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So what sorts of things make some men so furious that they feel the need to send women they’ve never met literal death and rape threats on the internet? It doesn’t take much, apparently. A woman suggesting that it’s not such a good idea to hit on women in elevators at 4 AM. A woman making videos suggesting that there’s sexism in video games. A woman captured on video telling some men to shut the fuck up. A woman complaining about sexist jokes at a tech conference.
Add to this: a woman campaigning successfully to have Jane Austen’s face put on the Bank of England’s ten pound notes.
Over the past week, writer and activist Caroline Criado-Perez, who organized the campaign to get Austen memorialized on the bank note, has been harassed relentlessly on Twitter by assholes and misogynists and trolls for her efforts. Some of this harassment has taken the form of literal rape and death threats. One 21-year-old Manchester man was arrested and questioned in connection with the threats.
Similar threats and harassment were directed at noted British classics professor Mary Beard and female Members of Parliament.
Here’s a sadly typical example of one of the threatening comments sent to Criado-Perez from an account that Twitter temporarily banned — then reinstated.
https://twitter.com/CCriadoPerez/status/362499703285358592
And a more graphic example:
https://twitter.com/ianmcqui/status/361587787511779328
And some even more graphic threats directed at female MPs.
https://twitter.com/JonathanHaynes/status/361967658087890945
https://twitter.com/JonathanHaynes/status/361964227516309504
For many more examples of messages sent to Criado-Perez and others, see Catalina Hernández’ blog I Will Not Put Up With This: here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
And if you had any doubt about how little in the way of repercussion most of these harassers expected to get for their threatening tweets, some tweeted using what are presumably their real names. Here are some comments from one Ivan Garcia of San Diego, as collected by Hernández.
And here is his blog, where this fan of jazz, video games and threatening rape shares his poetry with the world.
The harassment obviously raises a lot of issues,most notably: Why the fuck does this keep happening? And: What’s the best way to deal with this sort of harassment — and these sorts of harassers?
Twitter has promised to add a “report abuse” button; some activists see this as a step in the right direction, while others worry that the “report abuse” button will be itself abused to shut down critics of harassment. Twitter’s record in dealing with harassers has not exactly been a great one; just ask Anita Sarkeesian.
British journalists and assorted bloggers have been trying to sort through some of these issues over the past few days. Here are some links to some of the more interesting pieces, from a variety of perspectives. (Well, I’m not including the pro-rape threat perspective.) Links aren’t necessarily endorsements.
First, for a little more background, see:
Twitter under fire after bank note campaigner is target of rape threats
Caroline Criado-Perez Twitter abuse case leads to arrest
And here are some posts and pieces looking at the issues:
A ‘report abuse’ button on Twitter will create more problems than it solves, by Sharon O’Dea
A button will not, alone, rid Twitter (or the wider world) of mysogyny and abuse. These are complex issues that will take more than a button to resolve. But ‘report abuse’ buttons have been known to be widely abused on other networks. ….
Introduction of a similar mechanism on Twitter ironically creates a whole new means by which trolls can abuse those they disagree with. The report abuse button could be used to silence campaigners, like Criado-Perez, by taking advantage of the automatic blocking and account closure such a feature typically offers. In that way, it could end up putting greater power in the trolls’ hands.
Why does it always come back to rape? by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and Holly Baxter of the Vagenda Magazine, in the New Statesman
Rape is the popular choice when women become more visible than they apparently should be, and that’s because it’s easy. …. Whatever their opinion, however they conducted their arguments, however well-researched and nuanced their replies to criticism are, they’re women and male trolls could rape them and that’s what really matters. …
[Academic] Mary Beard got called a “dirty old slut” with a “disgusting vagina” just as [Member of Parliament] Stella Creasy was being tweeted “YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR BACK… I’M GONNA RAPE YOU AT 8PM AND PUT THE VIDEO ALL OVER THE INTERNET”. …
The message is that women’s vaginas are, literally, always up for grabs. If they’re young, the rape threats will come thick and fast; if they’re older, maybe the trolls will settle for insulting their vaginas and telling them that they were “sluts” in the past.
If Every Male Troll Took a Walk in Women’s Shoes, Would He Finally Feel Our Outrage? by Elizabeth Plank
Withstanding rape threats has become a right of passage for female writers or personalities, just as making them as become a right of passage for cowardly and anonymous misogynist trolls. If you’re a woman who happens to possess opinions, and write about feminist issues (god forbid!), chances are you will be violently trolled. … the issue is not that women receive more criticism than men, but rather that it comes in more violent and vitriolic forms. Men will be attacked for their opinion, whereas women will be threatened because they have opinions.
