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A little over three years ago, a Canadian feminist with bright red hair confronted some Men’s Rights Activists outside of an event at the University of Toronto.
The woman, known as Chanty Binx, was trying to argue a point; they kept interrupting her; she raised her voice, told them to shut up, dropped the f-bomb. She was, as she admits, a bit rude to them — more than a bit, really. But being rude is not illegal, nor even uncommon, when people who disagree fundamentally encounter one another in person at a demonstration. Much worse things have happened at demonstrations.
The one thing different about this confrontation? It was caught on video, and uploaded to YouTube, at which point a vast army of the world’s worst people decided to do their best to make her life a living hell. Footage of her at the event was posted and reposted and spliced into countless antifeminist videos on YouTube; it’s been watched literally millions of views.
Binx was besieged with insults, misogynistic slurs, and grotesquely violent threats; her image was appropriated for who knows how many creepy memes. She was doxxed. “Artists” drew pictures of her engaging in sex acts. Think of any way a woman can be harassed and bullied online, and chances are it was done to her.
Binx has laid low for three years, hoping that this onslaught would pass. And, she says, the direct harassment had died down somewhat in recent months.
Now one of her haters has put her back in the spotlight again, and in a supremely creepy manner. Not long ago, you see, Binx stopped by a government-run liquor store in the Toronto area to pick up a bottle of wine. A seemingly friendly employee offered her help.
In fact, he claimed later, he had recognized her from the internet, and was hoping to hear her speak to make sure she really was who he thought she was.
After she left, he somehow accessed the store’s surveillance footage, took a screenshot of her visit to the store, and put it up on Facebook (without the blurs you see below):
No, liquor store creep, it hasn’t been two years. It’s been three. THREE YEARS of hateful, disgusting, privacy-invading harassment. Because THREE YEARS AGO a woman yelled at a couple of MRAs, and they filmed her doing it.
This time Binx has decided not to lay low. She spoke with CityNews about the latest twist in the internet war on her. The report is chilling, and well worth watching.
Feminist says LCBO privacy breach fuelled flood of online hate https://t.co/rrh0hvgfPx pic.twitter.com/W5I7nibXre
— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) June 30, 2016
“[I feel like] I’m being watched constantly,” she told CityNews. “No matter what I do, I’m under a monitor.”
Now that the CityNews segment has run, the hate campaign against her has predictably ramped up again. On YouTube, a video about the CityNews segment from “Rekt Feminist Videos” has racked up 47,000 views, and generated 1900 comments, since it was posted earlier today. Here are a few of those comments:
Several commenters “jokingly” discussed staking out the store she was filmed in.
I spent only a few minutes reading the comments; I’m sure there are many more along these lines in the 1900 posted so far.
The discussion took a similar turn on LiveLeak:
A Voice for Men, meanwhile, complained that CityNews had quoted threatening posts on its website in order to construct “yet another threat narrative” aimed at … MRAs. The comments to the AVFM post did not exactly reinforce the site’s claim that MRAs are the real victims here:
Naturally, Binx’s haters are mocking her for allegedly bringing this latest wave of harassment on herself by, well, speaking up about the vile harassment she was still getting, three years on, before she spoke up for herself.
This, from the CityNews segment, is some of what she was getting BEFORE she spoke up for herself. CONTENT WARNING: Rape, violent threats.
.
Apparently, as the haters see it, she has only two choices:
She can remain silent about the ongoing harassment, and pretty much everything else in the world, for the rest of her life.
Or she can risk getting “deservedly” beaten or raped or killed. For the “crime” of yelling at some MRAs once, three years ago.
But they’ve been threatening to do that anyway, without her saying a word to them for three years. Being silent hasn’t protected her from harassment or threats or someone literally posting surveillance footage of her that lets the world know where she lives.
I’m glad she’s speaking up and reclaiming her voice. She deserves all the support in the world for it.
