By Caitlin Roper
Earlier this year, Germaine Greer argued that women now are worse off than ever, citing the proliferation of pornography and the level of harassment and abuse directed toward women on social media as evidence. I tend to agree.
For a feminist campaigner like myself, threats of violence and rape have become part of the territory. I am used to being called a bitch or a slut (or worse) by unidentified men online for expressing an opinion. I’ve been singled out by Men’s Rights Activist group A Voice For Men after writing a piece on the media’s bias against women. I am no longer surprised when I receive unwelcome sexual comments from men online about my body or to let me to know they are masturbating to my image. I am no longer shocked when I receive rape threats while campaigning against sexual violence. And no, the irony is not lost on me.
So it came as no huge surprise when I received rape threats this week for publically sharing a petition against rapist Ched Evans. I received tweets calling me “rape bait”, “f*ck meat”, a “bitter whore”, “cum slut” who “likes it rough” and “spreads without thinking” and warning me to “start prepping my anus”. While these comments would never be accepted in the offline world, women are expected to just ‘deal with it’ online.
However, this time I decided to go to the police when I found a copy of my twitter profile offering sex to men on the Internet. It was so close to identical it even fooled me, and I initially thought my account had been hacked. My profile picture had been sent to an online community sharing images of women for masturbation purposes. My twitter bio had been updated to include graphic descriptions of sex acts I would perform for men, inviting men to follow me, “the biggest slut in Australia”. My website was changed from collectiveshout.org to a pornographic website. Various tweets were sent out in my name, asking men to “f*ck me” and claiming that I enjoyed being raped.
I was gripped with panic. There were so many thoughts running through my mind as I watched tweets going out in my name soliciting some men I knew, and others I didn’t.
I reluctantly went to the police station. As many women know, abuse and threats against women online are not regarded as a priority. My colleague Talitha Stone received international media attention when she was targeted with thousands of rape and death threats after criticizing Tyler the Creator’s songs. (See here, here and here). His lyrics include ‘rape a pregnant bitch and call it a three-way’. Tyler’s 1.7 million twitter followers went after her. One tweet to Talitha threatened to ‘cut her tits off’. A student from a Melbourne Catholic boys school shared her home address with the angry mob. He was out by one street.
Local police sent Talitha home with a stack of cyber-safety pamphlets.
Another colleague went to the police after one man described how he intended to mutilate her body and dissolve it in acid. The police officer suggested that the internet was “not a very nice place” and maybe she should stay off it.
Yet another colleague had to explain to police, who thought she should just go offline forever (despite the fact that the vast majority of her work was done there) that it was actually an offence in the Commonwealth Criminal Code to use a carriage service (e.g. the internet) to make a threat. The police seemed unaware of this fact.
These threats are criminal. They are designed to erode any sense of safety and security and to keep women in our preferred place. As Anita Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency observed, Elliot Rodger used the Internet to make threats preceding his violent killing spree. How many other men, including unstable ones, feel supported if not justified in their hateful attitudes by an online culture of misogyny?
When I reported the man who was pimping me out online, the officer at my local police station suggested, “Maybe you should use a more plain picture.” As if my standard portrait shot was somehow ‘asking for it’? From my experience, how I look is irrelevant. I’ve been called both “fat, ugly and bitter” and “f**ckable”. Regardless of the headshots women use, men will target us if they feel so inclined.
Women and feminist campaigners in particular, are increasingly being targeted, abused and intimidated online. Caroline Criado Perez was pursued relentlessly for her campaign for more equal representation of women on bank notes. Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency continues to be attacked for her educational videos highlighting the sexist and one-dimensional depiction of women in video games.
There is a pattern- women call for better treatment of women, they are vilified by men on social media who perceive this as a threat and feel the need to silence their voices. They believe if they can make us fearful enough, we will stop doing our work and stop challenging systems that privilege their rights and interests over ours. They are wrong. We just get back to work.
The man who targeted me has been identified. His name is Nader, he is 25 and lives in California. He has been linked to at least eight different twitter accounts he uses to abuse women, including survivors of sex trafficking. In fact, the first rape threats he sent me came from the fake account he had created of yet another feminist campaigner he had been targeting.
He is so brazen about his incitement to rape me, so sure he is untouchable, he barely even tried to conceal his real identity. Unfortunately for him in the course of harassing countless women on twitter, he left a trail leading to his name, image, phone number, email address, Facebook page and pictures of him exposing his erect penis which he had previously circulated on one of his trolling accounts.
Copies of Nader’s threats and his personal information have been supplied to the LAPD, to Penn State (listed as his school on social media) and to Australian police, to be referred to a California branch of the FBI. I am also aware of complaints against him from women in Sweden and the UK. This has not stopped Nader.
To their credit, Twitter acted quickly to suspend the fake account once I had verified my identity with photo ID. However, the victory is only short lived. Once an abusive account is suspended, there is nothing to stop the user simply signing up for a new account- immediately. Why has Twitter failed to shut these abusive accounts down permanently? What is stopping them from flagging the email addresses of users who continue to use their service as a means to threaten women?
What is Twitter’s response to victims? Contact the police. What do the police say? Contact Twitter.
There is a common assumption among police, and perhaps the wider community, that if men are threatening women online the solution is for women to go offline.
“Why don’t you just close down your account?” asked the officer taking my statement. I explained how I used twitter in the course of my work for a non-profit organisation to share our campaigns with a broader audience. She pressed further, “But why do you need to use it?” as if it was somehow unreasonable for me to believe I had as much right as anyone to access social media without threats.
My experience with the police illustrates widespread cultural attitudes that place the responsibility to prevent crimes of violence with victims instead of perpetrators. Just as campaigns to reduce sexual violence have traditionally focused on women, advising them how to ‘not get raped’ rather than calling on men to treat women with respect, in an online scenario, the onus is again on women to bear the burden of responsibility for men’s abuse. What did we expect, thinking we could use social media and have an opinion? We kind of brought it on ourselves, didn’t we?
Whether it is rape, domestic violence, abuse or online threats, telling victims to modify their behaviour is a fruitless endeavor- the power to prevent men’s violence against women lies completely with (surprise!) men.
I have encountered too many men on twitter who dish out vile abuse and threaten rape, confident they are doing so with impunity, with a firm belief that they will never be held accountable for their crimes. That’s been true, so far.
The silver lining is that I have had the privilege of connecting with strong, incredible women online. These women are dedicated to challenging attitudes and institutions that promote and profit from sexism, exploitation and men’s violence against women, despite the emotional toll. (Believe me, there is a real emotional toll to doing this work.) These are the women who stand with me and other women time and again in the face of ugly threats and misogyny, bonded by our shared experiences of victimisation and our refusal to be silenced. Together we are unstoppable.
This is an extended version of an article which appeared in The Guardian last week.
Caitlin Roper is an activist and Campaigns Manager for grassroots campaigning movement Collective Shout: For a world free of sexploitation.
It started, ostensibly at least, with an online debate about Ched Evans – a British soccer player who escaped fame but found notoriety after his conviction for rape in 2012. Last month he was freed from jail. Evans, just 25, wants to play soccer again. To that end, he released a video professing his innocence and describing the incident as regrettable but “consensual” infidelity. An online petition opposing his reinstatement to the professional leagues attracted more than 150,000 signatures.
One of those signatures belonged to Caitlin Roper, a feminist activist based in Perth. Quickly, the debate inflamed the world wide web and became a conflagration of sexualised threats. Roper was targeted. “In a way, given the nature of my work, I’m somewhat used to abuse and threats from men online,” she tells me. “You have to try and disconnect from all of it emotionally, you put on a brave face and get back to work. As the threats kept coming, though, I felt my anxiety levels rising. There’s a sense of panic, and I think that’s the point. These men think if they threaten us with violence then we will be forced to stop campaigning against the objectification of women. They want us to be scared.”
Roper’s aggressor established a fake Twitter account under her name. He adopted Roper’s profile picture, and in the hour before it was suspended, published personalised obscenity. The following examples are graphic, but representative: “Hi I’m Caitlin Roper, as a professional prostitute…” and “I sell my wet panties #anal #porn” and “Hey!! It’s me Caitlin, just wanted to let you know I’m a rape loving little whore”. There are many more. From other accounts, the man harassed different women: “You’re a fucking whore and a slut” and “Perhaps when one day a random man rapes you, you will rescind your ignorance.” There are hundreds of messages like these. Read more
11 Responses
Well done for your bravery.
Is it not strange – not – that when males utter racist threats of violence via social media sites mens’ legal system immediately recognises these threats as a racist crime but mens’ pandemic hatred for women continues not to be a crime. Why? Because men refuse to recognise that man (sic) is not the standard for human but that females are human which means males threatening women/girls with violence is a crime.
Male police officers continue to tell women and girls ‘don’t go out alone at night if a male sexual predator is at large’ but there continues to be a deafening male silence concerning telling all males not to venture out into mens’ public spaces after dark. Why? Because males have the sacrosanct right of freedom of movement and right not to be subjected to threats of male violence. Women’s right of freedom of movement and womens’ right not to be subjected to male threats of violence continues to denied to them.
Males using the internet to threaten women and girls with violence is a crime – full stop. Male police officers continue to refuse to take this latest male method of maintaining male domination over all women seriously.
What can we women do? Continue to speak out and demand mens’ police forces and mens’ legal system enact the existing laws and also investigate all male threats of violence uttered against women and girls via social media. Given male sexual harassment of women within the workplace is now a crime why oh why are men allowed to continue threatening women with sexual violence outside of the workplace?
This isn’t rational or logical thinking on the part of men – or rather it is logical because men have given in to women’s demands they not be subjected to male sexual harassment within the workplace but men continue to deny pandemic threats of male violence against women exist everywhere else.
So women speak out and work together collectively – demand men take action and prosecute those innumerable male women haters. Remember men in political power refused to accept the fact pandemic male sexual harassment of women within the workplace is a violation of all women’s right to work within a safe and secure environment. Finally laws were passed making it illegal for men to enact their male pseudo sex right to sexually prey on women within the workplace – now we have to work together to force the powerful men in charge to listen to us and not claim ‘you women should not access the internet if you don’t want to be subjected to male threats of violence.’
Men know their incessant male threats of violence against women who dare to challenge men is working – but we mustn’t let the men silence us and our right to access the internet. We will prevail over those women-hating males and their bros. who collude with them/deny there is a male problem.
as a male, I am appalled at this treatment of you.
I am so sorry.
Harry
I agree with Ms. Greer. Compared to my experience in the late 1960s adolescence through today, the pornification of our culture that was launched at the same time as the greatest strides in women’s rights were being demanded/won has contributed vastly to our rape culture and greater level of abuse against females.
At one time, women stopped the Miss America pageant from including bathing suit competition. But, that did not last and images of women and teens in advertising today look, like yesterdays pornography of the cheesecake variety.
Social media and IT, in general, is no friend to females.
I wish female geeks would create some alternative platforms only for born women. I’d buy!
I’m so proud of you for fighting the good fight.
The world is becoming a dire place. We have humanism to thank for this state of affairs. Based on humanism there is no absolute right or wrong and what you think is a problem is well your problem and no one is going to uphold you as right and the other person as wrong because they might disagree.
The nsw govt is pretty well adopting this approach as policy on everything. Someone illegally trapped my cat in broad daylight then left him in the pouring rain in a small cage for 15 hours. But I was wrong because my cat was out. I was yelled at by a senior officer. Huh? That’s not illegal. I lock my cats up at dusk. I believe they probably went and told the other person off too but I was not allowed to be “privy” to this. And I was not allowed to feel wronged I was made to feel like I was wrong and certainly not supported. Given our justice system is on the basis of open public courts and that is part of the deterrent it seems somewhat ridiculous.
I am currently enduring workplace bullying at the hands of a colleague who’s job I got. Well she came 5th but she believed it was her job. So I’m her target. Once again nsw govt dept. so no one will tell her to stop. I’m removed from the workplace because of the distress she’s causing me while she can still be at work. She has used Facebook to spread rumours to kids about me but still nothing is done. She breaches barriers put in place by my employer to prevent harm to me and still nothing is done.
This is humanism. No one is wrong, no one is right. And as a video I found this morning on unworthy about male sexual offenders shows people never admit they are doing the wrong thing as it endangers their self image too much. Unless we have a society with absolute rights and wrongs laid down and clear calling of wrong doing we are doomed. Either that or accept your role as not keeping your head down and get out of there. Welcome to our world. Blame the victim cause the perp might sue!
Dear Caitlin.
I’m so sorry that you have received such vile and hateful attacks, and for the indifferent responses from Twitter and police taking the “sticks and stones may break your bones but …” approach to what are crimes against you, solely because of your gender.
You are a courageous, intelligent woman and I admire and commend you for your stand against injustice. Don’t back down. Never give in to these useless, sad and pathetic people.
As a male, I too am appalled at your treatment. There is no excuse, no justification.
I also know that most men are good and decent, and respect women. It’s women like you, and movements like yours, that remind us that we need to do more, say more and be more so the men who come after us also honour and respect women. Love your work. Keep going.
I’m surprise from the police pour attitude. I’ sure that if was a politician or one of the female police officer the matter was to be deal in different way. The incapacity or unwanted will to pursuit the offender is disgusting an is undermine my personal as man few experience with some police servant. Hope that our case will help create some awareness of the pour police performance in the matter. I’m very sorry that you had to put up with criminal mind that are undermine our society and man integrity e good name.
Dear Caitlin,
I’m so sorry that you have experienced so much vile abuse. I encourage you to keep persevering and fight the good fight. There is something profoundly wrong with our culture and only by speaking out against evil is any change possible.
Hi Caitlin,
Thank you for the work that you and your colleagues do, keep up the good work. I just wanted to say that I hope that you are also able to meet nice and moral men who can counter those who are so perverse!
It’s tough standing up for what is right. There is no easy way out but you know that some people respect you and are grateful for your perseverance. I’m male and respect you and what you do.
Hang in there, talk to friends and stay strong.
Gentlemen, THIS is why we cannot stand by silently when other men, be they friends or strangers, utter anything or do anything that treats women as sexual objects or prey. They may think it is a joke, but it is not, and they need to be stopped as soon as possible. It is a shame to men everywhere that these women have to raise their voices so loudly to be heard. The roar of outrage from men against such a shameful representation of our gender should shake the world and make these cowards shake with fear. They may cower behind anonymity online, but they won’t get away with it in the presence of real men.