So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Deindividuation is the term used by social theorists to describe the way that masses of people act in concert and lose their free will. In such situations, people may feel less accountable for their actions and more inclined to engage in behaviors that they might typically avoid, such as violence, due to a perceived sense of anonymity within the group. Ronson describes it as the contemporary term for 19^th-century French doctor Gustave Le Bon’s crowd theory or, colloquially, “group madness” (87). While there is limited scientific basis for this concept, as Ronson illustrates, it comes up frequently in pop psychology for enabling behavior such as online trolling and public shaming. Notably, the concept appears in Adria Richards’s blog post describing her reasoning as to why Hank and his friend felt comfortable making sexually charged jokes in the crowd at a conference (109).

S&M is an abbreviation for sadomasochism, a form of sexual role play that involves enacting a consensual exchange of power dynamics and the experience of pleasure or pain between partners. A sadist derives sexual pleasure from inflicting pain on another while a masochist derives sexual pleasure from experiencing pain. S&M encompasses a wide range of activities, from bondage and discipline to dominance and submission, often involving the use of various tools or implements.