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On Friday, Anita Sarkeesian called out "toxic masculinity" on Twitter. Here's what happened next.

Anita Sarkeesian's Twitter notifications (Artist's conception)
Anita Sarkeesian’s Twitter mentions (Artist’s conception)

What a surreal life Anita Sarkeesian must lead, in which virtually everything she says and does becomes grist for the Great Internet Lady Harassment Machine, Sarkeesian Division.

Take the latest blowup, which followed a few comments Sarkeesian made in the wake of Friday’s school shooting in Marysville, which may have been triggered by the shooter’s angry response to a romantic breakup. On Friday, Sarkeesian posted a few thoughts on the matter on Twitter:

While it it not literally true that every single mass shooter in history has been male, we are talking about an almost exclusively male club: one recent attempt at crunching the numbers found that 97% of school shooters have been male, and 79% of them white. (The Maryville shooter was Native American.)

In any case, the notion that a crime so heavily associated with men might have something to do with our society’s notions of masculinity isn’t exactly a radical notion. Indeed, it seems rather obvious.

But to Sarkeesian’s many haters, on Twitter and elsewhere, it was as if Sarkeesian had just posted a video of herself drowning puppies. Cue the twitterstorm.

Here are just a selection of the literally hundreds of lovely comments that Sarkeesian had Tweeted at her on Friday and Saturday after making her original comments.

[Giant TRIGGER WARNING for violent, explicit threats, harassment]

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There were, of course, the explicit threats:

Google Chrome 4Google Chrome 5

And the implicit threats:

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And the sexual harassment:

 

Google Chrome 3

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And those who merely expressed their hope that Sarkeesian would kill herself:

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Or die a horrible death:

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Or simply die :

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But not everyone wished violence on her. Some just told her that the threats and/or harassment she’s already getting is totally justified:

 

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(Apparently by “fishing” Mr. de Alba means “expressing an opinion or making an observation.” Also note that the tweets that set off this latest wave of harassment didn’t contain the #GamerGate hashtag. )

Speaking of harassment, we’re just getting started in our chronicle of the latest wave.

Let’s continue with an assortment of Tweets using the c-word, a favorite slur amongst Sarkeesian’s detractors.

Firefox 18 Firefox 19 Firefox 21 Firefox 22

Firefox 32 Firefox 23 Firefox 24

Firefox 9

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Firefox 15

Why, yes, that is Suzanne McCarley, A Voice for Men’s “Assistant Managing Editor” happily adding her voice to the harassment.

Others pulled out the f-word:

Firefox 26

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Firefox 28

She was called a “bitch.”

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She was called a “whore.”

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She was called a “terrorist.”

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And a Nazi:

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One fellow said that he thought Sarkeesian’s tweets were actually worse than the shooting itself:

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And one even declared her “officially worse than Wil Wheaton,” the former Star Trek:TNG actor who has won mass opprobrium from internet dicks for publicly expressing his belief that people  should not be dicks.

Firefox 31

To add insult to injury, a few reported Sarkeesian herself to Twitter for various imaginary infractions:

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Another asked why she wasn’t in jail for her, er, crimes:

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Just to remind you: these tweets are all from TWO DAYS’ worth of harassment and threats on Twitter. And this isn’t all of them.

At this point anyone who claims that Sarkeesian is “making up” the harassment she gets, or writing it herself, or just the work of a “few trolls,” is either disingenuous or delusional.

I’ll leave the last word to Sarkeesian herself.

EDITED TO ADD:

ATTENTION NEW COMMENTERS! I would like to draw your attention to this bit from my comments policy:

[I]f I’m writing about someone who’s gotten harassed by misogynists on the internet, and you want to talk about how much they deserved it, or what a lying liar they are? Well, fuck you! Your comments go right into the trash.

So take that into consideration. It might save you some time.

CORRECTION: I removed a screenshot of a Tweet that wasn’t threatening but was posted by a troll. See here.

 

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Puddleglum
10 years ago

I was even considering putting a little bridge in so he could hide under it.

Lol.

I had more cat pics lined up. Now I have to save them for the next troll.

