My time on social media has been interesting, to say the least. As an opinionated person who can't shut up, I've often said things deemed as controversial and have seen and heard equally controversial responses. Social media, especially websites like Tumblr, Twitter, and Reddit, have become a breeding ground for extremists, who will fight and insult anybody who disagrees with their opinion. Recently, vocal feminists have had their lives threatened, and were forced to leave their homes when they decided to critique aspects of modern media. Others have had their personal data leaked online, and have had entire games made out of physically hurting or killing them.
My experience with social media has been slightly less dangerous, but it's been far from easy. More often than not, I'll have trolls send me tweets or messages that are crude, sexist, and add nothing to the conversation at hand. These people are different from anti-feminists, who will often send actual counter-points with no personal insults. Instead, I'll get tweets trashing my weight, my relationships, my looks, and any other superficial insults they can come up with at the time.
The worst website for these types of trolls, believe it or not, is Twitter. Just last week, I received a tweet from a user saying "feminism used to do good, but now it just reeks of cat piss and daddy issues." This was the most creative insult I received that night, with the rest going along the lines of "I don't want to have sex with you," a common thing sent to vocal feminists. The idea is that a woman's value is only based off of her sex appeal, therefore, a woman is less valuable because a stranger on the internet isn't turned on. The thing is, I doubt anybody actually cares if some random MRA doesn't want to have sex with them. The feeling is probably mutual.
The most popular types of trolls that I see online are those who track down feminist accounts and respond to every tweet about feminism with either the most offensive thing they can think of or an insult about their looks. This also happened to me recently, after I tweeted about dating, and how it's not a requirement to pay for someone else's meal. The response was swift, despite the post not having a hashtag. Someone claimed that women being sexually coerced was on the same playing field as a guy offering to pay for a meal. These responses amuse me because they're not based in fact. All it would take is a little bit of research on emotional abuse to know it's not the same as paying for a meal. It's meant to be insulting, to get people angry just for posting something remotely related to feminism.
As for the personal insults? That happens almost everywhere. I was featured in a Reddit thread for something I commented on Buzzfeed regarding feminism. Instead of trying to dispute what I said, the responses ranged from "she's fat" to "I can't even look at her picture she's so ugly." On Twitter, trolls will often steal my selfies and post them to their own accounts with captions trashing my looks or my weight. None of these people ever respond to the actual points I make or try to dispute my sources with sources of their own. Their first move is to respond with personal insults. And that says a lot.
Almost everyone will face a troll at some point. It's just part of being on the Internet. However, for me and many other feminists, we often get trolls just for saying anything remotely related to feminism or female empowerment. These are people so desperate to be edgy and so desperate to be in control that they'll do whatever is necessary to bully feminists off the Internet. And yet, I'm still here. It's not easy to stay vocal, but it's incredibly important to not let the trolls win. Because in the end, all they do is cement the need for female empowerment. Women deserve a voice, and it says a lot if women are attacked just for having an opinion. Don't let the trolls win. Let them motivate you to be vocal and to be opinionated. Silence is what they want.
