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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.
Weiss, coming into a thread to say “Well, not ALL MRAs are bad!” when absolutely no one said that every MRA ever is responsible for this, and saying we were going “overboard” by pointing out that MRAs are responsible for this is pretty tone-deaf, and is straight up tone policing.
The only thing that’s more tone-deaf is focusing on “Not ALL MRAs!” instead of the fact that Miss Binx has been harassed by self-proclaimed MRAs for over three years now. MRAs are doing this, and we should be focusing on what they’re doing, instead of trying to play The Blame Game so some MRAs can cover their asses.
And as WWTH said, I’ve never seen this mythical non-anti-feminist, non-bigoted MRA. You’re more than welcome to point one out though.
FTB = Freethought blogs. I thought everyone knew that.
I admit the name Weiss could lead to someone thinking white supremacy, but honestly, I’ve never thought about it until someone brought it up.
I didn’t troll. I just have no intention of portraying an entire group in a bad way, when there’s a possibility for potential allies. I mean, fighting for women’s rights and fighting for men’s rights are not incompatible.
I do not like Karen Straughan (she’s pretty radical, so I don’t even know why suggesting her), I don’t like Christina Hoff Sommers (I don’t think she calls herself a MRA, but she did write for AVfM). In fact, I think they fail miserably even at fighting for men’s rights. But again, just because they are the most vocal, doesn’t mean there’s all there is to that group.
Actually, I already explained why I said not all MRA. So I really don’t know what you want. It had to do with someone saying they want to yell at every MRA. That’s why I said that.
@Weiss
Oh! Hi there. Shut the fuck up.
http://gifsec.com/wp-content/uploads/GIF/2015/08/OMG-why-are-you-still-here-GIF.gif
I didn’t actually call you a troll. But good job alienating the one person who was going to give you a chance to explain yourself before dismissing you as a troll. Now you’ve got me thinking you are a troll after all.
Dammit, gif didn’t embed. Gonna try another image.
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/1d/1d5193dc0ba4d7bc93ebaabe979d6cefce5ecef19988e7943fe10509dd3d0d6e.jpg
If it’s named like a troll, talks like a troll, and logics like a troll, chances are it’s a troll.
I mean, maybe a princess can kiss you and you’ll sparkle ribbon dance twirl transform into Sailor Social Justice, but I doubt it.
@Weirwood @Paradoxical
WTF is wrong with you two? You are both the first people to jump all over someone and call him or her a troll for anything you don’t agree with.
I think Weiss posted here before? I remember a Weiss with a blue icon. I’m assuming they’re named after the Weiss in RWBY.
In any case, this wasn’t the right thread to bring up the fact that not all MRAs are like that. For one, people aren’t talking about the MRAs who aren’t like that, and two, we’ve had many trolls who had come in here and said, “Oh, not all men are like that,” or “Not all MRAs are like that” to have them turn around and turn out to be exactly like that, which is why we’re cautious about people who do say that.
We’re also cautious about people who claim things, like how not all MRAs are like this, and don’t back up said claims. If you can show an example of an MRA who isn’t like that, who calls themselves an MRA and everything, please do. We often give links to people to backup our claims here ourselves.
And lastly I suggest, if you’re sincere Weiss, to not dig your heels in any further. This wasn’t the thread to say what you said in, especially since no one said all MRAs are like this.
@Schwarz/Weiss
You know, if you’re gonna sockpuppet, you could at least not pick matching names. “Black and White” isn’t exactly subtle.
Schwartz,
Oh, piss off. I call people a troll when I think they’re a troll. Not for disagreeing with me. I didn’t call Weiss (you?) a troll until you claimed I called you a troll when I didn’t.
Still waiting on those non-misogynist MRAs.
late to the thread, but pretty sure that doxxing your customers is a firing offence at the LCBO.
Well, that’s depressing. Not exactly surprising, considering that the police seem to think that internet harassment isn’t an actual thing (though I would have thought the misuse of security footage might have been), but depressing.
