Canadian feminist activist receives death threats and other abuse after being targeted by Men’s Rights Activists
And so the MRAs have found yet another woman to hate.
Earlier this month, as many of you no doubt know, a Men’s Rights group sponsored a lecture at the University of Toronto. The event drew protesters, and the protesters drew MRAs with video cameras. One of the MRAs filmed a confrontation between a red-haired feminist activist and a number of MRAs who continually interrupted her as she tried to read a brief statement.
Her crime? She wasn’t exactly polite in responding to the interrupters. And so, after video of the confrontation was uploaded to YouTube, and linked to on the Men’s Rights subreddit and elsewhere, she became a virtual punching bag for the angry misogynists of the internet.
A Voice for Men, naturally, led the charge, running an article by Canadian MRA Dan Perrins labeling her “Little red frothing fornication mouth” and commenting on her breasts. The Amazing Atheist weighed in with a video I couldn’t bring myself to even watch.
Since being targeted by angry YouTube misogynists and MRAs, the red-haired activist has received death threats, rape threats and literally hundreds of other hateful and harassing messages. She’s also been “doxxed” — that is, she’s had her personal information plastered all over the internet, including on A Voice for Men’s forum. Ten days after being uploaded to YouTube, the video of her faceoff against the MRAs has garnered more than 300,000 views, and YouTubers are still leaving threats and insults and crude sexual comments.
This, apparently, is what “Men’s Human Rights Activism” consists of: the doxxing and harassment of individual women.
Several days ago, she contacted me to tell me about the harassment she’s endured. Here’s some of what she wrote:
I’m the red-head. I’m sure by now, you’re one of the 260,000 people who have seen the video of me … .
Because I had the audacity to tell a dude to stfu, an MRA no less, I have since been the target of not only just online misogyny (as if that’s a surprise) but cyber stalking, rape and death threats. They somehow found my facebook, they found my tumblr, they found a twitter acct that I don’t even use, they even found an old [dating site] profile of mine with outdated info …
I also got an anonymous message on tumblr that specifically said “[name deleted] would be disappointed”. [Name deleted] is my dog that died 1.5 years ago, I don’t talk about him on tumblr, nor fb, so they would have had to reaaaaalllly dig to find this info. …
In about 12-24hours, I got about400-500 new messages on my blog, most of them hate, which included rape and death threats, also people wishing death upon me or the typical troll “kill yourself” message. They made a meme of me.
I dunno how many haters I have, and I don’t know where they are. I can’t be sure at any given second, if I’m ever outside my house … if anyone is going to recognize me and try to hurt me.
With her permission, I am reposting screenshots she sent me documenting some of the harassment she’s endured. Even though her personal information has already been widely disseminated online, I don’t want to contribute to that, so I’ve whited out any information that might reveal her identity.
TRIGGER WARNING for what follows, for threatening language and crude sexual remarks.
Here’s a death threat she received from someone claiming to represent the “Islamic Brotherhood.”
Here are some sample comments from her Tumblr inbox. I’ve whited out comments and parts of comments that consist of her contact info, which being sent to her in an attempt to intimidate and frighten her by letting her know they “know where she lives.”
Here’s another threatening comment sent to her via Tumblr:
Here are some comments sent to her via her YouTube account. You’ll notice that the second comment comes from AVFM’s Dan Perrins, who is clearly relishing the attacks on her.
And another glimpse into her YouTube inbox:
Here’s a screenshot from a Men’s Rights forum revealing her personal information.
Meanwhile, over on YouTube, the hateful comments continue to pile up. Here are some of the nastiest ones I’ve collected. I am deliberately posting a lot of them in an attempt to convey something of the relentless nature of the attacks on teh red-haired activist — though I should note I’ve only gone through a small portion of the total comments there and this doesn’t even reflect all of the awful ones I found. These are not in any particular order. I threw in a few non-threatening ones that struck me as a tad ironic or otherwise revealing.
