Alright, Now What?

With Libby Ward, social media influencer (@diaryofanhonestmom). Digital hate, harassment, and violence hurts so many women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people in Canada. Content creators who address gender justice issues like Libby have a lot to teach us about it.

Kelly Odenweller’s research identifies gendered stereotypes and assumptions about mothers and motherhood. They can easily make mothers feel as if they’re not living up to an ideal. If other people treat them poorly because of these stereotypes, they can feel isolated, anxious, and depressed. 

It’s caring community and allyship that can make a world of difference. No wonder motherhood content and content about raising kids is so popular in digital spaces. Mothers may seek it out to find belonging, connection, and representation. 

The trouble is that digital spaces also carry risks for diverse mothers and caregivers. They might find themselves targeted online based on their motherhood, as much as they’re targeted for other elements of who they are. 

Over coming months, we’re delving into gendered digital hate and harassment with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We talk about the problem and what we can do to change it. We offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us. 

Our guest Libby Ward is a digital creator, speaker, and mental health advocate. She’s known on Instagram and TikTok @diaryofanhonestmom and she’s committed to changing the motherhood narrative. She’s been recognized as a mental health advocate by TikTok, and has been featured on BBC, Good Morning America, Global News, and more. Her bestselling journal, entitled The Honest Mom Journal: The Struggling Mom’s Guide to Struggling Less, has helped thousands of mothers. 

Relevant Links: Libby Ward on Instagram and TikTok, The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence 

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Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

With Chris Bail, Founding Director of the Polarization Lab. The fact that social media platforms draw out and reward anti-social, polarizing behaviour goes hand-in-hand with the gendered hate and abuse so common to digital interactions. We can’t fix one without fixing the other.   

Nor can we ignore what social media does for us psychologically and socially. We use these platforms to build our personal identities. We use them to find community and a sense of belonging. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It's often a good thing. But it gets dangerous when platforms reward attacking and hurtful behaviour, when they encourage the targeting of vulnerable people, and when they make it easy to exert power over those with less power. 

In that sense, it’s easy to see why women, girls, and gender-diverse people, especially those who face multiple barriers, are so unsafe in digital spaces. Digital spaces reinforce and amplify the unbalanced power and abuse we know too well in our day-to-day lives.  

There’s a glimmer of hope: digital spaces are ultimately human built. The fact that they’re like this is not inevitable and it’s not unchangeable. Over coming months, we’re delving into this with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We talk about the problem and what we can do to change it. We offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us. 

We’re joined by Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Polarization Lab. He studies political tribalism, extremism, and social psychology using data from social media and tools from the emerging field of computational social science. He is the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make our Platforms Less Polarizing. A Guggenheim Fellow and Carnegie Fellow, Chris's research appears in leading publications such as Science, the American Journal of Public Health, and New York Times. He appeared on NBC Nightly News, CBS News, BBC, and CNN. His research has been covered by Wired, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and more. He regularly lectures to government, business, and the non-profit sector and consults with social media platforms struggling to combat polarization. He serves on the Advisory Committee to the National Science Foundation's Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate and helped create Duke's Interdisciplinary Data Science Program. Chris received his PhD from Harvard University in 2011. 

Relevant Links: Polarization Lab, The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence 

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Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

With Brynta Ponn, social media influencer (@bryntaponn, @brynstagram). Digital hate, harassment, and violence hurts so many women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people in Canada. Content creators who address gender justice issues like Brynta have a lot to teach us about it. 

Body shaming is defined as “unsolicited, mostly negative opinions or comments about a target’s body” that “can range from well-meant advice to malevolent insults”. That women and gender-diverse people deal with endless commentary about our bodies is nothing new. In our digital age, it’s highly public and downright weaponized, wrapped up with sexist, racist, ableist, homophobic, and transphobic language. Those of us with bodies different than the stereotyped ideal, like plus-sized women, get especially targeted on social media. 

Digital body shaming and blaming has serious implications for our mental health and self-esteem. And adds to the silencing effect women and gender-diverse people face online. The irony of this is that most of our bodies don’t match the limited ideal.

Over coming months, we’re delving into gendered digital hate and harassment with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We talk about the problem and what we can do to change it. We offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us. 