Sad, but not surprising. A university friend of mine went to the campus police about her stalker and was dismissed by them. They told her that she had probably lead him on or something like that. Or that maybe she was overreacting. Eventually, her stalker left her alone. But for a while, she had to just put up with it. 🙁 Unless a stalker became physically threatening, they weren’t treated seriously at my school.
Weiss and Schwarz–if I were you, I’d be hanging out in MRA virtual space, explaining to them that some of your compatriots are letting down the side. Why tell us? We don’t care. Tell the people who are causing the problems and making the rest of you look bad.
Where the fuck did I call Wiess a troll? Seriously, if you want to put words in my mouth, quote me. Show me where I called Weiss a troll. It shouldn’t be too hard, I only made one post directed at them.
I only disagreed with what they said because I thought it was tone-deaf, tone-policing derailment, and I explained why. I thought that would be more civil than “Fuck off, troll”, and if Weiss was being genuine, maybe they could understand why what they said wasn’t appropriate.
Is that suddenly not allowed now? Am I not allowed to disagree with people and tell them why because that’s (somehow) an unfair accusation of “trolling”? I daresay I was far kinder to Weiss than I could have been.
Also, I didn’t make that post to Weiss until several people had already responded to question Wiess’ motives, WWTH included, so fuck off with that “Paradoxy’s the first to jump all over people for disagreeing!” bullshit.
@Weiss/Schwarz
Hey, Weiss/Schwarz, I thought you were going to make me happy?!
What the hell happened to that promise!
Just one more wretched, lying, hypocritical loser of an MRA.
Socking is a bannable offense, Whitey.
Also, it was me who first called you a troll, not WWTH or PI. Or was that a subtle hint that you’ve trolled here before and still hold a few grudges?
It’s odd how they can shout garbage and overact and not come means yet all a feminist has to do is raise her voice and now she’s hounded for three years. I mean I know aurini became s meme with the whole ‘i know all the keyboard shortcuts’ thing. But his life wasn’t ruined because of it. They keep themselves safe as a group even people like aurini who are broadly shunned by the rest really.
I mean to be more clear. Can anyone think of an example of any MRA, PUA or whatever that had ever receive the amount of hatred like this?
I didn’t even feel bad about chanty binx when I first saw the video, she was reading a good article with good logical points. Points beings ignored by the opposition that was there. This hatred us something I can’t understand. I mean even I couldn’t bring myself to hate fuckers like Roosh aurini or forney as much as these people hate her.
She was buying wine for Christ sake. Just living her life now and people still want her to die?
I’m genuinely confused and sad about having to hear another story like this.
Walks and sits so as to take up as much space as humanly possible like a misogynist, talks about going their own way/focusing on improving themselves/complains online about girls who eat pancakes and want to sleep in not go to the gym every damn day/whines about women getting all kinds of perks-free stuff-rights instead of promptly dispensing bj’s on demand to the alphas-those-bitches-must-be-defective-to-not-see-there-before-them preferring Chad Thundercocks and such like a misogynist, definitely absolutely no doubt about it whatsoever that’s a misogynist.
And misogynists can go sit on a cactus.
I remember that incident long ago. I remember her. I always see her image and I always realize that I actually saw the footage of what happened there. I’m sort of on two minds about what happened at the original incident but I feel ugly even saying that because this unfortunate women clearly got the raw end of the deal and whatever she did, she didn’t deserve that. THREE years ago. it’s been THREE years huh. Wow how time flies (for the rest of us). that’s got to be like torture for her though day in, day out non stop.
They still constantly harass Rebecca Watson and “Elevatorgate” has been at least 5 years ago.
I hate these MRA harassers because of the terrible things they do to humans, but also for making me associate sun bears, puffins, and various other “advice animals” with their garbage beliefs. What did that bear ever to do you? Leave these cute animals out of this!
http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u375/erica_cross2/puffin_zpsbohemeqq.jpg
Chanty Binx is a labelled C**T FEMINAZI for raising her voice, yet swole guy is a hero for screaming MAKE MY BURRITO! Keep it classy, MRAs.