THREAD
Some of you may have noticed that I have been a lot more ruthless with trolls and abusive tweets this week. I have absolutely reached my limit of the level of abuse I get every single day for sharing articles, talking about research, talking about women or my work.
Some of you may have noticed that I have been a lot more ruthless with trolls and abusive tweets this week. I have absolutely reached my limit of the level of abuse I get every single day for sharing articles, talking about research, talking about women or my work.
I am absolutely sick of being told to take the high road, to be nicer to trolls, to not sink to their level, to not engage with bullies, to walk away and do nothing. I am sick of being told to be more polite or to deal with this better or in a more diplomatic way
Just in the last 4 days I have been told (by real people, not bots or trolls) that I am a bigot, a bitch, a slut, an attention seeker, a nazi, that I get a kick out of not being able to have children, that I am mentally ill, that I profit from the rape of girls, that I hate men
I do not have to put up with this for some imaginary 'greater good' this isn't fuckin Hot Fuzz. I don't have to take this level of shit every single day and take it like a good woman. I would rather you all think I was a 'nasty woman' than take this level of abuse
There is absolutely NOTHING noble or professional about accepting the onslaught of vile accusations and abuse and doing nothing about it to appear that we have taken the moral highground. I am a human being just like them and I do not have to accept their bullshit.
This week I was told that I learned about rape and abuse from books and I was a rich, privileged academic with no life experiences. On the other hand, I have academics reporting me for talking about being brought up on council estate and having a child from a rape. I CANNOT WIN.
Women are sticking their necks out left right and centre to move us forward, to be honest and authentic and powerful in our own lives and experiences and this is the way we are treated? And people have the gall to tell me that misogyny and classism are myths?
I won't accept this level of hatred and abuse towards me online, because not a single fucking academic or professional who has sent me this stuff has ever had the substance to say a thing to my face and people keep telling me its not as serious when the abuse is online. Bullshit.
Generally, my response has been to mute or block people but this doesnt always work. This is the equivalent of sending your kid to school every day to get bullied and telling them to 'just ignore them dear'. Its bollocks. That's not a solution.
In an average day, an account of this size (15.2k), I get around several thousand notifications a day. Usually around 20-40 per minute. People have got to start to take this seriously when I can honestly say that probably around a quarter of those are threats, abuse or violence.
I am sick of people who say to me 'You're a bit direct/sweary/savage/offensive to that person' and then when I say 'well they were stalking me/abusing me/threatening me/sending me dick pics/sending me rape porn', I still get: 'well you still shouldn't respond like that'. GTFOH
Finally, I am disgusted by the amount of professionals, academics and colleagues who say to me 'Oh I saw you getting a load of abuse the other day on twitter' and then chuckle. 1. Why didn't you contact me to see how I was? 2. Why didn't you help? 3. WHY IS IT FUNNY?