Our guest Brynta Ponn is a body confidence advocate and content creator. She’s based in Toronto and was raised in a South Asian community. She understands what it’s like to grow up with body image issues. She encourages people to live unapologetically, no matter what their journey with their body is. Her goal is to be a voice counteracting the negativity surrounding outdated beauty standards for women – for young girls, especially. She empowers women of all ages from all walks of life to be kinder to themselves and live their lives confidently and without shame. 

A note about content: this episode addresses gender-based violence. 

Relevant Links: Brynta Ponn on Instagram and TikTok, The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence 

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Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

With Imran Ahmed from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Whether you’re on social media, streaming platforms, dating, messaging and meeting apps, or on game sites, if you’re a woman, girl, or Two Spirit, trans, or non-binary person, you’re at greater risk of hate, harassment, and violence.  

It’s easy to forget the basic facts of digital media. Take social media. Social media spaces are run by corporations, many of which are based in the United States. The global footprint of these companies is huge. They hold big social power and cultural sway. There are over 36 million internet users and 33.1 million social media users in Canada. But users in Canada represent only a small slice of the world’s social media users. 

For all the time we spend on social media and the internet, it’s rather under-regulated. What a user wants – safety, connection, belonging, community – is often odds with how the spaces have been set up. In Canada, like the rest of the world, we’ve got a lot of challenges with regulation. It means that gendered digital hate, harassment, and abuse keeps happening every day. 

Over coming months, we’re delving into this with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We talk about the problem and what we can do to change it. We offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us. 

We’re joined by Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. He’s an authority on social and psychological malignancies on social media, such as identity-based hate, extremism, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. He regularly appears in the media and in documentaries as an expert on how bad actors use digital spaces to harm others and benefit themselves, as well as how and why bad platforms allow them to do so. 

A note about content: this episode addresses gender-based violence.

Relevant Links: Center for Countering Digital Hate; The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence 

Brief Listener Survey: did this episode help you? Fill out and be entered to win a great prize pack! 

Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

With Florence-Olivia (Floli) and Marie-Emmanuelle (Emma), together known as The Sis. Whether you’re on social media, streaming platforms, dating, messaging and meeting apps, or on game sites, if you’re a woman, girl, or Two Spirit, trans, or non-binary person, you’re at greater risk of hate, harassment, and violence. 

1 in 5 women experience online harassment in Canada. Younger people are amongst those who face higher risks. 44% of women and gender-diverse people between 16 and 30 are personally targeted by online hate speech. Those most at risk include people with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, Indigenous people, and Black people. 

Gendered digital hate, harassment, and abuse happens every day. It’s pervasive, urgent, and growing. You deserve to be safe and free from harm. 

Over coming months, we’re delving into this with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We talk about the problem and what we can do to change it. We offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us.

We’re joined by Florence-Olivia (BA, MA, Law PhD) and Marie-Emmanuelle (BA, MA, Law PhD), the sisters behind The Sis (@the.sisofficial). They are internationally renowned researchers and speakers in the field of prevention and intervention of violence. As public figures and experts in human rights and the elimination of all forms of discrimination, their mission is to make the world a fairer place. They have acted as consultants for businesses, NGOs, public sector organizations, and provincial and national governments. Recognizing that their own studies taught them the importance of democratizing research, they created their platform, The Sis. In its first year of existence, their community grew to over 400,000 people from around the world, exchanging viewpoints on current gender justice issues. The sisters were recognized as two of the 15 most influential people in Quebec in 2022. Their work on social media helped promote the Canadian Women’s Foundation’s Signal for Help to help end gender-based violence.

Relevant Links: The Sis Official on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X; The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence 

Brief Listener Survey: did this episode help you? Fill out and be entered to win a great prize pack! 

Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

With Sarah Sobieraj, author of Credible Threat: Attacks Against Women Online and the Future of Democracy. The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Council of Europe says, “just speaking out … about issues online, often when related to feminism, gender equality, sexual abuse or specific aspects of women’s rights, such as sexual and reproductive health and rights, may be a trigger for violence and abuse.”  

The goal of this violence, says the Organization of American States, is to “create a hostile online environment for women in order to shame, intimidate, denigrate, belittle, or silence them by means of surveillance, theft or manipulation of information, or control of their communication channels.” 

No wonder that almost one-third of people in Canada are hesitant about using social media or taking part in online discussions due to harassment concerns. We all lose out when women and gender-diverse people are silenced. 