If anyone here has good ideas on how to show this support, post them below. If anyone wants to explain how Binx really does deserve harassment, go to hell.
NOTE: I’ve been in contact with Binx and she is ok with me identifying her by that name; it’s all over the internet already.
She should speak to an attorney about leaking that footage if she isn’t already.
please tell me the employee got fired.
Aaaaand this is why a big part of me can never completely trust men. Just by going about the daily business of living, like Binx was doing, I know that I’ll probably encounter misogynists, MRAs, and sundry human garbage fires, who think it acceptable to violate my privacy and boundaries for kudos from their equally shitty online communities.
I’m glad you’re okay and safe, Chanty. Hang in there.
There’s no point in being quiet. The abuser’s lobby will attack you as long as you exist at all. Because they are the abuser’s lobby.
I’d also like to know if the LCBO has fired the employee. His name and personal information should also be given to Binx and the police in case she wishes to press charges. And, quite frankly, future employers deserve to know that he is a danger to their customers.
Just to expound upon my previous statement a bit, if attorney fees are a problem that could theoretically be where everyone steps in and does some crowdfunding. First she would have to do a consultation though. Whether she has a case for vicarious liability on the government’s part, I don’t know because I don’t have an understanding of Canadian law. I’d be interested in knowing what options she has though.
And yes, on the criminal side I hope she presses charges and this creep is identified and kept far away from any sort of job involving a computer.
This makes my blood fucking boil.
“How DARE you be rude to a group or MRAs ONCE IN YOUR LIFE? HOW DARE YOU disagree with me? You DESERVE all the pain and violence I can imagine, because you don’t cater to me!”
This is just wanting to punish women for being “uppity” – and the best punishment for a womam who misbehaves is violence – extreme violence at that. Those people make me phisically ill.
And for anyone who tries to come here and say that rape happens because women tease men by dressing sexily – just look at this goddamn threat this woman received for just daring to show her face in public.
I’m not joking, I’m literally literally shivering with rage.
Edit: I’m not going to watch the report or I’m afraid I’ll punch my fucking wall.
Nthing the call for the employee to be fired and charged. This is beyond disgusting.
Is there any crowdfund for her we can donate to, or anything else we can do to help her?
All of the people saying she brought this on herself because of her negative, vile, whatever comments… do they really not realize that they are, by their own logic, bringing similar retribution down on themselves?
Or are they just secure in the knowledge that we good people don’t do that shit?
Fuck that LCBO dude. I hope he loses his job. At the very minimum, he deserves to for breaching her privacy AND his store’s security system.
There is no way that LCBO employee still has a job. In addition to privacy concerns regarding Ms. Binx as a customer (at least one shopper we are aware of that he has done this to), he leaked a still image from security camera footage that belonged to his employer – a Crown Corporation, no less – onto the internet. He also used personal social media to defame one of his co-workers as ‘unstable’.
And I’m going to guess he used his actual name to post this under. What an idiot. He deserves whatever his employer brings down on him – including any lawsuits that come his way. Perhaps he’ll have enough cash on hand to call up Paul Elam for advice before he’s publicly fired.
I read that article, and the store is indeed doing an investigation into the employee at this time, as far as I know.
And it is disgusting that not only has this woman been harassed to the point where she doesn’t feel safe doing activism anymore, but the harassers think that she deserves to die in a horrific manner because she raised her voice at some MRA three years ago.
That’s all she did. She yelled and told some MRA “fuck you” because he kept trying to yell over her. That’s apparently all it takes to deserve harassment and death threats, according to MRAs.
And yet, somehow, we’re still accused constantly of being “hysterical” and “ocer-sensitve” by MRAs when we point out that we don’t think it’s okay for them to threaten and harass people.
The cognitive dissonance is astounding.
Knuckle children? The fuck does that even?
