Cyber Violence Towards Women

My friend Addi posted this on Facebook in response to the woman who collected 10 years of violent threats and messages from many many men:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/a-woman-collected-the-online-harassment-shes-received-in-the?utm_term=.vomb10YRJb#.haplxwrkml

When I was in Tokyo, I had a blog to keep my family up to date on my life. Halfway through the year, an anonymous user started commenting frequently, starting with things like smiley emojis, to passive-aggressive messages, and after a while it escalated to full-blown, terrifying remarks with language I dare not repeat here. Every time I blacklisted their username or their IP address, they came back, and their comments became more and more violent.

A year later, after coming back to the states and my blog quieted, by bizarre coincidence a friend had stumbled upon a blog that was solely dedicated to hating me. There was just a single post, with a photo that was likely taken from my blog, and a ton of really awful things said about me. I cried a lot, then reported the blog, and it was taken down. To this day, I don't know who that commenter was or the blog owner, but I imagine they are the same person based on the language they used. I'm also positive they are the same person who began stalking me when I worked at Eastridge (side note: Eastridge Security has the nicest people).

My point is, the Internet is a scary place, but it's an especially scary place for women. If a woman in your life tells you about something that is frightening her, do not gaslight her and tell her "it's probably not that bad" and "they're just trolls". Every woman who has an internet presence has experienced messages like the ones this woman has collected, and having an internet presence does NOT equal consent to receive such vile comments.

Commenter on Addi's Post: The Internet: where "no thank you" can escalate to "I will rape and kill your whole family" in under a minute.

This is why we can't have nice things.