Yet 'more' internet sexism - Louise Mensch sexist abuse on Twitter

[Lottapianos]

here

So sorry for Daily Fail link but I felt this story needed sharing.

Now I am no fan of Louise Mensch - I think she's a muppet for all sorts of reasons and her refusal to endorse any anti-Murdoch findings by the select committee she sat on was just about laughable.

However, this is yet another example of how commonplace it is to hurl sexist abuse at women who you don't agree with or whose views you dispute. It's nowhere near as vitriolic as the vile things that were tweeted about Ched Evans' rape victim, but to me the mindset is the same - don't like something a woman says/does, use it as an excuse to ridicule her for sharing her opinions/actions in the first place.

I'm just sick and tired of all this - some people are so hateful and it's exhausting

I have said repeatedly that it isnt the same thing. And that I am not aware of her having used violent or sexist language.

Give us a link then. Let's see what she's supposed to have said and about who.

Would it be possible to do that without a prolonged dissection of whether what she has said is sexist and vioent when I have already said that I don't think I have seen anything from her that is?
Given the way this thread has panned out I doubt it somehow.

Frankly, the fact you are so unwilling to provide us with evidence of these terrible things suggests there isn't any. And even if you can produce some, that doesn't make the insults she has faced in turn ok.

'terrible things' no that isnt what I said. I am not claiming that the things that she says deserve threats of violence. I have said repeatedly that I dont think that what she said was sexist or violent, just that imo she has made insulting comments (which she is obviously perfectly entitled to do). I'm not getting into a dissection of whether your definition of the word insulting is the same as mine, as tbh its pretty much a non-issue in the context of the actual topic of this thread.

So why bring it up?

Well obviously I'm wishing that I hadnt bothered now...

Basil can I borrow your hammer if you're not using it?

Norty Julia.

naughty but nice homicidal

This discussion highlights one of the problems we face, as women, as feminists, online. One of the tactics of online patriarchy is to marginalize and isolate individual women for special woman-hatred because particular attention has been drawn to them for whatever reason. And then the focus becomes on that woman and not the issue at hand - which is how woman-hatred underpins interaction on the internet.

I wrote a blog about my own experiences on the net and drew some general analogies from that experience and from those of other women's:

sisterhoodispowerful.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/internet-misogyny-how-online-patriarchy-operates/

I also came across another blog articulating how sexism on twitter, specifically, had worked against her:

circlesunderstreetlights.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/twitter-trolls-and-what-about-the-menz/

While we too focus on the individual woman, and what she may or may not have done, instead of the insidious nature of online patriarchy we do it, not ourselves, a service