Again, this is only a small fraction of the abuse she’s gotten on YouTube.
This is what happens when MRAs and other misogynists target a woman online. The only thing that’s surprising here is the sheer amount of the hateful comments.
I’ve seen no serious attempts from any MRAs to rein in this sort of hatred. A Voice for Men has tried to distance itself in a superficial way from some of the harassment it has played a central role in unleashing, with an official announcement asking readers to refrain from posting the personal information of the red-haired activist in the comments. Meanwhile, in the AVFM forum, comments linking to her defunct dating profiles remain up.
This is what MRA “activism” looks like.
Coming tomorrow: A more detailed look at AVFM’s role in the harassment.
Posted on April 15, 2013, in a voice for men, antifeminism, atheism minus, gloating, harassment, hate, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, MRA, not-quite-plausible deniability, penises, racism, rape culture, rape jokes, reddit, sexual harassment, taking pleasure in women's pain, the c-word, threats and tagged a voice for men, antifeminism, harassment, men's rights, misogyny, rape jokes, reddit, university of toronto. Bookmark the permalink. 2,101 Comments.
more proof feminists fail to read before they write
Way to non-sequitor, UnsexyFail.
Nah, we understood your comment. And it was full of shit, sorry to say.
Email Futrelle about it if you want to send her a message via him.
Can someone lend the unsexy one some punctuation?
Could someone also lend him a clue as well? He’s an embarrassment to the Marines if his gravatar is anything to go by.
Kendra: David is passing along messages to her. And woo for potty training! Fist bump!
Wait… even worse, the guy is suggesting not that punching guys in the face is wrong, but that they should be able to punch women in the face. What the ever-loving fuck?
The few, the currently embarrassed at being associated with such an asshat.
Baroncognito, welcome to what passes for MRA logic.
http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-penny/2013/01/take-back-net-its-time-end-culture-online-misogyny
Ugh, Kamilla’s doing it again!
Do we need glove puppets to get the point across to kamilla?
So many of those comment are just disgusting. It always pains me to know morons like this are out there running loose.
@pecunium Just so you know, I have submitted other writing in past that wasn’t accepted.
Kee-rist, Kamilla, knock it off already.
Hi Kendra! Good to see you!
Oh, well in that case, I guess you’re just quite the crusader. So what?
@hellkell
Pecunium wrote, “Why not submit a new post?” That’s why I put that. I appreciate the criticism.
Do you want cookies or what? I’m not sure why you’re here at all.
So you submitted a post/posts PaulE declined, big whoop. You have your own blog, publish there.
Kendra, hi, good to see you!
LBT – you’ve already had the info but I’m just adding my don’t use Facebook message. I had an account there; never posted anything on it, absolutely didn’t put any personal information there. But my boss – who isn’t on ANY social media sites – got an email at work from them, saying he should join because all these people he knew were on it.
One had worked for us a decade ago.
One was our general manager’s offsider.
One was me.
If that doesn’t spell data mining and gross invasion of privacy, I don’t know what does. I closed my account immediately.
Do you like piano music? If so, I really recommend George Winston’s albums. Really, really peaceful. Autumn is my favourite:
In order to criticize your writing we’d have to read it, and that’s probably not going to happen.
(Or at least I, personally, am not that bored.)
This made me smile.
http://www.retailhellunderground.com/.a/6a00e54f10a0988834017eea3f1038970d-500wi
Okay. No cookies necessary.
The Pecunium comment had question marks in it. I gave an answer to one of them.
I appreciate the feedback.
Harassing and making rape and death threats against women does nothing whatsoever to help men or anybody else, yet it’s the thing that most consistently excites”men’s rights activists” and spurs them to action.
I’m starting to think Dani is a bot. Appreciating the feedback is all he seems to do.
He’s the online equivalent of a Gap greeter.
neuroticbeagle: I saw that! Yay for awesome dads.
