You may have read about the heartbreaking story of Amanda Todd, a Canadian teenager who recently posted a much-watched YouTube video (posted below) detailing the bullying and harassment she’d endured online and in real life. This past Wednesday, she was found dead, the apparent victim of suicide.
Here, from the Vancouver Sun, is the basic outline of Amanda’s story:
Amanda was 12 years old when she made a mistake that would haunt her until her death three years later.
Her ordeal started while she was fooling around online with friends. She probably didn’t think it was risky behaviour when she lifted her top to flash the person who was flattering her at the other end of the webcam.
Amanda’s moment of indiscretion was not unusual for someone her age: Sexting and using webcams to share sexual photos is a growing trend among children, some so young they are still in grade school.
“The Internet stalker she flashed kept stalking her,” said Carol. “Every time she moved schools he would go undercover and become a Facebook friend. What the guy did was he went online to the kids who went to (the new school) and said that he was going to be a new student — that he was starting school the following week and that he wanted some friends and could they friend him on Facebook.”
“He eventually gathered people’s names and sent Amanda’s video to her new school.”
The video and photos went to teachers, to parents, to Facebook friends, which lead to repeated taunts: “Oh, there’s the porn star.” …
Amanda was the victim of unrelenting blackmail. And the cyberspace stalker was aided by people in Amanda’s real-world life — kids who would share the photos on their cellphones, kids who would gang up to hurl first verbal abuse and then fists at her.
Amanda’s story illustrates what can happen to young girls when sexualized images of them floating around online, whether they’ve put these pictures up themselves in a moment of poor judgement or whether someone has stolen them from password-locked private photo albums, or whether someone has surreptitiously taken an “upskirt” or “down-the-blouse” or some other compromising picture of them in public. This is the sort of damage that things like the Jailbait and Creepshots subreddits can do to young girls. This is why it’s so important that things like these subreddits be shut the fuck down.
Sadly, even after her suicide, Amanda remains the target of bullies and assholes online.
One of these assholes? The MRA and atheist videoblogger and all-around terrible person known to the world as The Amazing Atheist, whom we first met when he had a Reddit meltdown and started spewing misogynistic abuse at his detractors. Now he’s spitting on Amanda’s memory.
Mocking the format of Amanda’s video, in which told her story by holding up sheets of paper to the camera describing the abuse she’s endured, The Amazing Atheist posted this picture to his Tumblr blog earlier today:
I simply can’t comprehend the mind of someone whose response to Amanda’s story is this. Beyond awful.
Here’s Amanda’s video:
He isn’t amazing, whatever he likes to call himself. He’s just a horrible creep and bullying loser.
TAA is a piece of shit.
NWO, don’t even think about firing up your victim blaming horseshit on this subject. Not in the mood.
God damn, this day just got worse. Why are some people such fucking assholes? Both the people who tormented her and The Agonizing Asshat.
I hadn’t read that story. It’s heartbreaking.
I was goaded by a group of guys (my age) to flash them when I was 13. I knew immediately when I did it that it was a stupid thing to do. But it was 1976 and there were no phone cameras or Facebook. Rumors got around for a couple of weeks and I just rolled my eyes at people and they died down.
This girl was never given a chance.
At one time, stuff you did on the internet stayed on the internet, and stuff you did IRL stayed IRL. Not any more. We need to call bullying what it is, and blame the bullies, not the victims.
Yeah, TAA is a piece of shit. I’m not sure what point he thinks he’s making here. (Well, I know what point he thinks he’s making, but he’s so very wrong.)
What a complete asshole. No, you’re not one of the other people who’ve died, because you’re not dead, jackass! She was fifteen for fuck’s sake!
Oh, jeezis. It just never bottoms out; always lower to go.
And it’s not just him, I’ve come to expect the worse from The Amazing Asshat. What really gets me is all the people liking and reblogging that post approvingly.
Is there any way we can make this a troll-free zone? I just don’t want to hear it here.
I couldn’t finish, too horrible. Do they know who her stalker was?
Seconded, clairedammit. I can think of a few regular trolls I really don’t need to see gloating over this girl’s death. Actually there’s one whose old comments I read last night who’s really overdue for banning.
TAA just makes me want to vomit.
That poor, poor kid.
I live in Vancouver, and it’s been absolutely all over the news. Our premier filmed a youtube video response encouraging everyone to participate in October is Anti-Bullying month. An achingly sad story. Her mother made a statement today in the press, which I have yet to read. She suffered so much in her short life. I hope she rests in peace.
I used to like TAA’s review videos – allthough blatant sexims did shine trough them from time to time. Then I happened to hear about his anti-feminist bullshit and despite my better judgement, decided to take a quick look at some of his youtube videos. I’d seen a few before, which really didn’t expose him as the assbag that he is, since they didn’t cover a topic that required any real thinking or research.
I’m just glad I had stopped using youtube through a user account by then so that I couldn’t comment. That likely would not have ended pretty.
The video itself made it loud and clear that he had absolutely no idea what feminism even means – he always talked about it like it was the equilavent of female chauvinism or something similar to that.
Even later on I also bumped into his posts elsewhere on teh intahwebs, including threads where he tried on purpose triggering abuse and rape victims (because he didn’t believe that triggers were a real thing – again, an astonishing lack of research).
Not to mention the verbal abuse, threats of physical violence and all around idiotic reasoning.
For someone who claims to be a humanist and oh so reasonable, he surely is a pathetic excuse for a human being. If he really cared, he would not behave this way. He’d know better.
So TAA is jealous of and lashing out at a dead teenager because she’s getting more attention than him? He really is a pathetic excuse for a human being.
In the long list of terrible things here, doesn’t this also include making and distributing chill pronography? Isn’t this stalker (and other people who passed along the photo) guilty of several child porn crimes, along with the many other terrible things they did?
David, I don’t mean to sound cold, but you might want to add self-harm to the list of triggers. Amanda’s video mentions cutting and has a picture of her arm with cuts and I can’t imagine that would be good for people with self-harm issues.
I don’t have words. This is very fucked up, and I wish TAA to…no I don’t. I’d wish him the worst things I could think of but that would make me as bad as he is and I don’t want to do that. I will go off and watch something and try not to cry. (Yes it’s unmanly. I don’t give a shit.)
Myoo, I just added that; thanks for pointing that out.
It appears to be, “How dare anyone pay attention to anyone who isn’t ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! Look how I can be an asshole for attention! LOOK AT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Which, as far as I can tell, is pretty much the only point he ever makes.
Stay classy, shitbeard.
That poor girl. I don’t have the words.
TAA, I knew he was an asshole before, he just keeps proving it over and over again. Despicable dirtbag.
Also, any troll who posts any victim-blamng shit here will have it deleted and go on permanent moderation.
A piece of shit is so much better than TAA could ever hope to be. He is, seriously, there are no words for what he is.
Someone should tell him he’s throwing a shit fit over a dead girl. I can’t imagine a human being so… what, desperate for attention?… that they’d pull this shit.
I’d have to argue that TAA is probably the single biggest douchebag who I’ve had the displeasure of actually following for a while of my life.