Over coming months, we’re delving into this with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We talk about the problem and what we can do to change it. We offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us. 

Our guest Sarah Sobieraj is Professor and Chairperson in the Department of Sociology at Tufts University and is a Faculty Associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. She’s an expert in US political culture, extreme incivility, digital abuse and harassment, and the mediated information environment. Amongst other books, she is the author of Credible Threat: Attacks Against Women Online and the Future of Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2020), The Outrage Industry: Political Opinion Media and the New Incivility (Oxford University Press, 2014) with J. Berry, and Soundbitten: The Perils of Media-Centered Political Activism (NYU Press, 2011). Her scholarship can also be found in journals and venues such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Politico, Vox, CNN, PBS, NPR, National Review, and The Atlantic, among others. 

Content note: this episode addresses gender-based violence. 

Relevant Links: Credible Threat: Attacks Against Women Online and the Future of Democracy, The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence 

Brief Listener Survey: did this episode help you? Fill out and be entered to win a great prize pack! 

Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

With Kairyn Potts, social media influencer and creator (@ohkairyn) and writer, actor, model, and TV host. Digital hate, harassment, and violence hurts so many women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people in Canada. Content creators who address gender justice issues like Kairyn have a lot to teach us about it.

1 in 5 women experience online harassment in Canada. Indigenous, Black, and racialized women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people are amongst those who face higher risks. Thirty per cent of Indigenous women experience unwanted behaviour online. While 8% of cisgender and heterosexual students are targeted for online bullying, harassment, and hate, 27% of LGBQ female students, 39% of transgender students, and 19% of LGBQ male students are targeted for the same.  

Canada’s rising rate hate crimes is in large part due to increased hate in digital spaces against women, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and targeted ethnic and religious groups. 

Over coming months, we’re delving into this with leading experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every single week. We’re talking about the problem and what we can do to change it. We’re offering practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we’re talking about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us.

Our guest Kairyn (Kai) Potts (he/him) is proudly Nakota Sioux from Treaty 6 Territory, from Paul First Nation, and the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation. He is a proud Two Spirit person and sits as the National Youth Board Representative for the 2 Spirits in Motion Society. As a former Indigenous Youth Suicide Prevention Team representative, he is a passionate advocate who works to improve the lives of Indigenous youth, particularly queer youth and youth in the child and family services system. 

Kai now makes his home in beautiful Tkaronto where he works as a writer, actor, model, TV host, and continues his advocacy through content creation, frontline workshops, community events. He hosts Snapchat Canada’s first original series Reclaimed and has appeared in the APTN series 7th GEN. 

Kai co-founded the Indigenous gaming organization Neechi Clan in 2022. Kai is an avid gamer and streamer on Twitch and Tiktok who aims to create representation and opportunities for Indigenous youth in the gaming/content creation world. He uses his online platforms to share his culture, makeup, and fashion, his passions like gaming and acting, and some laughs with others. Interesting fact: Kai speaks English, Cree, Stoney (Iithga), Chinese (intermediate Mandarin), and Spanish. 

Content note: this episode addresses gender-based violence and suicide. 

Relevant Links: Kairyn Potts (@ohkairyn) on Instagram and TikTok, The Facts about Gendered Digital Hate, Harassment, and Violence 

Brief Listener Survey: did this episode help you? Fill out and be entered to win a great prize pack! 

Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

With Nina Jankowicz, author of How to Be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back. Whether you’re on social media, streaming platforms, game sites, or dating, messaging, and meeting apps, if you’re a woman, girl, or Two Spirit, trans, or non-binary person, you’re at greater risk of hate, harassment, and violence.  

1 in 5 women experience online harassment in Canada. Young women, racialized women, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people are amongst those who face higher risks. Canada’s rising rate hate crimes is in large part due to increased hate in digital spaces against women, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and targeted ethnic and religious groups. 

Gendered digital hate, harassment, and abuse happens every day. It’s pervasive, urgent, and growing. You deserve to be safe and free from harm. 

Over coming months, we’re delving into this with experts and content creators, releasing in-depth episodes every week. We’ll offer practical tips to help you in your digital life, and we’ll talk about what it means to “take back the tech” for all of us. 

