Tania Levey's new book, "Sexual Harassment Online: Shaming and Silencing Women in the Digital Age," demonstrates how pervasive gender and sexual abuse is on

"A thoughtful and thought-provoking look at the language of online hate and the persistence of misogyny in contemporary Western culture." -Alecea Standlee, Gettysburg College

Women who use social media are often subjected to blatant sexual harassment, facing everything from name calling to threats of violence. Aside from being disturbing, what does this abuse tell us about gender and sexual norms? And can we use the Internet to resist, even transform, destructive misogynistic norms?

Exploring the language of shaming and silencing women in the cybersphere, Tania Levey addresses these questions and also considers how online attempts to regulate women's behavior intersect with issues of race, ethnicity, and class.

Tania G. Levey is associate professor of sociology at York College, City University of New York.

Some key findings in the book include:

• Women were just as likely as men to call women profane names, though less often as violent threats.
• Use of profanity against women peaked in 2016 during the presidential debates and election due to tweets directed at Hillary Clinton.
• Women of color and immigrant women are frequent targets of misogynist abuse and also experience racist comments. Commonly targeted celebrities include Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, Amber Rose, and Melania Trump.

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