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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.
The photo FB page says it’s temporarily unavailable. (At least for me.)
This is…immensely disgusting in many ways.
I have little to add. But I wish I could help.
I took out the link and put the pic in directly.
She needs to call her MPP immediately – this is a _huge_ deal.
As others have mentioned this is a Crown corporation – they are bound by stricter privacy rules than private enterprises.
I work for a provincial agency as a network administrator. It is a FOIP violation for me to view security footage without an HR manager present (and even then, only if I needed to identify someone for a criminal investigation.) The fact that a random employee is able to view the security footage (let alone make copies) should get someone fired.
If the poster was a manager, then whoever is responsible for screening his position needs to be fired. This is a major fuckup on their part.
Dear Lord. She just wanted a drink, for fuck’s sake. What benefit is it to harass this woman? Do these crusty 5 year old cumstains really have nothing else to do? Or is harassment more fun than any activity, thought, or media to consume? If so, that’s perhaps the most profoundly disturbing thing about this, that people REALLY REALLY LIKE to see others suffer so much, it’s a hobby.
Above someone said “wombmanity” and I’m guessing that guy’s a troll. Since its agreed that not feeding troll does nothing, anyone wanna poke him?
Urgh, what an ugly dude. Whaddya bet he’s a neo-Nazi?
And, speaking as a German who studied runes at uni and can read them in a divinatory context, I’m pissed because these shits really give ancient Germanic cultures a bad name. Just by appropriating them in the interests of fascism, which is utterly alien to the cultures and religions of my ancestors.
In short, double-fuck this dude.
Actually, I just deleted the “wombanity” comment, no trolls allowed in this thread.
@FrickleFrackle – sssh! They’re undercover 🙂
@Rosa, Axe, everyone – hugs aplenty here, to give and receive.
I’m sorry I was curious to see this POS.
I’m glad CB is okay, but jeez, this shit has got to be wearing on her.
@Rosa
Yeah, me too. My levees broke a few weeks ago. Combination of general internet things and a particularly sad story sent me into wrathful vibration mode. It was hard to type, both from the shivering and trying so hard to express myself without breaking the rules. A nap and some well wishes from my mammoth homies made it somewhat better
http://img.ifcdn.com/images/843cc049a86ec8753e337730971c6b316e6ae7ede3f1067f21c42bd5538826d8_1.gif
Also gifs. Gifs helped
I feel the same way–like there’s a lot of things in my life that upsets/bothers/angers me in my life that I don’t express to other people and a big part of that is that I’m afraid of the retribution that I might receive if I express displeasure because so many men are so quick to label a normal negative human emotion that a woman has as a mental illness and so many men are so quick to get very very angry and there are a couple of men in my life who don’t get why I feel so unsafe expressing my own anger/frustration/discomfort because they don’t get that situations like this are possible
Kitty sweetness, for anyone who needs it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNodQpGVVyg
It’s two hours long, so feel free to watch as long as your brain needs bleaching…
Did someone say brain bleach? Have a Pepper:
http://i.imgur.com/TutM66s.jpg
As for the breach of privacy, I agree it’s really major. I hope that will get something actually done about this. Unfortunately, harassment is usually just brushed off as not a big deal. It doesn’t seem to matter that it does actual harm or that their intent is to cause harm, law enforcement is seriously slacking on this front.
I’m getting a strong Nazi eagle vibe from the tattoo at the top of his right shoulder in the image David posted. Would certainly fit with the life rune tattoos on his left arm. So gross.
“Buuuuuuut Guuuuuuuys! Men are the TRUE oppressed ones because of feeeemales butts, breasts, v neck sweaters and something something friendzone something.. What about teh meeeeenz!?” /MAJOR SARCASM
Anyway love, hugs and kisses to Mrs. Binx and everyone else here. We all got your backs.
from http://www.lcbo.com/content/dam/lcbo/corporate-pages/about/pdf/Code%20of%20Business%20Conduct%20E.pdf
There seem to be a number of items in the LCBO Code of Business Conduct(Employee rules and regulations, really) that this gentleman has broken, but this is the most directly relevant. My concern is that because they are unionized, he may be able to worm his way out of a firing through appeals and suchlike.
