While Reddit has proved itself as a great source of viral news and received deserved praise for its coverage of the Aurora shootings, a recent thread posited a question about where women fit in in the site.

Reddit's solution is to steer women toward subreddits that are not misogynistic: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/07/reddits-gm-erik-martin-talks-women-and-rape-reddit/55195/

Unfortunately Reddit is still the kind of place where rapists can feel comfortable: http://jezebel.com/5929544/rapists-explain-themselves-on-reddit-and-we-should-listen

Reddit is still the kind of place where women have to hide their identities to avoid harassment: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/x5oac/why_is_reddit_so_antiwomen_outside_of_rgonewild/c5jkfnx

wow. i found this bit to be quite good...

Charlotte Shane put it well in a recent essay for The New Inquiry on moving past rape by being able to talk about it in non-victimizing terms:

...our culture is unable to address rape with the sobriety and clarity the topic deserves because we are still unable to address sex with the sobriety and clarity it deserves. The contention that rape should be regarded as an asexual act has done nothing to remedy this. Nor will it. As activist and writer Wendy McElroy points out, "there can be as many motives for rape as there are for murder and other violent crimes … Rape is every bit as complex." Insisting that no rape is ever "about" sex but is rather about an individual man acting on a patriarchal mandate to sow terror by exercising "power" does a disservice to us all.

This sorry state of affairs should foster honest conversation, not suppress it. We should not be so desperate to establish the seriousness of rape that we stigmatize intelligent discussion of it.

You're right, that is good.

I'm torn, though.

I don't like that rapists can feel comfortable on Reddit.

But maybe it's because I'm disappointed by the overall misogyny on Reddit, and that particular conversation has little to do with it.

Reddit is a libertarian manchild's paradise of misogyny and claims of reverse racism.

Reddit makes people hate atheists.

I was surprised that Reddit was 67% male.. that's more female representation than most boardrooms.

Yes but 17 of the top 24 social websites have more women than men.

So Reddit is strikingly bad at attracting women, compared with its peers.

Or strikingly good at attracting me, who notoriously enjoy social less..

is pinterest anti-man? Bad at attracting men?

Btw, that's not to say I'm horrified at the misogyny that occurs. But some sites will be male, some will be female. My comment was even though pinterest is female, it does seem to be very anti-man.

Just need more coffee and all will be well.

More coffee usually makes things better. :)

I think each of the top 24 sites started with a small community whose demographics are still reflected in them even though they've all gotten bigger.

In other words, they're exactly where they started, only more so.