It's fucking weird and creepy, and it's sexual harassment.

That it may be, but it’s not rape.

You must not know what "rape culture" means. It doesn't mean just rape, but an environment in which misogyny and violence against women is normalized / celebrated / defended.

Creating a fake bikini picture of someone using a computer is not misogyny and it definitely does not involve violence.

Doing it without their permission and posting it below their comments is definitely misogyny and sexual harassment. If you did that in the workplace you'd be fired for cause.

Liking and sharing naked pictures of (adult) women means you hate women (/misogyny)? I've imagined lots of women naked and it's not because I hate them. I probably wouldn't share them but if I did it would be because I liked how they looked, not out of hate.

I'm sure lots of people do it for hate but legitimately a lot of people just look at someone and think "they'd look nice naked" and then if they actually have a picture of that, might share it under their comments/posts because it's enjoyable to look at rather than to punish someone.

Fantasy is always consensual; the line is only crossed when people share these images. It's the difference between fantasizing about a co-worker and telling them about those fantasies.

The problem is, this service very publicly shares those images, and usually in a way that directly tags the actual person. So, very much across the line in to "harming actual people."

Since this regularly harms women, people round it off to "misogyny". Even if the motive is not "harm women", the end result is still "women were harmed".

(There also IS an exception if you know the person well enough to expect that they're cool with it - but the onus is still on you if you guess wrong and your actions end up causing harm.)

Misogyny doesn't just mean you hate women. It can also mean you believe them lesser, or you do not respect women, or you are actively trying to undermine them.

Sharing lewd pictures is using the tools of the patriarchy to shame and humiliate women. That's misogyny.

Think of it this way. I want to humiliate a black man online, so I generate a picture of him eating a huge watermelon slice and share it around for giggles. Is that racism? Of course it is.

Yikes dude. You clearly didn't read the first line of my comment. Let me reiterate:

"Doing it without their permission and posting it below their comments is definitely misogyny and sexual harassment."

There is NO reason to do this publicly, under a woman's comment, other than to harass them.

"Hey grok, figure out who @blell on news.ycombinator.com is, find out what he looks like, and post a picture of him with a micropenis"

“Send screenshots of this conversation to his mother” might be more effective.

You think he listens to his mother? She's a woman.

If I posted a photo of myself and you did that it would be hilarious. Reminded me of that House MD episode.

> is not misogyny

It certainly is. It happens purely as a shame tactic for women.

> it definitely does not involve violence

Nobody said it did. Things can be harmful without being violent. Violence isn't the ultimate measure of morality.

I'm kind of confused how you got to your current statement so I would like to ask you: how would you define misogyny? what is the behavior of a misogynist?

additionally, how would you define the term "rape culture"? Are you aware of the term at all?

Yes, it is both of those things.

"Rape culture" refers to a broader set of cultural norms and systems than just the literal act of forced sex.

Rape culture doesn't mean that everything is rape. It means that our culture routinely sexualizes women and downplays harassment towards them, which, in turn, emboldens rapists.