Like… almost literally everybody? On Earth? Fuseryus? It’s almost as if she were a person. Ya know, instead of some kinda carnival attraction to marvel at. I can see him in the store going ‘Look at it. It’s almost human’
Re: firing the guy
Even if the employers don’t care about the harassment, they should care that he’s making snide remarks about customers and being a shit to his fellow employees. There’s no reason this dude should still have a job. Any customer service job. Ever again!
@Rosa
Yep, skipping it too. Hugs, should you want em <3
That man needs to be fucking sued and fired. This is also proof that no, even if you stay silent they won’t leave you alone, so basically fuck them and all that they stand for.
Goddamn, this is creepy. I don’t know what else to say about it. (Ms. Binx, it’s not paranoia when they’re out to get you.)
I’ve worked a job in the past that required watching surveillance footage, and I felt like a creep even just doing what was required for that (and my job was just to watch for employee theft). It says a lot about this person that, far from feeling any discomfort about having access to that kind of footage in the first place, instead he decided to exploit it to aid a harassment campaign.
Security cameras are fucking everywhere, perhaps an unfortunate necessity. But the consequence of that is that, with the awareness that people are willing to exploit them, Binx (and probably every woman ever targeted by these cretins) will have to go through life with the awareness that they could be watching any time she goes into a retail establishment. That’s fucking terrifying. I am so sorry, Ms. Binx.
The only possible good I can see in this is that this is almost certainly a crime and I hope someone is able to prosecute this asshole. Wishful thinking, I know.
Women complain about being harassed and threatened online and men say they need to be more tough and get over it because everyone gets shit talk online. Women talk about how unwelcome and scary street harassment is and men say again that we should get over it. It’s a compliment. It’s a first world problem. How dare we creep shame?
A woman yells a swear word at a man one time and men throw a three year long violent temper tantrum.
Guys? How about you get over it? Everyone gets shit talk sometimes!
I’m not entirely sure, but given that the liquor stores are owned and run by the government, I think this breach of privacy might actually be a bigger deal than it would be ordinarily.
At any rate, the guy needs to be fired and blacklisted from any other government employment. If the LCBO is smart, they’ll hang him out to dry to avoid a lawsuit. Which will get his name in the papers and hopefully give future employers pause.
Meanwhile, the MRAs sink ever lower in the eyes of the public. I guess this is one of those PR coups they count alongside being banned from pride parades.
These people are sickening. At the very least this asshole needs to be fired.
There’s got to be some penalty for inciting hatred. This shit is going too far.
This is the guy Chanty says “helped” her at the store. He did indeed post the message under his real name.
[broken link removed]
The tattoos are … interesting. Anyone know if they’re white nationalist, or if they’re just in a similar style?
CityNews didn’t do a great job of blurring the first name in the death threat in the image from that segment (not that I think that people making those kids of threats deserve to remain anonymous). I’m guessing that it’s not the PGA golfer, or the actor.
But seriously, joining the call for the employee to be fired. It would honestly be incredible if he hasn’t already.
And, on another note: how fragile must both your self-image and your ideological convictions be in order to feel that a woman deserves to be harassed, threatened, and told to kill herself, for the rest of her life, for angrily disagreeing with you? These are some of the weakest, thin-skinned, and pathologically violent people in the world.
Sorry, pic, of just his tats:
The tattoo on his left arm incorporates some of these.
After reading this, I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach. This shit is going too far. It’s mind goggling that people have no protection from this kind of online terrorism.
@Axecalibur
Thanks. I’ll take the hugs. I’ll take all of the hugs.
The posts here normally don’t leave me shaken, but this one really upset me.
No matter that the MRAs were even ruder to her, no matter how long it was, no matter that she wasn’t doing any activism, no matter that she was just going on with her daily life, this woman can’t escape those sorry excuses for human beings.
There are plenty of other things I’m thinking right now, but as they would violate the comments policy and be really vile, I’ll refrain from saying them.
An here’s a brain bleach compilation