Laurie Penny discusses the joys of having an opinion.
You come to expect it, as a woman writer, particularly if you're political. You come to expect the vitriol, the insults, the death threats.
Coupled with the demands that you service their desires.
Many commentators, wondering aloud where all the strong female voices are, close their eyes to how normal this sort of threat has become.
It is all the run of the mill stuff, something we all have heard at some point or other especially when expectations are denied.
I have to sift through threats of violence, public speculations about my sexual preference and the odour and capacity of my genitals, and attempts to write off challenging ideas with the declaration that, since I and my friends are so very unattractive, anything we have to say must be irrelevant.
It is not confined to one side of the aisle, it is in fact a bipartisan effort.
Free speech means being free to use technology and participate in public life without fear of abuse – and if the only people who can do so are white, straight men, the internet is not as free as we'd like to believe.
From another article on the same subject
The sheer volume of sexist abuse thrown at female bloggers is the internet's festering sore: if you talk to any woman who writes online, the chances are she will instantly be able to reel off a Greatest Hits of insults. But it's very rarely spoken about, for both sound and unsound reasons
Then
What does it feel like to be subjected to regular rape threats or death threats? To have people send you emails quoting your address, or outlining their sexual fantasies about you?
Terrifying, and when it transcends the written word it becomes intolerable and you hide behind a firewall of your own making.
Fear that it's somehow your fault for not being strong enough is, of course, what allows abusers to continue to abuse.
Even a writer for Catholic Voices is not immune
Caroline Farrow, a blogger for Catholic Voices, points out she has nothing in common with writers such as Laurie Penny except her gender, but is subject to the same violent abuse. The wife of a vicar and "quite orthodox", Farrow decided to write under her own name and photograph to take responsibility for her views. "But the downside is that for some men this seems to make you a legitimate sexual target. I get at least five sexually threatening emails a day. One of the least obscene recent messages read: "You're gonna scream when you get yours. Fucking slag. Butter wouldn't fucking melt, and you'll cry rape when you get what you've asked for. Bitch."
The author and feminist writer Natasha Walter has also been deterred. "It's one of the reasons why I'm less happy to do as much journalism as I used to, because I do feel really uncomfortable with the tone of the debate,"
It is as I said not confined to one side or another; just mention the names of Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, or Sarah Palin and then watch certain bloggers wonder why some people get upset at their misogynist comments.
Attacking the ideas, principles, or lack thereof is legitimate, resorting to vitriolic and sexist rhetoric should mean you "lost".
The hate mail Markos publishes [and front pagers in all probability receive] generally starts off with the premiss that he cannot be a white straight male. It's a common theme across the internet and shows he has a thicker skin and braver than most of us as he continues unabated in his views. This does not however mean it is pardonable, nor that we have to remain silent about this type of abuse and is why many of us will continue to peek from behind the veil.