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my tumblr, they found a twitter acct that I don’t even use, they even found an old [dating site] profile of mine with outdated info …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.
I think Chloe needs it more than we do. She seems upset, and taking time outs doesn’t seem to be helping her to calm down at all.
I think there should be enough ice cream for hyperventilating asshats and ME.
Is all I’m saying.
How about we give her the old stuff that’s been sitting at the back of the freezer forming crystals for a while and you and I go to the gelato shop instead?
That seems fair.
And it’s true that coming back to a thread a day later while still spewing “FUCK U” does seem to indicate a need for soothing things.
I’m trying to helpfully think of foods that contain tryptophan for her. Would “how about you have a glass of warm milk and some cookies” be too patronizing?
I feel like when someone is openly hostile, patronizing is totally on the table. Turkey and warm milk, Chloe?
(Just for a savory alternative to cookies and warm milk.)
I am posting multiple times to bump this post up to the top.
I’m totally patting her on the head, but in a “you poor thing” way rather than a “you’re so cute” way.
ASSAT sounds like a standardized test.
Wouldn’t eating turkey be cannibalism in Chloe’s case?
She can have my ice cream. I don’t want to spoil my dinner (garlic sausages after ice cream = yuk).
Okay, how do tumblr activists get this reputation for being so evil? Because I’ve been followin some tumblr feminism blogs, and so far I haven’t seen anyone say they wish men couldn’t vote or they think that men are only good for sex or any of the opposite gender equivalents the MRAs have been spouting.
I mean, I guess people don’t like to see critiques in their reblogs, but people also don’t like to see sexism so I really don’t care if someone critiques sexism with a reblog on a public site…
Chloe: Fuck you and your blatant quote-mining. The “pacifism and generosity” I was referring to was the University of Toronto Men’s Issues Awareness Society (UTMIA)’s open invite to anyone to attend and speak out within the debate itself.
Asking them to come was “pacifism”? This word, I don’t think it means what you think it means.
The very open invite that the feminists refused to take up on.
If they thought it wasn’t offered in good faith, why should they take them up on it?
The extreme feminist groups cited in the article didn’t explicitly promise militant action,
And the MRM, we are told doesn’t explicitly promise to fuck their shit up, or rape them, or kill them when women disagree with them… Oh wait, they do.
I wonder if that might be why they don’t think they offer to “debate” in good faith.
Minimizing her action by applying an ad hom to her opponent. Nicely done.
For another example of ad hom, in the wild,
Misusing <a href =http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html ad hominem (done in the usual way), as a form of ad hominem (again, in the usual way). Are you saying she wasn’t being interrupted? If so, well that would be a lie.
So because I didn’t talk about her harassment (doing so would’ve been redundant, since everyone here offered her their condolences), because I pointed out that the way Mbz glossed over her screw-up was (in its own way) demeaning, I’m a fucking apologist now?
Because you keep lying about the facts, and saying that talking about her harassment, and doxxing, and the targeted attack on a single person, all need to be balanced by saying that person did a bad thing…
For that you are a fucking apologist.
I, in no way, brought up any of this to justify the crap that’s been hurled at her.
Then why did you bring it up?
Really, why?
Let’s get this straight once and for all:
Ok… let’s.
By saying that only if someone says she did a bad thing, and talks about how terrible some people who protested are, and quotes from the people who are affiliated with the people who are attacking her about how “the bad feminists are planning to come and be “militant” is anyone allowed to talk about it; and that anyone who doesn’t is a moral cretin, an intellectual coward and being mean to men.
Makes you a gold-plated, A-Number One FUCKING APOLOGIST!
Was my point clear enough?
No amount of saying, “I empathise with her, but what about the mens,” can compensate for the apologism inherent in your argument.
If my telling you that makes you upset…
Cry me a river.
Oh, we have a necromancer? Awesome, dragging my ass out of bed is proving impossible. Three nights in a row with <6 hours sleep = I need a necromancer to wake me.
