Rather shocked that a woman sent these messages

[JacqueslePeacock]

I've just read that two people pleaded guilty to sending threatening, misogynistic messages to Caroline Criado-Perez in protest at her campaign to put a woman on our banknotes. (Guardian article here) I probably shouldn't be shocked, but couldn't help feeling a bit incredulous that one of the two was a young woman.

(It seems the Guardian couldn't quite get its head around it either, as the article refers to the woman's messages as "his" in paragraph 3!)

Yes I was shocked when I heard on the radio that one was female.

I mean, I'm aware that women can be threatening and abusive and all, but sending rape threats to a woman who wanted your own half of humanity represented on a bloody bank note....my mind boggles. I feel quite sad about the whole thing.

It's the equivalent of a bunch of men threatening to 'give you a taste of your own medicine' to a chap they think acts a bit camp I suppose.

Incidences of cyber bullying are common in both genders, and I suspect it will only increase. People can be very nasty when they believe there are no consequences.

I started a thread recently about how surprised I was that "people" hate women. It's this sort of thing that links to why I feel like women hate other women just for being women. Others on the thread articulated better what I was trying to say.

I saw your thread, hazchem, and I agree. It just makes me feel so gloomy.

I was also shocked, OP.

When I was a teenager I felt really optimistic about the women's movement. It felt like quite amazing things were happening and had happened and that it might keep getting better and better .

It feels like we just keep swing back but to possibly a worse place because there is an impression that equality is being achieved

How much do we know about the motivations of either of the people found guilty in this case? Is it an argument about philosophies? Is it a political argument that got out of hand. Was it the act of a couple of people with mental issues? I saw your other thread, hazchem, and the use of phrases like 'xx hates women' really doesn't help us examine any of the underlying issues. There was plenty of disagreement with your statement.

I think that there is an element of internalised misogyny plus an element of being 'in with the boys' so to speak. Being more like men is one way of reducing the abuse you might receive at their hands.

I also think that this court case wasn't a true reflection of the abuse CCP received. The more violent tweets were more likely to be from male twitter accounts.

I think sending a woman a tweet about how you'd like to rape her is pretty clearly setting out your stall on the hate front Artetas.

Is that what the female accused wrote, a threat to rape her? That isn't physically possible. It is awful, but it makes no sense.

From the article she appears to have threatened CCP with death. He on the other hand threatened her with rape.

Not sure why you are thinking this isn't hate. Nor why if we say it's hate we suddenly can't discuss the nuances and underlying reasons for that hate?

When someone tells you what they are like, believe them.

Anyway, let's not get into legal technicalities. As I said earlier, female on female cyber bullying is not new. Under the thin veneer of 'civilised' behaviour, a great many of us are capable of horrible behaviour and cruelty. I hope Ms Perez gains some sense of justice from the convictions.

I think you might misunderstand what rape is if you think it isn't possible for a women to rape a women Artetas

I didn't think it was possible under U.K. Law for a woman to commit rape either.

I am not saying it is or isn't hate. People say awful things in the heat of the moment - 'I'll kill you', 'I hate you', 'I hope you burn in Hell' etc etc. Thing is, this stuff was all face-to-face not so long ago. You knew who was threatening you, how it was meant, whether an apology would be forthcoming. Now this wonderful internet enables keyboard warriors to come out with this stuff and worse, thinking that their anonymity will protect them from prosecution. It's nice to see that it doesn't.

In the UK, rape is penetration with a penis; a woman can be convicted of rape if she conspires in a rape.

Regardless, it's unbelievable that anyone gets death and rape threats for campaigning about banknotes pictures, FGS. I am glad there has been a result in court.

Hazchem, my understanding of it under English law is that it is non-consensual penetration of a person using a penis. Am I wrong?

Why are we talking about whether women can commit rape? She didn't threaten CCP with rape. She said rape was the least of her worries (amongst other things)

But Art, heat of the moment surely doesn't apply to a written response to a twitter campaign

Rape has to involve a penetration by the penis so legally a woman can't commit rape. It would be sexual assault or 'assault by penetration' ( if we want to get technical here)

Ok, so perhaps she didn't threaten rape - just death and other kinds of nasties. That's not really the point, though, is it? My shock was more that a woman would threaten another woman with this for campaigning to put a picture of another woman on a banknote.

I agree completely with Scallops that it's about "being in with the boys", actually.

You would think not Doctrine. I don't use twitter, but doesn't it allow for ongoing 'chats', like here but shorter? Does anyone know the sequence of events? Was the threat out of the blue, or during an ongoing exchange? I have seen internet arguments get out of hand. Not that it excuses any of the abuse.

It's depressing and I think there are a number of women who subscribe to the 'political correctness gone mad' agenda and a dislike of feminists (although I would imagine very few would express it in such an aggressive way).