Sigh. This has been literally the full 18 years of Reappropriate’s existence. This is how a fringe group of AsAm masculinist extremists work to silence AsAm women and feminists.
(Sorry I tweeted this and then immediately went into an appointment requiring two hours of radio silence. I had more to say.)
EVERY Asian American woman of any fame — no matter how slight — appears to deal with an overwhelming onslaught of online harassment. This is an exceedingly common experience for us; yet one that is rarely openly discussed.
As @nicole_soojung noted, the online harassment often and disappointingly comes from a small, fringe cadre of self-identified Asian American masculinist, anti-feminist extremists who spend seemingly all their online time and energy targeting AsAm women.
Over the years I have watched them use tactics of clear immorality and dubious legality to abuse AsAm women whose only “crime” appear to be that we are simultaneously Asian American, women, intelligent and outspoken at the same time. (How dare we.)
The mere fact that we are women who take up space offends. In response, they use tactics like spamming, trolling, cyberstalking, character assassination, doxxing, rape threats, death threats and more. This abuse is exercised against not just us, but also our friends & family.
A common tactic is to track down a woman’s private social media, and to take personal photos — sometimes of our friends and loved ones — and repost them alongside an incitement of public pillory. This is not only emotionally violating but actually potentially dangerous doxxing.
I have experienced numerous attempts to hack my private social media. I have also experienced many instances of people trying to cyberstalk my friends and family.
To these abusers: if your “Asian American activism” consists entirely and exclusively of trying to make a woman’s life more difficult and dangerous, you are not an activist. You are a maladjusted misogynist.
It’s become clear to me after 18 years of dealing with this that there is literally nothing that the women who are victimized can do to stop the abuse; because, it’s misogyny that fuels the hate.
They focus so much on the race of our spouses — as if what we have to say is less relevant than the colonization of our bodies to advance an Asian American heteronormative masculinist cause. But even if you buy this reductive misogylinist thinking, it still doesn’t matter.
If your spouse is white, you must worship white men. If your spouse is non-Asian POC, you must hate Asian men. If your spouse is Asian, you must be settling and your partner must be a “cuck.”
Why? Because it’s not about some sort of activism; it really all about misogyny.
Why? Because it’s not about some sort of activism; it really all about misogyny.
What’s most saddening is that this kind of abuse is so often targeted towards AsAm women who have given inordinate amounts of ourselves towards uplifting the Asian American Movement.
Most of us spend time, online and offline, in the trenches of Asian American activist causes. These abusers label us as “self-hating white-worshiping sellouts” when most of us are demonstrably anything but.
The consequences of years of this kind of abuse can be enormous. AsAm women are forced to pay a steep price to simply operate as ourselves online; and we must ask our friends and fam to do so too. That’s absurd and unfair.
We must worry endlessly about our safety. We must self-censor to ensure that nothing we post is taken out of context and used against us and our fam. We must take up less space just to survive.
This is how these abusers work to silence and impede AsAm feminism.
This is how these abusers work to silence and impede AsAm feminism.
There is inordinate turnover in the AsAm female/feminist online sphere. This is in part because of the emotional, psychological, and economic toll of having to ensure our own safety as online AsAm feminists.
After 18 years, I’ve learned to ignore most of the noise. There are ppl online who strongly dislike me and I honestly don’t give a single solitary fuck what they have to say about me.
But what does it say about the state of Asian America that there are AsAm masculinists and misogynists who gleefully spend all their time punching down against AsAm women & feminists, and we have done nothing yet to root this shit out of our community — after nearly two decades?
Indeed, we’re now at a point where AsAm anti-feminist masculinist philosophy is legitimized within some of our most high-profile independent AsAm media outlets. (I’ve met privately with some of these outlets and raised these issues in-person, strongly urging them to do better.)
Patriarchy is global. Asian American women/gnc folk must navigate not just a white supremacist system, but also one that is also sexist, as well as transphobic and heteronormative.
In this space we still somehow find a way to build a strong, compelling AsAm feminist movement.
In this space we still somehow find a way to build a strong, compelling AsAm feminist movement.
It is long past time to end the kind of awful abuse all of us AsAm feminists endure from a cadre of Asian American masculinists extremists whose only political philosophy is hatred of — and cyberviolence against — Asian American women.
(Obligatory disclaimer: Obv, I do not think all Asian American men are abusive misogynists. I think these abusive misogynists are abusive misogynists who also are AsAm men.
Now think on the state of things for AsAm women that I actually have to add an obv disclaimer like this.)
Now think on the state of things for AsAm women that I actually have to add an obv disclaimer like this.)