[O]ne study showed that female usernames in chat forums received 25 times more abuse than male ones. In an experiment conducted by the University of Maryland, researchers found that “Female usernames, on average, received 163 malicious private messages a day.” So all else equal, if you’re a woman online, you’re going to be on the receiving end of more hate.
I believe it. I get a lot of shit from misogynists for running this blog — and the occasional threat — but what I get is nothing compared to the harassment similarly controversial feminist bloggers who happen to be women have gotten.
What women-hating trolls really believe, by Emma Barnett
First troll up was Peter from Whitechapel. …
“She was asking for it,” he told me. According to this nitwit, if you campaign about issues such as keeping a woman on English banknotes, you should “expect to receive rape threats”. I delved further.
“If you put your head above the parapet, like she has, then you deserve this type of abuse. It’s what you get when you are a woman shouting about something,” Peter told me, starting to get a little irate. …
Then Gary from Birmingham decided to call in [and] told me in no uncertain terms that “feminists like Caroline were undermining what it is to be a man” and needed “sorting out”.
“Men are predators,” he explained calmly. “And this [rape threats] is what we do.”
And here, after all this awfulness, is a piece that manages to be funny about it all: How to use the internet without being a total loser.
Worst: Pretty much everything by Heinlein.
Actually, that story was true. Unless by ‘mythic urban legend’ you mean all the bullship allegories the MRA’s are making up about it.
Quark: This debate is getting tired, but let’s sum:
You don’t agree with my perspective, and think it is insensitive/wrong. I get that.
I don’t agree with the way people have attacked me and think it is insensitive/wrong. Hopefully you get that.
1: We don’t think it’s insenstive. We think it actively supports the abusive assholes, suppresses those who speak out on women’s issues (i.e. the women who do) and encourages rape culture.
2: We don’t, “get it”, we think you are saying things which hurt women. We think that mockworthy. Some of that mockery will be foulmouthed.
What it won’t be is violently phrased, that will be removed; usually with an apology from Dave. If it doesn’t come with a ban (a la Brandon, of not too distant, but unlamented memory) it will come with a warning to the offender.
@ Hyena Girl – others would not let it rest either. You can say I am at fault and you may be right, But to say no-one else is is absurd. Many people here have behaved very badly.
Only one.
. It’s bad when people do that to you, right hellkell, but it’s fine for you to do it to them. I know how it goes.
Find one instance of hellkell complaining about fuckwits swearing at her. One.
You won’t. Why? Because don’t give a shit about foul language (as a tool for expressing disdain, anger, frustration. There are gendered insults we disdain, but it’s not because they are vulgar, but because the connotative use of them engages in bemeaning the subject by comparing them to women as if that; by it’s very nature, was degrading), you fuckmuppet.
What can I say? It’s not polite, it’s not constructive, it’s not eloquent
You are right about the not-polite. Not everyone retains their right to politesse. As to the rest, well a carefully built string of invective is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
And when the clodpated, slobberdegullions of the world come into a decent place; one of vim and vigor, secure in it’s personality; aware of the contumelous nature of the arselicking brownnosers of the world, those short-sighted dignleberries who think ignoring the debasers of polite society will in some wise rob them of the power they gain from the wider public joining those weasel-wording sacks of fermenting owl-fewmets who would tell those who are being abused and harassed that, “It’s no big deal because almost none of them has the courage to carry out the acts of evil which they have been piling on to their victims as if they were leaves on the winds of autumn… well they have short shrift for that sort of abandonment of moral courage.
I think the spineless, asswipes (such as yourself) who would argue for that selling out of the peace of mind of the targets of hate campaigns is, “the reasonable thing to do (and for what? Really, what is the point of giving those shitheaded stains of whaleshit on the bottom of the Marianas Trench that sort of apologistic cover? How does succoring them, by telling the rest of the world they are fucking harmless; in the face of all evidence that they harm people with those words)?
No, bigots, and other bastards who soil the common spaces of the social world need to be denied all excuse. Anything less is aid and comfort to the enemy. Those (such as yourself) who engage in that sort of collaborating appeasement, have forfeited my good graces, and are subject to the sanctions of scorn, derision and yes, bad language.
Because you are all wastes of my fucking time.
