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my tumblr, they found a twitter acct that I don’t even use, they even found an old [dating site] profile of mine with outdated info …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.
please tell redhead if you know her that i support her. since what happened at the warren farrell protest i attended in november i’ve become much more fearful to go out at these things – i’m not even 16 yet. if i scream “shut up loser” at some camera shoved in my face instead of “yeah ok let’s have peaceful dialogue so your thug ass ‘men’s human rights movement’ posse can talk about my tits” i run the risk of having rape threats thrown at me and my address posted online.
and they have the gall to call us rude, out of line, awful, whatever you want. if they can name any time the commentariat here has let anyone hurl rape and death threats at anyone, enemy or otherwise, that’d be a remarkable fucking feat right there.
That’s the saddest excuse for a “high-profile event” I’ve ever seen.
And they wonder why people wore masks to the demo… If we don’t wear masks, we’re getting what we deserve. If we do wear masks, clearly we’re up to no good and … we get what we deserve?
Cassandra: these are people who generally can’t do meetups, events, debates, or anything other than smashing their keyboards.
Well of course being quiet and invisible is for our protection. Otherwise our whining and unhaaapiness might force our husbands or fathers to beat us! And we don’t really want to make them have to use all that effort do we?
@cheburashka
I’m so sorry to hear that you have to deal with that shit at such a age. I hope you are safe and will continue to be awesome. There should be more 15-year-olds like you.
I think we should make a bunch of Paul Elam/Col. Sanders & JohntheAngryOtter masks and send them to the folks in Toronto to wear at their next protest of the death-threat-condoning MRM’s event.
OK, trying really hard not to be inappropriately parental here, but young feminists who’re right in the age range that the creepiest MRAs sexually fixate on would maybe be better off not attending events where those guys will be present. I don’t in any way want to discourage young people from attending protests in general, but I don’t feel like teenage girls are safe around these guys at all.
At some of the union rallies I’ve attended, STFU would be considered moderate discourse. (Sometimes when you put peoples’ livelihoods on the line, things can get a little heated.)
Just another reminder that, in addition to being violent harassers, MRAs are also fragile little flowers who can’t stand cussing and unladylike behavior.
@cheburashka
Internet hugs if wanted. Idk if you feel the need, just offering just in case. Also, sorry if I’m making you self conscious, but glad to see more young manboobzers 😀 I’m 18 and I was feeling like everyone’s kid sister, don’t know how many other people here are under 20.
Pass on my support, from a male feminist. It sickens me that not only do these asshats get away with such vile harassment, but that they increasingly make it look like every man on the internet can think of no better way to spend their time than threatening people with rape and death. Likewise with the amazing atheist making other atheists look like shits by association. This piece by PZ Myers made me feel better though:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/02/08/the-not-so-amazing-atheist-self-immolates/
STFU would be relatively polite by the standards of the House of Commons, really. I mean, technically they don’t usually swear, but the overall tone is a lot more hostile and impolite.
The Boston bomb really shows why threats like this are so chilling.
1) People will randomly do terrible things for almost no reason. We all know this.
2) Therefore, if enough people tell you they want to do terrible things to you, and have the means to, they might decide to do it.
3) Therefore, terrible people who don’t want to die/go to prison/actually kill people threaten to do terrible things to shut people up. And it often works, but it isn’t a sign that you’ve “won”. It is a sign that you are a terrorist.
I’m 18 as well! I’m sure there are plenty of young folks here.
Whenever these guys say they’re not terrorists I feel like it’s not a political rebuttal they need so much as a dictionary.
@Aaliyah
Sweet! 😀 ::offers internet whipersnapper highfives::
New slogans for the MRM:
“The Men’s Rights Movement: Making Mouthy Women Fear for Their LIves since 2012.” (Maybe earlier?)
“The Men’s Rights Movement: Completely Indistinguishable from Terrorists.”
“The Men’s Rights Movement: Join Us if You Want to Make Women Suffer.”
And (paraphrasing Cliff’s classic): “Nice Gender You Got There. Be a Shame if Something Were to Happen to It.”
Sigh.
Delurking to send best wishes and safe spaces to redhead. While the topics here are awful, you guys are awesome. Here is some cuteness that I have used to ward off the sadness today: http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/the-tiniest-fluffiest-black-kitten-is-not-sure-how-to-feel-a
I think they hate the fact that women can be rude and potty-mouthed, since that means that women don’t have to fear them.
So to MRAs, in solidarity with red-headed feminist:
Shut the fuck up, you fucking douche bags. You won’t know decency if it bit you on your fucking ass, and I will not shut up and I will not stop fighting for my rights. Go right to hell, assholes.
Don’t forget…
The Men’s Rights Movement – Do What We Want or We’ll Shoot Your Judges and Blow Up Your Courthouses
The Men’s Rights Movement: Not Just For Bowels Any More
The MRM: We Make Ourselves Look Bad
To get in my “gendered” slur:
Go right to hell, you creepy assholes.
Dougie: No, they morally should not (note a threat involves an “I/he/she/we *will* or *shall* statement
I see. You are parsing that pretty fine; this from someone who seems to think that a charge not filed = false accusation, but someone who chooses to say, “we know where you live, and you should be afraid” isn’t a threat.
Got it.
No, they morally should not (note a threat involves an “I/he/she/we *will* or *shall* statement.
At a guess, so more people than just the victim of this mob know that a mob has been convened.
It’s an attempt at shaming the MRM. Since you seem to have no shame it’s not as effective as it ought to be.
On the flip side, let’s take a look at some of these, “non-threats”.
That, of course came behind
And:
Yeah, you are full of shit; she’s been threatened. You will, of course, say, “you can’t know this is the MRM” but you did say that “reaction” is what women who speak out should expect.
You are a coward. You don’t have the courage to actually own up to your beliefs, and have to make elliptical points, lest your actual pleasure as people making threats. If you weren’t ashamed of it, you’d actually be willing to own your words,and stand behind your ideas.
But you weasel with the nonsense that only direct threats are threatening.
” ::offers internet whipersnapper highfives::”
I <3 this, not least 'cos you know the word whippersnapper! 😀
(I hope that didn’t sound condescending! Not many people of any age know that word now.)