At least he’s a polite bot.
Gods, the contrasts of the morning. I arrive at work blissed out on love and cartwheels and autumn air and see the Boston marathon news … I hope Kirbywarp’s okay, and all the loved ones of our Manboobzers.
Kind of relaxing if you ask me.
That’s why he just doesn’t fit in over at AVFM – he’s much too polite, Elam must find him confusing.
I just read the Sam and Sofia the First story out at work. Yay for dad and old lady and Sam!
I saw this today: http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/profound-wisdom-from-bob-ross
Did I miss something here with Dani Pettas? (Er, unless he doesn’t like his name capitalized.) I mean, I’ve only seen the guy today, and I get the sense he hasn’t figured out AVFM is full of shit but seems… okay? He hasn’t been retaliating. I feel like in his position, “I appreciate your feedback” is probably one of the least aggressive things he could say. Maybe he’s just pushing out, figuring things out? (Sorry if I’m putting words in your mouth.)
Or is this guy like one of the many sporadic trolls who says something horrible, then comes back pretending nothing happened?
RE: mysexymaster
I repeat what I said. Fuck off. I just had a panicked day calling everyone I knew to make sure they hadn’t been blown up and getting called by everyone else to make sure I hadn’t been blown up. I have no patience for your flavor of shit today.
Nobody’sSexyAnything, a loveless loser just like the rest of the MRM.
Bob Ross was such a lovely fellow. I just love watching his painting videos. They help me fall asleep.
(Loveless as in incapable of feeling love, of course, not as in never been loved, though in their cases, the second is a likely consequence of the first.)
RE: Aaliyah
Happy Little Trees Guy is dead? D: Aw man, today is shaping up to be a mega bummer…
Why isn’t Youtube deleting the accounts of people obviously breaking the law? This is uttering threats. Uttering threats is illegal. You’re not allowed to post illegal content on Youtube, but this is allowed because…?
I guess it’s supposed to be like hypnotism for dummies? He figures that if he calls himself “your sexy master” people will go “oh, hey, i guess he must be really sexy, i should probably let him boss me around in bed”.
That kid and the movie = D’AWW!
Also, a tiny puppy — https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BH7hHRKCAAAmkCr.jpg
Sorry, I can’t deal with the world today, so I offer cute.
He passed away nearly twenty years ago. :(
http://www.buzzfeed.com/dunkindonuts/animals-that-need-a-little-pick-me-up
squee!
Oh my goodness, how tiny is that puppy?
Who needs a roomba when you’ve a floor-polisher kitty?
RE: princessbonbon
He passed away nearly twenty years ago.
Wow. I’m really out of date. <.<
The “master” connotation of “your sexy master” creeps me out especially because it makes me think of “it puts the lotion on its skin” guy from the Silence of the Lambs.
Equality is only achieved once everyone is allowed to punch everyone ! O yay, can you imagine such a wonderful world <3
My heart goes out to the people of Boston. I’ve got some family up there, and they’re okay, they were nowhere near the blasts.
In other news, someone tried to blow up Sheriff Joe Arpaio, which will only serve to encourage him (the bomb never made it past the Post Office).
Hope we hear from kirbywarp soon.
LBT, I did something similar to you today, calling and being called, though I was farther away. Everybody I personally know seems to be ok.
I coped by chatting with the neighbors about the explosions, then switching to “normal” topics, similar to your distracting plans.
Also people have been passing around this quote which may help: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster’, I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.” – Fred Rogers
And on-topic: nobody deserves death threats and I say to MRAs: stfu!
Oh, that tiny, tiny puppy. I needed that.
If anyone needs a laugh, or at least a mild chuckle;
http://artistryforfeminismandkittens.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/man-boobz-testimonials/
I love that Fred Rogers quote. Also, I don’t know if it’s apocryphal or not, but several people I know shared stories of marathon runners who immediately turned and ran off to the hospitals to give blood.