Puddleglum
10 years ago

Also, much applause for Fibinachi. Power to the poetry!

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

We could even stock the bridge with troll treats!

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

And now I’m trying to figure out what one would make troll kibble out of.

Fibinachi
10 years ago

Select pieces from the SCUM manifesto

Policy of Madness
Policy of Madness
10 years ago

Male tears?

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Do trolls need a high protein diet? Maybe we can feed them kibble made of other trolls.

Policy of Madness
Policy of Madness
10 years ago

Whatever it is, it must include toxic waste, like oxygen and water.

Shaun DarthBatman Day
10 years ago

According to “Mike the (White)Knight” it’s turnips.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about MRA Baldrick.

weirwoodtreehugger
10 years ago

*pops in*

Did I miss anything exciting?

Oh. Just yucky boners updates.

Pass.

*pops back out*

Shaun DarthBatman Day
10 years ago

Oh for…I mentioned my ladyboners *one time*.

kittehserf - MOD
kittehserf - MOD
10 years ago

titianblue! Hi, how’ve you been?

emilygoddess - MOD
emilygoddess - MOD
10 years ago

OFFICIAL MOD NOTE: being less than polite to people is not really against the rules here, as long as one is not maligning entire minorities. And mocking ignorant, disingenuous misogynists is our favorite sport. The only reason I’m not mocking you more is that I’m at work. I trust our other mod will bring her epic snark to the table soon, though.

Tl;dr no, I’m not gonna yell at anyone for mocking you and it’s hilarious that you thought I’d be on your side.

emilygoddess - MOD
emilygoddess - MOD
10 years ago

Totally agree. It’s why I qualified it with “in general.” I believe it has to be accounted for. I don’t agree that one’s sex drive is the result of the patriarchy. One’s sex life may be heavily influenced by it, but not one’s sex drive

Sure. It’s not like you’re constantly bombarded by advertisements trying to arouse you in order to sell you stuff. It’s not like women’s clothing and makeup more or less exist to serve the male gaze, and it’s not like you’re conditioned to view our bodies as inherently sexual. Nope, nothing cultural affecting your sex drive at all.

contrapangloss
contrapangloss
10 years ago

… I’ve missed some fun today!

Work’s been busy, but the floor’s calmed down a bit. I might need to skim to catch up to the laughing at the evo-fail-troll…

Policy of Madness
Policy of Madness
10 years ago

I feel bad for engaging with the bonertroll before leaving the house, and egging him on. He turned pretty gross pretty fast.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Eh, he was pretty damn determined to tell us about his bonerfeels, don’t think it took a whole lot of encouragement to get him to go there.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

What I don’t understand is why these guys always think that “men have needs, you know” is going to be some sort of shocking idea that we’ve never heard proposed before.

Fibinachi
10 years ago

Well they’re needs, you know. And feminism is clearly the belief that male sexuality is evil, so they’re just standing up for the right of men to be men.

Right? That’s logical. It’s coherent. It has nothing to do with toxic masculinity

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

Also if we admit that women want sex too, then why don’t they want it with me? That might mean there’s something about me, specifically, that they don’t want. How dare you make me consider that possibility you evil harridan?

Nope, it’s just that women aren’t that into sex. That must be it.

Fibinachi
10 years ago

There once was a post about boners
The perspective? Their owners
Sometimes they like what they see
so much so they fill up with glee
Curse women for making them loners!

sarahrocco
10 years ago

These trolls ARE way more entertaining. Dammit, I’ve been all up in the wrong thread. *sigh*

Also I’m like seriously intimidated by you guys and your talent for rhyme. *not worthy*

vaiyt
10 years ago

Do trolls need a high protein diet? Maybe we can feed them kibble made of other trolls.

OF course not. You don’t want them catching Mad Troll Disease. Especially because it’s basically impossible to tell the difference.

GrumpyOldMan
10 years ago

“Also I’m like seriously intimidated by you guys and your talent for rhyme. *not worthy*”

We all contribute in our own ways. If you can’t contribute rhyme, reason will do nicely.