"A woman's opinion is the miniskirt of the internet"

[HedleyLamarr]

I posted this in Feminism [brave emoticon], and someone has suggested putting it in AIBU.

So, I was sent a link to this article in the Independent. Your thoughts/ideas are much appreciated .

But Sakura, I have seen exactly what you are saying doesnt happen, happen... on this very site. Quite regularly.

HI Lenin!! Thanks I've missed it.

We have plenty of legislation now to deal with threats and hate speak.
If you receive hate mail and death/rape threats etc then go to the police. Prosecute the morons. It has never been easier to trace someone as it is now.

The anti-racist abuse thing at football really only started to have an effect when people were bundled out of the crowd by the police and charged.
I saw it happen time and time again at football grounds all over the country. Plus the clubs that had a big problem with orchestrated racist abuse were fined heavily and forced to play games behind closed doors.

Use the law. It is what it is there for.

squeakytoy What men are raped and killed on this site?

I'm saying women are regularly raped and killed. Isn'T it two women a week in the UK?

By men...

Therefore it follows, that a rape or death threat made by a man towards a woman, or any sort of threat really, stands for something very different than when it's a man on the receiving end of a threat.

I'm saying women are regularly raped and killed

Men are killed on a regular basis too. More men than women are murdered every year.

Sakura, I understand that it is more likely that a woman will be a victim of rape by a stranger than a man (ignoring domestic situations here as the internet abusers will most likely be strangers).

But isn't a man more likely to be a victim of violence from a stranger?

So if a man is threatened with violence and a woman is threatened with rape, should they both be worried? In real life, obviously they should. But we are talking about internet threats.

Is an internet abuser who threatens a woman with rape more likely to follow through on the threat than an internet abuser who threatens a man with violence?

That is what I am asking.

men are also raped and killed - believe it or not

at this being posted here because 'the feminist board receives less traffic.' I thought it was a board about feminism - a lot of posters who come on to it to tell people that anyway.

Why should it be in the feminism section? Two posters have already said it's not a feminst issue and lots of others have said it's not just an issue faced by women

^ See.

So obviously it's a general issue.

More men are murdered than women and more men are the victims of violent crimes so on that basis a threat to a man should be taken just as seriously as a threat to a woman.

I do not understand why some posters are saying a threat to a woman is more serious. They are both equally serious and should both be dealt with by the police / relevant authority who are best placed to determine the actual threat and deal with it.

You're more likely to be a victim of violent assult if you're a male aged between 15 and 30 ( or thereabouts ) -

I'm also not sure why threats against women should be taken more seriously? - I thought feminists wanted equality.

I don't think if these women took a handful of emails along to the police, the police would actually do anything, surely?

The usual stance is that you have to wait until something "happens" I think? Or there are teh stalking laws for a specific person doing lots of stuff. A load of different people threatening to rape you - the police won't do anything I don't think.

Are men aged 15 to 30 at high risk of receiving threats from large numbers of people due to their views?

Some are, I'm sure. How old is johann hari? I bet he gets some awful ones.

However this is about the way that rape and sexual violence threats are directed at women. That is worth talking about surely?

However this is about the way that rape and sexual violence threats are directed at women.

It would be nice if it was, however the article in the OP basically (incorrectly) said that women get hate mail and straight white men don't, so that has muddied the waters.

LyingWitch, I did originally post this thread in Feminism. Someone suggested I put it here, so I did.

'I do not understand why some posters are saying a threat to a woman is more serious'

You're the one saying that. From the first page of this thread - a thread about explicit rape comments and threats targeted at women bloggers- there have been comments along the lines of 'men get threatened too.'

Some posters seem desperate to assert that there is no difference in the attacks women bloggers receive to those men do. Well I'm sorry to disillusion you, but I don't think male bloggers routinely get people telling them how they're going to rape them. Posters have even been attacked for quoting some of the comments bloggers have received, with someone suggesting they get some kind of pleasure from using such language!

If I posted a thread about prostate cancer do you think posters would rush in to say, well, women get cancer too?

That comment right at the end?

I found the article so shocking I almost missed that!

So that one comment at the end negates the fact that she has had all those terrible threats against her? The fact that she said that at the end means that everything that has happened is irrelevant, doesn't matter?

I don't really get that.

Absolutely, all serious threats of violence should be taken seriously.

It's fantastic that someone posted an example of a white straight man getting threats - and used the example of duncan bannatyne where the threats were threats of sexual violence against his daughter!

It is standard when you want to insult or threaten a straight white man to focus on his wife / partner / mother / daughter isn't it? If he doesn't have those then it's his possessions. What does that say.

Is there a 'league table' of violence or something? Violence against men or women is deplorable and needs to be stopped. I don't see that threats of 'rape' are less or more significant than threats of death, torture, assault of family members.

In so far as rape threats being more addressed towards women, well they would, wouldn't' they. The threat has the power to strike fear. Thugs will use whatever 'achilles heel' works best when they want to terrorise.

I absolutely agree that men and women shouldn't keep silent about threats but to write about them without tacklng them achieves nothing other than sensationalism and 'me too' journalism. Getting paid to write a story whilst doing nothing to tackle the problem diminishes the 'value' somewhat.

Are men not very afraid of being raped?

I would have thought that threatening to gang rape a man would be terrifying for him.

In my experience, however, the charges of stupidity, hypocrisy, Stalinism and poor personal hygiene which are a sure sign that any left-wing columnist is at least upsetting the right people, come spiced with a large and debilitating helping of violent misogyny, and not only from the far-right.

I don't think she expected no abuse.

I am not saying the threats are not different, I am just saying I don't think they are better, worse, more serious or less serious. I accept they are different. I am not "desparate to assert there is no difference". I don't however, accept they are somehow worse.

Also - I am clearly not saying a threat to a woman is more serious so why on earth do you maintain that I am?

Some of the worst attacks I've ever seen on female writers have been here...

I'm pretty sure people on MN were trying to find Jan Moir's address when she wrote her column item about Stephen Gateley.