^ If LCBO doesn’t hang his ass out to dry, wouldn’t they be the ones considered liable for the invasion of privacy and misuse of security footage? Pretty sure that’d be asking for a lawsuit.
I really hope Ms. Binx is in a safe spot right now, this is unbelievably shitty.
You know, while I do not condone stooping to the level of the bag guys (read: MRAs), it strikes me as patently unfair that whenever we get a story about them covered, their names and Internet usernames are censored out so they can’t be harassed and embarrassed for their awful behavior, but whenever they catch one of our people conducting themself improperly, they dox them, put their image out anywhere and everywhere, and make their name and location widely known so that all manner of hatred and violence can be visited upon them.
But somehow they think we’re the bad people in all of this. Fuck my life.
Brain bleach
http://38.media.tumblr.com/d9f045cf8537d0f38e224066a7ce8ef1/tumblr_n4lfcpaQEI1spy7ono1_250.gif
@Lady_Zombie
See, and this is why I’m sort of sad to exist at all in this day and age. I wish I could encounter these dickbags when they’re doing this kind of stuff to people and put them in their place (i.e. the garbage dump), but even though I’m aware that this kind of stuff happens, I never have people pass along “funny” little links to video surveillance of feminists or doxxing info or any of that stuff that I could respond with “Hey man, that’s a pretty shitty thing to do to another human being. You’ve got a mom, right? How would you feel if I did that to her? Shitty? Thought so. Don’t do that crap to this woman.”
I did run across some Islamophobia today that I addressed head on in an online community. I was told, “It’s fine to be a little racist toward muslims [sic] because they all follow sheria [sic] law no matter what without exception.” I reported it to the community moderator who promptly told me to “drop it” and proceeded to act like it was fine that this had been said. So when I realized that was how this community was going to be about it, I made it known publicly that I was leaving that community, let them know why, and said it was unqualifiedly WRONG to make a blanket statement about an entire people group based on the evil choices of a small subset of that population.
I wish this kind of stuff would rear its ugly head in black-and-white like this more often, but the awful truth is misogyny and hatred in general typical take on a more milquetoast tone and have a sort of genteel subtlety that make them nebulous and hard to define. It’s sort of like dealing with a bully. Some bullies will just straight up demand that you do what they want or punch you in the stomach, and those are the ones that are easy to stand up to. The tough ones are the malignant narcissists who never do any single big thing that makes you go “Hey now, that is definitely bullying and you need to STOP.” They instead do a million little aggressions know that they win either way because either you call them on it and look like the carping, nagging co-worker or you let it slide and they get away with it. It sucks. Still, given those options I choose to be the carping, nagging co-worker.
She’s in my city; I want to make her a whole bunch of freezer meals so that she doesn’t have to go outside for a while if she doesn’t feel safe in other stores in her neighbourhood. I’d also deliver her liquor store order while this gets resolved. It could be to a meeting point if she doesn’t want to share where she lives anymore.
Do-able?
@RosieLa
If she’s down for it, but please make it private, the last thing this person needs is a mob of bozos coming at her. It’s stuff like this that makes people hesitant to say what they wish on the internet, and those who call censorship always end up being the ones spewing the worst of it all while also silencing objections with petty and horrid crap like this.
@Ooglyboggles – obviously she’d have to be down for it. Consent is key, after all! I also have no way of asking her (nor getting in touch) and pretty much would need @David Futrelle to co-ordinate.
But he said that he’s looking for ideas – it’s the only one I’ve got.
@RosieLa
If I was in the area I would lend a hand. But since I’m not the best I could do is maybe spread the word of how awful this is to people I know and hopefully garner support on her side.
“Security detail illegally uploads surveillance footage to harass a woman.” might be the wording I could use to help others see the situation. I really don’t think there’s anything to be balanced about in this situation, there isn’t a balanced nuanced view, just a spiteful possible neonazi illegally using camera footage to harass a woman. So I don’t feel bad phrasing the situation as such.
I hope she would enjoy your gifts, and I hope she knows that everyone here, and the general public doesn’t see this as something acceptable.
My first thought about this privacy breach was that the guy would be arrested, but then I remembered that he was a retail store worker, not a health care worker, and the laws regarding that are different from HIPAA. Nevertheless, he should face criminal charges since he knowingly and intentionally used that footage for the unprofessional purpose of harassment and possibly inciting violence.