Today I Got Called an Insecure Twat
Today I got called an insecure twat.
Trolls Comment: Fucking lol IM AND INSECURE TWAT WHO CANT STAND IT WHEN PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS BEVAUSE PATRIARCHY!
I left the grammatical errors in. Just to provide a bit of context, I haven’t anything new in that blog for over a year. The site has had very few visitors, and is just a tiny spec in the immense galaxy of the internet. What I’m saying is, this troll had to have done a keyword search in google using the words “feminist”, “blog”, and probably just the entire name “feministinthemaddeningcrowd” to find my tiny blog. Even when I try to google it, I have to google the exact name otherwise I get thousands of hits for Thomas Hardy’s book or, more recently, the movie adaptation with Carey Mulligan. This troll searched for a topic that he/she clearly did not approve of, just so he/she could write a nasty comment. And in all caps, too.
Somewhat unrelated to libraries, but of huge consequence to women who use social media, is the topic of trolls and online sexism. For a definition of trolls and a discussion of trolls and sexism, click here.
I have a feminist blog that I actively wrote last year. It was a way for me to engage with the world around me by writing about it from a feminist perspective. Sometimes shit happens to women simply because of their gender. This is life in North-America. It’s real.
I know because it happens to me and to Every. Woman. I. Know.
Gloria Steinmen, Jessica Valenti, Betti Freidan, bell hooks, and hundreds more women have been telling the world about their lived experience with sexism, but sadly many men and even women choose not to believe them.
Having an online presence when you are a woman means opening the virtual gate to hordes of misogynists who want to harass, abuse, and even send death threats to you.
Unlike in the physical world, however, they get to do it anonymously from behind their computer screen, and in most cases without the threat of legal consequences.
Trigger Warning: This section gives brief examples of the cruel and graphic comments trolls leave.
Examples of the horrific messages that trolls leave in the comments section of women’s webpages are vast, but here’s a few to give you a taste: insults about appearance and physicality, insults about intelligence, pictures of mutilated women, threats of rape, threats against the woman’s family members, threats to rape the woman’s child(ren), death threats, etc. Comments can range from one-word insults to page-long, detailed threats.
Trolls are often dumb. WordPress sent an email to me asking me to moderate the comment I had received (basically, do I want to approve it for publication, trash it, or report it as spam). Below that is more information about the troll.
Troll’s Name: James Russelberg
Troll’s Email: Jidf1111@gmail.com
Troll’s Whois: http://whois.arin.net/rest/ip/207.195.86.13 (IP: 207.195.86.13)
Troll’s Place of Employment: SaskTel Mobility, Regina
SaskTel Mobility Phone Number: 1-800-SASKTEL (727-5835)
Now it’s my turn. Should I give James’ boss a call?
Unfortunately, not all trolls are as easy to track or identify. I hate it when mean people get away with bullying. I wish all trolls were brought to court. But this just doesn’t happen.
This is a real problem. I read an article about this in the Atlantic last year which said a lot of female bloggers writing on difficult “contested” topics get troll’d and harassed so much that they abandon their use of social media. It would be interesting to see if there are best practices or advice from women who have “found a way forward”. Dean
I wouldn’t call the Instagram account ByeFelipe a “way forward”, but it acts a forum where women facing trolls can shame their attackers publicly. The content of all of the posts is deeply unsettling, but it’s satisfying to know that the perpetrators are called out with a photo and by their first name.
I suppose that this is an example of exactly why many people avoid taking part in social media at all, especially those forums where they are asked to put their opinions out there. It makes me upset for humanity that people sit around behind their computers, searching for people to harass on the Internet. As you said in class, he would have had to have been searching for this subject matter in order to find your blog and it really just makes you wonder what is wrong with the world? Though I am sure you didn’t appreciate receiving his comment, something like that could be extra detrimental to a young person, or someone from a marginalized population. It often doesn’t take much to push someone over the edge and that’s what makes these kinds of comments extra devastating.
WWWWWAAAAAAA James!
WWWWWAAAAAAA Liberal!
WWWWWAAAAAAA Women!
WWWWWAAAAAAA Men!
WWWWWAAAAAAA Secure!
WWWWWAAAAAAA In -Secure!
WWWWWAAAAAA What about me!
WWWWWAAAAAAA Biden!
WWWWWAAAAAAA Trump!
WWWWWAAAAAAA Focus on Me!!!!