Argenti – ha, the feral algae in your tanks is probably smarter than that dog. 😛
Kim – augh, the audio book you mentioned reminds me of one I had of Dracula. It was SO bad. You could say it sucked. ::ducks::
Wait. This was posted today and there are 679 comments already?? o_O
…. I will never be able to follow this >___< Can anyone give me a briefing? =P
p.s.: (on topic) why….. why all this anger? I don't get it. What is the problem really? I fail to understand…
Pineapplecookies: most of the thread’s a new troll complaining that people SWORE at her.
It’s reallllllly boring.
Kitteh — if it weren’t a plant, of sorts, I’d agree. But the dog is capable of begging.
“those shitheaded stains of whaleshit on the bottom of the Marianas Trench”
Why must you insult bottom feeders? They’re a very important part of the food chain! (Hell, the puffer tank is the only tank I’ve run without at least one and if I find a brackish water bottom feeder they won’t eat I may rectify that)
kittehserf: no new recipes? =(
Pineapplecookies — what kitteh said, plus a side discussion of books, and me complaining about cleaning ALL THE TANKS (literally, and I have four) and my feral algae. Which is really gross.
argenti: you cleaned 4 tanks in a day? That is…. wow! I am so slow for cleaning. I take ages to clean anything. They end up great, but it takes forever.
Never cleaned a tank tough.
Quark: Can you all stop misrepresenting my argument. I have said countless times internet threats are very bad, and those who make them should be exposed and punished.
No one has said you didn’t. Do you deny saying that people getting them need to accept them as, “not real”, and “refuse to be terrorised”, because, “almost” none of the people making them will carry them out?
Because if you do, you are a liar.
So I “hurt people”, unintentionally – and apologised – therefore it’s fine for people to attack me intentionally and endlessly and not apologise.
Correct. If I offend someone through carelessness, thoughtlessness, or inadvertence, than an apoligy is in order. If I hurt them with inent, then there is no apology possible, because I have no regret. It is form without substance, it would be hypocritical.
Fish tanks, I imagine tank tanks would be more work (or maybe not, pecunium, can you just hose the fucker down?). But yeah, the 55g was collecting shit in the bottom, chemically fine but eugh; the 10g puffer tank is really undersized for them and I didn’t want to risk the trite amount of ammonia spiking while I’m gone tomorrow; the 2.5g snail tank was a “meh, why the fuck not, I’m sitting here with the siphon already”…swapped around the fluval filter media to culture bacteria for when the 10g gets swapped with my new shiny 30g. And then my father alerted me that the 29g “has a film”…nope, it had feral algae, and the nastiest filter I’ve ever seen (in a decade of keeping fish, so that’s saying something) and the bio media chamber culturing mold.
My back is staging a rebellion, everything but the 29g is upstairs, so many trips up and down, up and down. And tomorrow will be spent on my feet gawking at art.
Yeah, pecunium, don’t be surprised if I get all whiny about my back, remind me I have Advil and tell me to suck it up. Until I’m too sore to get up for wine, I’ve had worse (oh Boston, why must your art gallery be so huge?)
Pineapplecookies, new troll, basically saying “Oh well people shouldn’t worry about rape and death threats on the internet, they’re basically never carried out,” and then whining that people were being rude and using naughty swear words after claiming that zie had read “50-100 posts” and all the comments. It was basically a pile of disingenuity on the troll’s part, and frothing rage on everyone else’s.
Quark: @gillyrosebee – I did not say women should not take the threats too seriously, ever.
Yes, you did. You said that to treat them as “real” is to empower the people who are making the threats, and that women need to take comfort from knowing that almost none of them would ever come to pass.
Of course you are trying to bully us into accepting your arguments by pretending that our disagreement isn’t legitimate because we (gasp) used some fucks in our attempt to make the volume of our disdain clear to even the meanest understanding.
Lovecraft’s problematic for all kinds of reasons but his take on horror really was spot on.
Gah…. He’s ok in small doses, but has so few tricks in his bag that one quickly tires of it. The language is good, but the horror gets sort of plodding.
I have only ever been able to finish Persuasion. Right now I’m re-reading Ink and Steel, and first reading “Extra Virgin”, which is about olive oil, as well as a book on Elizabethan era con artists (Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars).
>>>ō.Ó? Your skin color changes based on whether you’re oppressed? This oughta be “good”.
Meh. The guy’s politics are crap from what I’ve read but “you’re black because you’re oppressed” is pretty much the only thing that made sense out of it. “Blackness” is not much a question of skin color, but one of social relations. Tutsis have whiter skin than some of them darker Europeans, but those Europeans get to be White while Tutsis do not.
Now identities are contested things though. While identities as defined by ruling elites tend to have more “weight” in society (and thus be considered more “real”) due to usage of power and coercion, they are also a site of struggle and being reclaimed or redefined by the oppressed continuously.