A lot of my friends are very suspicious of the timing (the recall effort seems to be getting close to the number they for it to be successful and he barely won last time.)
cloudiah, I left a comment on your blog, but it’s in moderation ‘cos of my new handle. :)
Oh god, this seriously made me cry. Absolutely made my day.
Just to be distracting….
Bob Ross is awesome. I used to watch his stuff all the time. Also, I have ASMR and his voice is one of the most soothing voices I’ve had the pleasure of listening to.
So it was true? Yay for people.
Jeez, what an awful thing too happen, all my best wishes for the people of Boston.
Also, here’s a bunny.
RE: Aaliyah
See, this is why I love humanity, despite everything.
RE: starskita
Thanks, I appreciate that. I try to emulate Fred Rogers in some ways; I want to love humanity and think well of them, even when horrible things happen. Usually they give me good reason to.
David, what is her Twitter or Youtube account? I’d like to message her support! She needs it! The MRA creatures already have her info.
Kitty loves bunny.
Um, I also live in Boston, but I’m fine. Even if I hadn’t had to work today, you couldn’t pay me to go downtown on marathon day.
Sleepy baby sloth:
Penguins chasing a butterfly.
Over and out (for now).
::quoting and offering people hugs about the boston marathon, if one doesn’t want to read, for the heads up::
@katz
God. All the internet hugs if you want them :( I hope you’re family is okay.
That’s so good.
@yourannoyingloser
Ignoring your ableism (fucktarts? O_o) there is no fucking way she had enough time, also, you’re a vile shitstain on the otherwise nice underpants of humanity.
@LBT
Yay.
Internet hugs again if wanted. This was a couple hours ago, so I’m probably no help, but I normally listen to music to calm down, or cuddle my guinea pigs, so are there any routines that help you? Idk, cuz mine were very me-specific. Sorry again for no help, and internet hugs offered again.
@yourunsexyfailure
He says more proof, but also fails to give or quote the proof. Seems like he might need something here…
@neuroticbeagle
Same here :)
@Emilygoddess
Glad to hear that you’re ok. Are you worried about friends/ family (if you have them in that area), or that already been checked out?
emilygoddess, I didn’t know you lived in Boston – so glad you’re okay! Have you heard from your friends/family who might have been there?
You know, I thought I realized how ugly MRAs could get. And yet it still shocked me when I realized, about 200 comments in, that all of the trolls were descending on THIS thread because it was a more upsetting topic than usual and so they were more likely to get a significant emotional response.
I don’t know what that surprised me – that’s pretty much what trolling is! – but somehow it did.
(I can’t believe we’re even still addressing the Marky Mark thing, but I will point out that the issue of male suicide is addressed *in the article she was trying to read in the first video*. Then, after the dude kept shouting over and interrupting her and not letting her finish, he dragged up the same issue to try to prove that ~misandry is a thing~ and ~feminism doesn’t care~. No wonder she got snarky with him.)
LBT, glad you’re feeling better. I spent the afternoon kinda freaked out myself; I don’t even live in the Northeast anymore, but I’m from northern New England and I know a LOT of people who live in the Boston area.
PrincessBonBon, I love that article! And I love Bob Ross; so soothing. Plus, in our beauty-obsessed culture, I find myself increasingly charmed that his go-to adjective was not ‘pretty’, but ‘happy’.
Speaking of! I have no confidence I’ll do the embedding right, but here’s a bit more brain bleach: Bob Ross feeding a squirrel.
RE: Emilygoddess
Sorry; I forgot that you were in Boston. I’m glad you’re okay! (And sadly disappointed that the trolls can’t even shut up for a bombing.)
Okay, no wonder she told him to cry a fucking river if he was trying to use an issue as ammunition for ‘misandry is a thing’.
emilygoddess — didn’t realize you we’re in Boston! Glad you’re ok!