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| How do we tackle online rape threats? | How do we tackle online rape threats? |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| What to do about rape threats as experienced on Twitter and elsewhere? The feminist activist Caroline Criado-Perez endured a legion last week, a response to her successful campaign to put Jane Austen on the £10 note. Out came the trolls, a name I hate. To call them trolls make them sound almost magical when they are actually lonely, fearful and dumb – in the truest sense. Rape her, they said, swiftly losing the argument, as they always do; rape the Austen acolyte who wants to see women on banknotes. I almost laughed. Don't they know her last book was called Persuasion? | What to do about rape threats as experienced on Twitter and elsewhere? The feminist activist Caroline Criado-Perez endured a legion last week, a response to her successful campaign to put Jane Austen on the £10 note. Out came the trolls, a name I hate. To call them trolls make them sound almost magical when they are actually lonely, fearful and dumb – in the truest sense. Rape her, they said, swiftly losing the argument, as they always do; rape the Austen acolyte who wants to see women on banknotes. I almost laughed. Don't they know her last book was called Persuasion? |
| Police have arrested a man in the above case, while feminists of both sexes debate whether the threat to rape, made online, should be criminalised. Offline, it is already illegal; online – where the potential rapist has announced his intent to history – I suspect the threat is less physically perilous, although it usually does its job, which is to silence women. | Police have arrested a man in the above case, while feminists of both sexes debate whether the threat to rape, made online, should be criminalised. Offline, it is already illegal; online – where the potential rapist has announced his intent to history – I suspect the threat is less physically perilous, although it usually does its job, which is to silence women. |
| For some women (the angrier, more talkative, more politicised and dangerous women) dodging rape threats online is a daily obstacle course. Rape, and the threat of rape, is a favoured weapon for men who hate women. It is an effective mode of decapitation, speaking – or rather shouting – only to the vagina, pretending the brain doesn't exist. | For some women (the angrier, more talkative, more politicised and dangerous women) dodging rape threats online is a daily obstacle course. Rape, and the threat of rape, is a favoured weapon for men who hate women. It is an effective mode of decapitation, speaking – or rather shouting – only to the vagina, pretending the brain doesn't exist. |
| So, should we send the boys round? Should we imprison these creatures and hope that a few test cases are enough to swing a culture? Or is contempt enough in a media where women are routinely threatened, and leave as swiftly as they arrived? After I wrote a piece condemning rape jokes last year, a comic (ha!) suggested I should be raped. I did not mind because a) I knew he would not rape me; b) he had, to my mind, lost the debate (has anyone ever raped someone into agreeing with them?) and c) although I was angry, I was not afraid. | So, should we send the boys round? Should we imprison these creatures and hope that a few test cases are enough to swing a culture? Or is contempt enough in a media where women are routinely threatened, and leave as swiftly as they arrived? After I wrote a piece condemning rape jokes last year, a comic (ha!) suggested I should be raped. I did not mind because a) I knew he would not rape me; b) he had, to my mind, lost the debate (has anyone ever raped someone into agreeing with them?) and c) although I was angry, I was not afraid. |
| I deplore rape jokes but I would not think of banning them. I would rather the comics who make them played to empty theatres – and eventually, the solitary mirror. Can our consciences not be our policemen? I have been a journalist for 15 years. I have learned to ignore – even welcome – the hatred. It comes from men who will never be on banknotes, and who publish anonymously. | I deplore rape jokes but I would not think of banning them. I would rather the comics who make them played to empty theatres – and eventually, the solitary mirror. Can our consciences not be our policemen? I have been a journalist for 15 years. I have learned to ignore – even welcome – the hatred. It comes from men who will never be on banknotes, and who publish anonymously. |
| Others feel differently. They sense a tipping point, where misogynists can be made to deal with woman with respect, using the police as a weapon. The Labour MP Steve Rotheram has suggested police intervention; he hopes to see "a knock at the door from the local constabulary". There is obviously a case for police intervention in some incidences of hate speech – but in all? I fear that. I fear any speech crime, not because I respect these people's fantasies or care for their freedom of speech but because I am protective of my own. We must do something – but what? | Others feel differently. They sense a tipping point, where misogynists can be made to deal with woman with respect, using the police as a weapon. The Labour MP Steve Rotheram has suggested police intervention; he hopes to see "a knock at the door from the local constabulary". There is obviously a case for police intervention in some incidences of hate speech – but in all? I fear that. I fear any speech crime, not because I respect these people's fantasies or care for their freedom of speech but because I am protective of my own. We must do something – but what? |
| All misogyny, I see as I grow older, is connected. It is a system of thought that first normalises, and then incites, inequality or violence – whatever floats your malice. I am sure of one thing: we cannot ask social networking sites to police our debate – there has been much talk of a report button on Twitter – and do nothing else. Hatred preceded their existence, and it will outlive them. We must be wary of cosmetic, or over-specific change. | All misogyny, I see as I grow older, is connected. It is a system of thought that first normalises, and then incites, inequality or violence – whatever floats your malice. I am sure of one thing: we cannot ask social networking sites to police our debate – there has been much talk of a report button on Twitter – and do nothing else. Hatred preceded their existence, and it will outlive them. We must be wary of cosmetic, or over-specific change. |
| I think Criado-Perez has it right when she simply says fight back. Shame them publicly; judge them rigorously; never ignore them – but criminality? In the following circumstances, yes: when addresses and other private contact details are published; when private photographs are published; when the theoretical "you should be raped" becomes the actual "I will rape you". In other words, enforce the law. | I think Criado-Perez has it right when she simply says fight back. Shame them publicly; judge them rigorously; never ignore them – but criminality? In the following circumstances, yes: when addresses and other private contact details are published; when private photographs are published; when the theoretical "you should be raped" becomes the actual "I will rape you". In other words, enforce the law. |
| Social networking has changed everything and, as with every mode of communication the world has ever found, it is neutral. It magnifies cruelty and salvation, indifference and love. It has given the vicious a voice; it can do the same for those they torment. It is essential we remember that the threat of rape is not rape. It is a ghastly thing, but it is the ghost of something worse. It is just as essential that in seeking to enhance our freedoms, we do not in fact diminish them. Everyone with a laptop now has a voice – we should remember that. | Social networking has changed everything and, as with every mode of communication the world has ever found, it is neutral. It magnifies cruelty and salvation, indifference and love. It has given the vicious a voice; it can do the same for those they torment. It is essential we remember that the threat of rape is not rape. It is a ghastly thing, but it is the ghost of something worse. It is just as essential that in seeking to enhance our freedoms, we do not in fact diminish them. Everyone with a laptop now has a voice – we should remember that. |
| Twitter: @tanyagold1 | Twitter: @tanyagold1 |
| Comments on this article have been turned off for legal reasons | Comments on this article have been turned off for legal reasons |
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