A Question of Conscience
by Miki Saxon
Would you say
“If I lived in Boston I’d put a bullet in your brain.”
“you are clearly retarded, i hope someone shoots then rapes you.”
“Amanda, I’ll fucking rape you. How does that feel?”
“I am 36 years old, I did 12 years for ‘manslaughter’, I killed a woman, like you, who decided to make fun of guys cocks.” “Happy to say we live in the same state. Im looking you up, and when I find you, im going to rape you and remove your head.” There was more, but the final tweet summed it up: “You are going to die and I am the one who is going to kill you. I promise you this.”
to your wife/girlfriend; your mother; your sister; your female colleagues, etc., because their opinion of a movie, joke, politics, etc., differed from yours?
No?
Then why do you accept it or just shrug it off when it’s done anonymously on social sites like Twitter?
And while anonymous trolls are bad, having it done openly and accepted is significantly worse.
What especially alarmed me about what happened to Ms. Harmon and me is that it was set in motion by people and organizations who are out in the open — a signal that this kind of attack is broadly seen as acceptable, or even funny.
Last week I shared several links that looked at some of the problems that keep women from STEM careers.
However, I seriously doubt that girls and young women who read these posts and attendant comments are encouraged to makes themselves into career piñatas.
Edmund Burke said, “All it takes for evil to succeed is for a few good men to do nothing…”
Are you one of the few?
Flickr image credit: Andy Ramdin