Heh. I slipped in some of the occupiers’ language. Tutsis have *lighter* skin than some Europeans.
Kinda missed the words “considered to be” then, but yeah, that makes sense. (And I nitpick because he makes so little sense that what you’re saying wasn’t apparent.)
Hey BlackBloc, what are your thoughts on anarchist youth groups dedicated to helping out young folks? I made a post about it on libcom.org, and so far the responses are pretty insightful. I was wondering what you would think since you’re a fellow anarcho-communist.
Ah, you’re always here to play the “useful idiots”, don’t you?
How much time this troll who has just been arrested will spend in jail for a tweet?
The price of a “racist” tweet has apparently been set at two months, what’s the price of a tweet with a RAPE THREAT in it? One month? Two? Six?
We’ll see, the very enlightened justice of Albion will make us know what’s the price of each kind of offensive tweet, the sexist ones, the homophobic ones, the ableist ones, the fatophobic ones, etc… Every kind of digital offensiveness, insensitiveness or things that can somehow be digitally unwelcome will be weighted, measured and judged. It’s a though job, there will be a lot of people to send to jail, to reeducate, and, of course, the social justice warriors will be here all along to justify this totalitarian hysteria because privilege, transectionality, systemic oppression or whatever.
I offer to you my digital vomit as an offensive, unwelcome, and threatening response to the stupid, ugly and noxious ideology you defend.
Transectionality? What the hell is that?
Quark: It was genuine, but I can’t force you to believe that. If you really were engaging with me in good faith, then you would give me the benefit of any doubt and accept my apology.
Nope.
It was a bullshit apology. It was all about you, and not about those to whom you caused offense. The use of, “if” pretty much voids apologies.
And good faith doesn’t mean you get full points for half-asssed. It means taking you at your word, for the words you actually used.
Which we have done. You just don’t like the tone, and are telling us to stuff it.
Good luck with that.
This isn’t some high-school clique with a secret handshake. It’s a public internet blog and everyone has equal rights to comment here,
To a point Lord Copper, to a point:
That point is that the commentariat here, sets the tone (as it does everywhere). There are social mores (and anyone who has read some 25,000 comments ought to be aware of those in play here). We, as people who know each other, are aware of our various foibles, strengths and weaknesses. We also try to take care of each other (sometimes even when not needed). We correct each other when we step outside the boundaries.
Which is what happened to you. You didn’t like it. Got a wild hair up your ass that you were being bullied because we didn’t tell you that the diarrhetic effluvium coming out of your ass like water from a 4″ hose was made of rainbows that smelt like lily of the valley.
To everyone who hates me
Hate you? No. I hate hangnails, and jock itch. I hate the fucking Yankees. You are a pissant. You haven’t yet shown the stamina to be so much as an annoyance; nor the scattered depth of intentional insufferability and obtusity to rise to the level of serious irritation.
You are more like the new rawhide chew, given to the dog… tasty, and pleasant to chew on.
You know, vitiriolic anger is like an acid and causes much more harm to the vessel it is stored in than anything it is poured over.
Unh hunh. That’s why my fuming nitric has been safe in it’s glass bottle for going on fifteen years (topped up as needed); no harm to the bottle, but I can’t leave water in the cast iron for more than 12 hours without it starting to rust.
The issue isn’t the vitriol it’s how you use it.
More like boring. Please continue, I need to go to sleep already and the idiots across the street are fighting.
Oh, maybe not for long, “get out of my fucking house” just happened.
“I hate the fucking Yankees.”
YES!! I was afraid to ask you that one since emotions run so high about that around here, but FUCK YES.
And they’re still screaming. It’s 2 am, my alarm is set for 6, and I’m a zombie on <4 hours. Dandy.
Pecunium, add coffee to the itinerary. I'm making some before I leave but I'm going to need to be too caffeinated to stop shaking at this rate. (I got up at like noon, and can do 30+ hours, so I should be coherent if sufficient caffeine is pumped into me…should I bring airline/IV tubing for that? [yes I'm serious])
I feel like I’m turning up to the party just as the garbage is being taken out and the dishwasher switched on. Having said that, it’s never too late for banana bread recipes, especially when they’re as delicious as this one:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2006/11/speckled-for-the-freckled/
Apropos of the book discussion, I’m currently on a dystopian fiction jag. All recommendations will be appreciated (and yes, I noticed the previous mention of Atwood’s gems; they’re queued up on my Kindle as we speak).