wrong.
Cyber-harassment isn’t something that can just be ignored. It can be devastating to individuals, society, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It is the responsibility of both social media companies and citizens to speak out against cyber-harassment. Instead of breaking our female athletes down, let’s build them up. The solution is right there too, something as simple as a basic system for filtering out negative comments could significantly better the lives of people like Caroline Gleich, Kirstin Armstrong, and a multitude of other female athletes. Harassment and bullying are wrong, let’s rise up to combat them for the next generation.
Another comment lit up Caroline Gleich’s Instagram feed. This one reads, “she’s a pretty face, that’s her paycheck.” Unfortunately, Gleich, a professional ski mountaineer, is no stranger to these types of negative comments. As a bystander, it might be easy enough to shrug these critiques off as meaningless, the work of just another hater. However, to a woman who has built her career from the ground up with a combination of brutally difficult physical training and exceptional talent, this kind of insult hits where it hurts. Caroline is not the sole victim either. Chronic cyber-harassment of athletes, especially females, is a pertinent and devastating issue of injustice harming both individuals and society on the daily.
Temporarily sidelining the vast issues surrounding gender inequality, as an athlete and even just a human, I am hyper-attuned to the stresses presented to us each and every day. I began competing internationally during my freshman year of high school, and firsthand, I have experienced those internal and external pressures balancing like the weight of the world on my shoulders. The task of training in itself is excruciatingly difficult physically, as well as time-consuming. Many nights have I lay awake before a competition, the anxiety of what’s to come filling my brain with thoughts, making sleep impossible. Unlike Caroline Gleich, however, I can find solace in knowing that most likely, should I roll over to check the time, there will be no hateful messages spamming my lock screen.
Athletes are some of society’s strongest members; they are role models and trailblazers for the next generation. When a country puts athletes forward in competitions, especially internationally, they are selecting representatives for their country and not just the event. These people will act as ambassadors, the face of a nation. They represent more than just themselves. One such athlete, cyclist and olympian Kirstin Armstrong, was also the victim of cyber-harassment, “two weeks before the Olympic Games, I didn’t believe I could compete.” Her message echoed that of Gleich’s, “I was so wound up and stressed, I couldn’t sleep at night. All I could do was think about what these people had to say.” You can almost hear the emotion and upset from this strong, passionate, and exceptional individual. Armstrong was the recipient of rude, spiteful, and unwarranted messages from fellow citizens of the US, yet still fought to represent us without our support. This bullying and its psychological effects can go so far as to harm these athletes in competition, when the worst thing they have done is be ‘too pretty,’ or ‘too old.’ How is this fair?
Consider Immanuel Kant, whose philosophy of deontology argues that it’s NEVER just to use people “as a means to an end.” Unlike a utilitarian (who may run a cost-benefit analysis on how much pleasure the harassers receive, and weight it against the pain experienced by the athlete), Kant would argue that this kind of cyber-harassment is always wrong. The action of bullying is immoral regardless of the consequences, which also happen to be negative. Innocent people like Gleich and Armstrong should not be subject to these injustices, because it’s unethical and wrong.
Cyber-harassment isn’t something that can just be ignored. It can be devastating to individuals, society, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It is the responsibility of both social media companies and citizens to speak out against cyber-harassment. Instead of breaking our female athletes down, let’s build them up. The solution is right there too, something as simple as a basic system for filtering out negative comments could significantly better the lives of people like Caroline Gleich, Kirstin Armstrong, and a multitude of other female athletes. Harassment and bullying are wrong, let’s rise up to combat them for the next generation.