Gamergate-Style Rape Threats Work, It Seems: Feminists Calling Quits
In a depressing piece that only CCJ could love, the Washington Post catalogues how the relentless stream of rape threats, death threats, insults, doxxing, and “ratfucking” pranks where the target’s address and phone number are listed as available for “rough sex” … are resulting in exhausted feminists basically just throwing in the towel.
Once a woman is singled out by a men’s rights group such as A Voice for Men, the misogynist Reddit forum The Red Pill or even just a right-wing Twitter account like Twitchy, she is deluged with hatred. The barrage, in addition to scaring its target, serves as a warning to onlookers. Jill Filipovic, a senior political writer covering feminist issues at Cosmopolitan, says she recently tried to persuade a friend to run for office. “There’s several reasons why I wouldn’t want to do it, but one of them is that I follow you on Twitter, and I see what people say to you. I could never deal with that,” the friend told her.
Many people can’t. Last year, abortion rights activist Lauren Rankin pulled back from writing online and, for the most part, from Twitter because the threats and insults were becoming so wearying.