Harry Enfield is pretty brilliant, and this particular Public Service Announcement, “Women! Know Your Limits!”, has always been one of my favourites:

Youtube Video

I’ve often found it useful as a response to the more obvious sorts of troll.

It’s not news that women are treated differently than men on the internet, and it’s not news that there are a lot of men out there who hate women. Here’s a little background for those who aren’t aware, or are in denial:

Men Who Hate Women On the Web

And see also this:

Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers

..and finally, see the comment thread of virtually any political blog, left or right, that isn’t moderated, unlike here.

“Whore” and its cognates are, naturally, the first refuge of the woman-hater. They are also their last refuge: when you can’t attack a woman’s argument, when you can’t outargue her, when she can run circles around you in any debate, when your tiny alleged manhood shrivels up and falls off simply when she’s around— call her a whore.

I have news for the haters: It doesn’t work. Trust me: any woman with a brain and the courage to use it, any woman who possesses a voice and raises it: we’ve been called worse.

And we’re still here. We’ll always be here. There are more women like me, and men who love us, than there are haters like you in the world.

This might also be a good time to revist the original quote I chose to go with my avatar here:

I myself have never been able to discover precisely what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. Rebecca West, 1918

By the way, if you think I’m talking about you, it’s because I probably am. But the point is that these sorts of random insults flung at me and the women like me are not new to us —and will not stop us.

We are better than you and stronger than you, and you’ll have to get used to that.

Consider this the first in a series on feminism and woman hating.