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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Ash Sarkar - twitter really is grim

222 replies

Xanthangum · 22/06/2020 10:32

The story is in the papers now: www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/reading-stabbings-muslim-journalist-death-22227933

I'm diametrically opposed to Ash's views on some issues. But this is quite clearly a) racist bullying, b) misogynistic bullying and c) people using a very horrible incident to unleash their own prejudiced vile viewpoints.

OP posts:
TheProdigalKittensReturn · 22/06/2020 18:06

It would have to be understood in exactly the same way by both Ash and these racists for the story of her goading about these murders to be plausible. I think people are losing the plot!

Do they want the Libyans to stop corrupting Christians with their evil Muslim citrus fruit? I'm seriously having a hard time grasping this particular entry in the Baffling Things Racists Say chronicles.

RealityBased · 22/06/2020 18:09

The way Twitter works seems to bring out the worst in people in a way that say Facebook and Instagram do not (the mass pile-on phenomenon is enabled by Twitter’s functionality. It’s much harder to create a mob on other platforms).

To this - and also to the question posed back to my first response to this thread: nothing's stopping them except, as correctly pointed out, the fact that it's not in line with the business model. And because there are some legal issues involved. Basically - and, yes, gross simplification - if you moderate too much you might end up accidentally making yourself a curator of content rather than a simple publishing tool for other people's content - and that puts you in a worse legal position. Which is insane but obviously also a major incentive.

I have to strongly disagree with the notion that Facebook isn't part of this particular problem, though. As a matter of fact, some of their content is so utterly vile that they were successfully sued after some of their moderators literally developed PTSD in the job, and major tech companies including Cognizant and Accenture have come under massive criticism for the working conditions of moderators employed by them. Facebook is less fast paced than twitter, so you won't get the exact same insta-pile on. You're also looking at a somewhat different demographic. But the content itself is often just as horrifying.

kojolo · 22/06/2020 18:18

That's absolutely awful. She's just... existing in public. That is the crime. Who are these utter madmen on twitter?

It worries me that these people are walking around in the everyday world. I was just reading about the Civil War (our one, the roundheads vs the cavaliers) and the mounting horror of unallied citizens as they realise what is happening and how events are overtaking them. I think it's no coincidence that Matthew Hopkins flourished and undertook the largest ever witch hunt during the Civil War.

MaMaLa321 · 22/06/2020 18:19

I've come off Twitter and FB because they're not doing my mental health any good. Twitter is horrible.
I can't summon up any sympathy for AS. She uses the media for her own purposes, and it's turned round and bitten her. When I followed her on Twitter, I never saw her express compassion. Remember the epic fail when she accused Julie Bindel of not caring for women in prison on twitter?
Also, I also saw her for the 1st time on Question Time, and thought she came across as spectacularly thick. Nothing I've seen of her since has disabused me of this.

DuDuDuLangaLangaBingBong · 22/06/2020 18:22

Don’t worry, Reality I don’t think Facebook is doing a good job either, it’s just revolting in a different way (and yes, slower) way!

DidoLamenting · 22/06/2020 18:48

She came across as quite thick on Question Time and apparently said to Ed Davey She said: “It’s the same as your position was until two weeks ago bro!”

I mean really "bro"? How down with the kids.

And this gem "I'm literally a Communist"

m.facebook.com/novaramedia/videos/2601690043205480/

serenada · 22/06/2020 18:51

Maybe it wasn't QT, I can't remember and I have no agenda in defending her - I just thought she was playing the media.

The point, as others have made better than I have, however, is that this verbal abuse on Twitter is not appropriate, regardless of the target.

kojolo · 22/06/2020 18:55

I honestly don't care if she's thick. Nobody deserves to be treated like this.

MaMaLa321 · 22/06/2020 19:27

It's like complaining that swimming makes you wet. Twitter is a horrible medium. If you don't like abuse, don't use it.

And it's not just that she's stupid. She criticised Julie Bindel, in 2018, for not caring for women in prison, when a single search on JB's wikipedia page would have brought up that JB has spent her life working for women. She was co-founder of Justice for Women in 1991.

She was on a C4 programme about trans issues and was incredibly rude to Germaine Greer.

Unfortunately for her, the whole business model of Novaramedia rests on tweeting aggressive, ill-founded rubbish.

kojolo · 22/06/2020 19:46

I can't agree. Abuse should not chase women out of the public sphere. feminists should not applaud this. I don't understand a feminism that does that.