Nina Jankowicz joins us today, an internationally-recognized expert on disinformation and democratization and the author of two books: How to Lose the Information War (Bloomsburg Academic, 2020) and How to Be A Woman Online (Bloomsburg Academic, 2022), an examination of online abuse and disinformation and tips for fighting back. She is Vice President at the Centre for Information Resilience, a non-profit focused on countering disinformation. She has advised governments, international organizations, and tech companies, and testified before the US Congress, UK Parliament, and European Parliament.  

In 2022, Jankowicz was appointed to lead the US Disinformation Governance Board, an intra-agency best practices and coordination entity at the Department of Homeland Security; she resigned the position after a sustained disinformation campaign. From 2017 to, 2022, she has held fellowships at the Wilson Center, where she led research about the effects of disinformation on women and freedom of expression. She advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on strategic communications under the auspices of a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship in 2016 and 2017. Early in her career, she managed democracy assistance programs to Russia and Belarus at the National Democratic Institute. 

Content note: this episode addresses gender-based violence. 

Relevant Links: How to Be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back (Bloomsburg Academic, 2022),

Brief Listener Survey: did this episode help you? Fill out and be entered to win a great prize pack! 

Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

This series of podcast episodes has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada. 

With Dr. Stacey Bélanger, pediatrician at CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montréal and Mental Health Task Force member at the Canadian Pediatric Society. Young people in Canada aged 12 to 17 say their mental health has declined since 2015, and the decline is more pronounced amongst young women. On top of that, children and youth who are recent immigrants or refugees, racialized, or in rural and remote communities are less likely to get appropriate mental health care. 

Think social media pressures, hyper-sexualization, stereotyping, toxic masculinity, bullying, fear of rising abuse and harassment, climate anxiety, and generally feeling left behind. The list of what girls and gender-diverse young people face today is intense. Their mental health and well-being, as well as their sense of connection, belonging, and confidence have been shaken. Their healthy relationship skill development opportunities have taken a hit, too. 

How can caring adults in the lives of girls and young people smooth the transition back to school? How can we support improved youth mental health, confidence, and healthy relationships? 

Dr. Stacey Bélanger, pediatrician with specialized training in pediatric neurology and a doctorate degree in neurological sciences, joins us. At CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montréal, her focus is on patients with neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. Dr. Bélanger is also Associate Professor of Medicine at Université de Montréal where she teaches about mental health and mental illness. She authored a book on mental health and has written in peer-reviewed journals on mental health disorders in children and youth. Amongst other roles, she sits on the Mental Health Task Force and Digital Health Task Force at the Canadian Pediatric Society. 

Relevant links: find mental health and other services and resources at canadianwomen.org⁠. 

Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation 

With Taylor Meissner at Intersections Therapy Collective. Young people in Canada aged 12 to 17 say their mental health has declined since 2015, and the decline is more pronounced amongst young women. On top of that, children and youth who are recent immigrants or refugees, racialized, or in rural and remote communities are less likely to get appropriate mental health care. 

Think social media pressures, hyper-sexualization, stereotyping, toxic masculinity, bullying, fear of rising abuse and harassment, climate anxiety, and generally feeling left behind. The list of what girls and gender-diverse young people face today is intense. Their mental health and well-being, as well as their sense of connection, belonging, and confidence have been shaken. Their healthy relationship skill development opportunities have taken a hit, too. 

How can caring adults in the lives of girls and young people smooth the transition back to school? How can we support improved youth mental health, confidence, and healthy relationships? 

Taylor Meissner joins us to talk about it. She is a Registered Social Worker with a Master of Social Work from the University of Toronto. She has lived both in Tkaronto and unceded Algonquin territory or Ottawa, where she currently resides. She is a Disabilities Coordinator/Learning Strategist at Carleton University. Taylor also provides counselling in private practice at Intersections Collective, mainly working with 2SLGBTQ+ adults and youth. Outside of paid work, you can find her doing grassroots/community organizing, reading a book from the library, spoiling her Rottweiler Sappho, or delighting in swimming outdoors like the mer-creature she is. 

Note: If youth are struggling academically or socially, families can reach out to their school's guidance counsellor or accessibility office, local community counselling services (which often offer services on a sliding scale or free of charge), and after-school community recreation programs. 

Relevant links: find mental health and other services and resources at canadianwomen.org⁠. 

Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ 

Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. 

Facebook: Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Twitter: @cdnwomenfdn 

LinkedIn: The Canadian Women’s Foundation 

Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation