This morning I woke up to a rape and death threat directed at my 5-year-old daughter. That this is part of my work life is unacceptable. — Jessica Valenti
The well-known Guardian columnist and author of several books on feminism drew the line Wednesday after receiving death and rape threats against her five-year-old daughter.
Valenti states on her official Twitter page, @JessicaValenti, that she has been receiving vicious attacks for years, but when it comes to her child, “No.” So she has opted to take a break from social media stating, “I can’t say for how long. I just know I can’t live like this. It’s too much.”
In her disgust, Valenti urges law enforcement to “get their shit together” and address online threats and harassment. She adds social media companies (Twitter, Facebook...) need to “fucking do something,” and that writing about feminism should not cause her to fear for her child’s life.
In her last tweet on Wednesday, Jessica Valenti tells people who know her know how to get in touch with her.
No, there is no excuse for this and it’s been happening predominantly to women on social media for years. In fact some call it “the established norm.” Ironically the Guardian where Valenti writes did a series about online harassment last year. Valenti is featured as one of the most harassed writers. In a video, the Guardian shows reactions of men reading offensive tweets against women, and it’s pretty powerful. Daily Kos reports:
Women who work in the male-dominated professional sports industry might have it even worse. The Just Not Sports podcast released the following video showing men reading tweets to Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro, showing the kind of daily harassment they receive online. Warning: the resulting video is very intense and chock-full of Not-Safe-For-Work language. Many of the men struggled to even read the mean tweets out loud.
Here is the video showing men’s reactions to the horrendous tweets women receive.
There are some women taking actions to bring awareness to the issue. Last week, one of the stars of the new Ghostbusters movie and SNL cast member Leslie Jones temporarily left Twitter after being harassed with incredibly offensive comments — some so racist they might make your jaw drop. Here is an interview with Jones and Seth Meyers on his late night talk show. Jones said officials at Twitter contacted her saying the abuse unacceptable and they are addressing the problem. She is using the Twitter social media platform to draw attention to the rampant problem.
Myers tells Jones, “Maybe this is going to be the beginning of some progress of what happens on Twitter.” Jones replies, “I hope so.”