“‘Baolinh Dang, an employee of the University of Toronto-based Ontario Public Interest Research Group stated “we need to take a militant approach to this … We also need to build a database on who these activists are, find out where they work, find out where they live.’
That sounds an awful lot like doxxing threats, does it not?”
Someone has trouble with context, like that of dox’ing within a campus group versus across the internet. And no, dox’ing’s not okay, but seriously? You’re comparing one person saying she group should compile MRA addresses with death threats posted along side Red’s addy and phone number? Then again, the way you’ve been screaming, you probably don’t get the difference.
Speaking of screaming, reading this thread apparently took more time than they thought I meant when I said I’d be down in a bit and they’re all standing around waiting! And deciding to scream at me and then go to uhaul since CLEARLY I’m not getting ready! I’m getting increasing tempted to throw a temper tantrum a la “let’s see you force me to stand up and do what you want, I’m staging a ‘no I’m not sorting through this shit like it’s my full time job’ sit in”
My father’s brother is getting the tools…he won’t pick up his phone or anything, my father is talking about making us box them. Meanwhile he packs the pod thing like an ostrich (no skill at anything but burying his head in the sand).
Pecunium, if that was actual anger, which seems doubtful, can you channel that into telling off my father? Fuck. That’d just make him more sure he’s right since “those liberals!” and people only mock when they know they’re wrong!
Lol hey necromancer? Have a real ad hominem. You sound like my father and thus every single word you say can be automatically dismissed as merit less.
Time to get screamed at some more, and then told to “help” clean!
you are being trolled by 4chan’s /pol/ board. They go after feminists because its an easy target that brings an “over-the-top” response.
All big posters receive this hate-treatment. It is standard to the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory (GIFT) http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
It has little to do with subject matter and more to do with engaging a response. You are falling to a game by people who simply mock you to get a reply.
As opposed to how the UTSU groups were going about it? Yeah, I’d say the UTMIA was willing to take the peaceful high road. But really, attacking my word choice? How pathetic that you’re grasping at straws at this point.
It’s been established here that a) the actions of one/some shouldn’t be the basis of a whole movement, and b) there’s always going to be asshats in any major collective. The very MRAs who wished rape/death on her are not the same ones who invited feminists to actively engage in the discussion with them. CAFE/UTMIA wanted nothing more than to discuss their topics, and when feminists barricaded all the fucking exits at Farrell’s talk and resorted to lowly insults to get their point across, what did they do? They released a statement on how inappropriate that behavior was. No threats. No doxxing. Not even a ‘may you step on ALL the legos.’ This is how one properly reprimands another. http://equalitycanada.com/2013/04/02/full-statement-oppression/ That’s what I felt Red deserved. Nothing. More.
Now you’re just being thick on purpose, aren’t you? Look at cloudiah’s statement again:
Zie doesn’t know Red’s opponent personally. Zie doesn’t know if this guy was looking for a pointless screaming match or genuinely concerned about male suicide victims. Zie used it as leverage to lessen Red’s callousness by comparison anyway. A fucking ad hominem, ladies and gentlemen.
But let’s examine all the so-called lies I posted here.
I never once claimed she pulled the fire alarm. I said she cheered when it happened. I even provided a video proving that.
And in my previous comment, I proved once again that the students rebelling against the UTMIA’s next discussion were indeed planning on militant action, with an excerpt from the same damn article.
Kittehserf was talking about how she’d never associate a fedora with MRAs. There were follow-up comments asking where did that connection even came from/fedoras are too stylish for the likes of MRAs. When I told zir to tell that to Tumblr feminists, I meant it. http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fedora Aside from various fashion-related posts, most of them avidly associate it with MRAs/”Nice Guys.”
I already addressed this in one of my comments. And I’d like to see the apologism that’s supposedly inherent in whatever I said. No quote-mining, no fabricating shit that I never said.
No. I haven’t. You fucking little shit. That excerpt was in response to pecunium’s claim that the protesters never vowed militant action. And they did. I have never compared anything this woman did to the hate she received. Her opinions/actions were not at all worthy of all that vitriol. And if you still don’t believe me? That’s your fucking problem.