Ash Sarkar may have criticised people, even people I admire, but has she accused them of committing terrorist atrocities and threatened them with death? I don't think so. (I could be wrong here - I admit I am not on twitter. I mainly do my politics in person.)

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 22/06/2020 19:48

"She deserved it" is not feminism.

kojolo · 22/06/2020 19:50

@TheProdigalKittensReturn

"She deserved it" is not feminism.
100% agree
serenada · 22/06/2020 19:52

yes

SuckingDieselFella · 22/06/2020 19:53

I don't know why she is posting a photo of herself eating an ice lolly in very short pink shorts if she wants to be taken seriously as a journalist. I don't see Laura Kuennessberg, Fiona Bruce or Peston posing like this.

But in no way should she be subjected to death threats.

kojolo · 22/06/2020 20:24

It's summer. I presume she was wearing shorts because it's June. Ditto ice lolly.

Woman wears shorts in park shocker! Whatever next. Woman reveals she owns not just legs but entire body!

Here's a picture of Michael Gove wearing a pair of shorts .

SuckingDieselFella · 22/06/2020 20:26

I don't want to see either of them wearing shorts.

Obviously people wear them in summer and eat ice lollies but why would someone who considers herself an 'intellectual' put that on twitter?

kojolo · 22/06/2020 20:30

Well, look, I've got no idea. And I don't care. I don't care about Ash Sarkar at all. But I do care about feminism and this sidebar of shame snideness is not it.

Sayonara!

twoHopes · 22/06/2020 20:37

Obviously people wear them in summer and eat ice lollies but why would someone who considers herself an 'intellectual' put that on twitter?

Because she has crafted a brand that represents a younger, cooler persona rather than a stiff BBC reporter. That, plus her outspoken style, is why she's gotten so popular. She's no fool and I think what she wears is irrelevant.

SuckingDieselFella · 22/06/2020 20:38

You've completely misunderstood. And that's fine.

I guess that you are in your 20s and have grown up with selfie culture. For those of us who haven't it seems very odd to post a photo of yourself in shorts eating an ice lolly on your work account - if you can call her activism 'work', that is. How many female solicitors, surveyors, university lecturers, do you see with this kind of photo on their work account?

PrincessConsuelaVaginaHammock · 22/06/2020 20:40

I can't agree. Abuse should not chase women out of the public sphere. feminists should not applaud this. I don't understand a feminism that does that..

100%. She's getting the abuse because she's a Muslim woman in the public sphere, not because of anything dubious she's actually done. The death threats aren't from people who've correctly noted that she's a handmaiden who's happy to throw women under the bus, they're from people who think she was subliminally communicating through the medium of orange emojis.

SuckingDieselFella · 22/06/2020 20:40

@twoHopes

Obviously people wear them in summer and eat ice lollies but why would someone who considers herself an 'intellectual' put that on twitter?

Because she has crafted a brand that represents a younger, cooler persona rather than a stiff BBC reporter. That, plus her outspoken style, is why she's gotten so popular. She's no fool and I think what she wears is irrelevant.

Oh I see, it's part of her 'brand'.

Previous reply was to @kojolo

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 22/06/2020 20:42

they're from people who think she was subliminally communicating through the medium of orange emojis.

I've become morbidly curious about this now, just in the sense of wtf would lead anyone to that conclusion.

DidoLamenting · 22/06/2020 20:45

Here's a picture ofMichael Gove wearing a pair of shorts

The difference is Michael Gove didn't take a selfie and post it on twitter.

It seems extraordinarily narcissistic to think anyone outwith her actual friendship group is remotely interested in seeing her eating an ice- lolly.

it seems very odd to post a photo of yourself in shorts eating an ice lolly on your work account - if you can call her activism 'work', that is. How many female solicitors, surveyors, university lecturers, do you see with this kind of photo on their work account?

Exactly.

PrincessConsuelaVaginaHammock · 22/06/2020 20:45

I'm not in my 20s, didn't grow up with selfie culture and I find the posts querying why she'd post a photo of herself in shorts much odder than her having posted it.

kojolo · 22/06/2020 20:46

I'm not in my 20s... These wild projections - on to this Ms Sarkar and on to me - say more about you than either of us.

Ok I really am going now. Sorry, rest-of-thread! Don't actually want a bunfight.

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