Chloe, you still seem mad, dear. Or in your lingo of choice, you fucking little shit. 😀
Poor Chloe. Must be tough doing anything with her head wedged so firmly up her ass.
Chloe, fuck off. This horse, it is dead. Little shit.
Do ya think “Chloe” is one of Clint’s socks? Same tired argument and everything.
Possibly — I’m terrible at keeping track of the trolls… I think zie is pretty committed to coming back once a day for all of eternity, so this thread is pretty much guaranteed to one day be the #1 longest thread. Yay.
*rimshot*
Thanks for censoring and sharing these feeds. Removing the identifiers was good. She doesn’t deserve more harassment. It’s also really useful to see what qualifies as harassment, rape threats and such. There really was a credible threat or two in there. 90% was just “She deserves to get punched in the face”. It’s really good to know that it gets included with “I’m going to [insert criminal act of violence]”, you know real threats.
Chloe, breathe in….. and breathe out. Breathe in….. and breathe out.
(Now I’m worried; if I stop, will she? :p)
Chloe: As opposed to how the UTSU groups were going about it? Yeah, I’d say the UTMIA was willing to take the peaceful high road. But really, attacking my word choice? How pathetic that you’re grasping at straws at this point.
No, you didn’t understand (and really, given all the rest of my post you pretend that I am doing nothing but critiquing your lack of facility with rhetoric… I had thought you capable of a little better than that. I am disappoint).
Pacifism isn’t peaceful. It’s not even peacable. I am a peacable person. I am not a pacifist. I made my living, for sixteen years, doing a job which was about killing people. Threaten me and I’ll respond. If the MRA were being pacifistic none of this would be happening (and a conversation about the merits of the protest could be in order).
Since you are unclear on what the difference between pacifism and peacable is, allow me to help you to a better understanding.
Merriam Webster Online [emphasis on the relevant portion added]
For a real-world example I offer George Lakey:
It’s been established here that a) the actions of one/some shouldn’t be the basis of a whole movement, and b) there’s always going to be asshats in any major collective.
But you think the difference between someone who was near a bunch of people; one of whom may have pulled a fire-alarm is more important to talk about than the people who are stalking her, abusing her, have doxxed her, and have seen threats made to kill/mutilate/rape her.
That’s the problem. For every half a dozen words you say about how bad that is, you have hundreds about how had RHA was; and even then her “badness” you are implying with the use of guilt by association.
Which means I don’t think you are acting in good faith; not when you argue the merits of your case, nor when you say you care about what’s happened to the victim being discussed in this post.
False equivalence is false.
The very MRAs who wished rape/death on her are not the same ones who invited feminists to actively engage in the discussion with them.
Prove it. (I can shout on the internet too. I feel so empowered now).
CAFE/UTMIA wanted nothing more than to discuss their topics, and when feminists barricaded all the fucking exits at Farrell’s talk and resorted to lowly insults to get their point across, what did they do?
See, this is more of that false equivalence. You are bringing an event that happened at another time up, as if it were relevant to the death threats being made.
That’s justification. Justification is a type of apologism.
I already addressed this in one of my comments. And I’d like to see the apologism that’s supposedly inherent in whatever I said. No quote-mining, no fabricating shit that I never said.
More bad faith arguing. When presented with your actual apologism you hand wave it away.
I have never compared anything this woman did to the hate she received.
Yes, you have, by concantation and juxtaposition.
I think you ought to let it be. Having your words quoted, and analysed for content seems to be upsetting you.
Crap… I seem to have missed closing a bold tag.
Oh well.
So Chloe, how do you feel about this:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/24/1911741/dartmouth-protest-cancels-classes/
Some of the online comments (since taken down).
vvv it’s women like this who deserve to be raped
and
Wish I had a shotgun, would have blown those fucking hippies away
Some pretty good pacifism going on there.
Those protesters didn’t pull any fire alarms, or block any doors. All they were was loud.