An anti-violence activist who stood up to superstar rappers Tyler the Creator and Snoop Lion (aka Snoop Dogg) has revealed that she was terrified to leave her house and lived in fear of attack after receiving thousands of messages of vile abuse from fans of the rappers.
Talitha Stone, 25, has told MailOnline about the heavy toll her work has taken on her saying she wanted to ‘hide away and never do anything like this again’ after her attempts to have the rappers banned from entering Australia led to threats of rape and death from rap fans.
The abuse, which mainly took place on Twitter, included ‘death threats and saying things like they’re going to grab me in the alleyway, that I need a good f***, that they’re going to go for my family first. One said that they would hire someone to cut my t**s off,’ she said.
Talitha Stone, 25, is an anti-violence campaigner who received thousands of messages of abuse on Twitter after she protested Snoop Lion and Tyler the Creator being allowed in the country
Talitha Stone, 25, is an anti-violence campaigner who received thousands of messages of abuse on Twitter after she protested Snoop Lion and Tyler the Creator being allowed in the country
A high school student in Melbourne even posted what he thought was Talitha’s address online. The address was wrong, but it was only a street away from where Talitha was sharing a house with another girl.
‘Who knows what could have happened. It was not a fun time, I didn’t sleep much and jumped at noises. Every time I was alone I was panicked, I was so afraid, but at the same time I was so angry that this was my reality,’ she said.
The abuse started after Talitha created a petition to have Tyler the Creator denied a visa to enter Australia last year, on the grounds that his lyrics incited violence against women.
His songs include lines like: ‘You call this s*** rape but I think that rape’s fun, I just got one request, stop breathing’ and ‘I wanna tie her body up and throw her in my basement, Keep her there, so nobody can wonder where her face went.’
Talitha came to the attention of Tyler the Creator when she tweeted that he would be at a signing event in Sydney and suggested that the event organisers needed a lesson in what misogyny was.
Tyler the Creator retweeted her comment to his 1.7 million fans and suddenly her phone went crazy.
‘It was instant, oh my gosh, the barrage of threats, I couldn’t believe it. I was just sitting there looking at my phone, I was like: “Holy crap, what is happening? What have I done?”‘
When Talitha went to the police about the thousands of messages she had received, she said they laughed at her.
‘They were like: “Do you think we’re going to do anything about this? Do you know how often people come in here about threats of abuse and death on Twitter?” They just laughed at me like I was so stupid, they gave me a cyber safe brochure and sent me out.’
Talitha ended up going to Tyler the Creator’s Sydney show to film evidence of misogyny and she stood in horror as the rapper mentioned her during his set, dedicating his song, B**** Suck D***, to her.
Video of the concert shows Tyler the Creator, who seemed unaware that Talitha was in the audience, call out to the ‘f***ing w****’ who tried to get him kicked out of the country.
‘F***ing b****, I wish she could hear me call her a b****, too, f***ing w****. Yeah, I got a sold-out show right now b****. Hey this f***ing song is dedicated to you, you f***ing c***.’
He also said he hoped Talitha’s children ‘get some messed up STDs’.
Talitha said she was petrified that someone in the crowd would recognise her. ‘I honestly didn’t believe what I was hearing when he called me out. I was terrified.’
She reported him to the police, but they said there was nothing they could do.
The abuse continued for months after the concert and led to Talitha meeting with two executives from Twitter, which led to the introduction of the ‘Report Abuse’ button on the site.
‘I was like: this is ridiculous, where’s the protection for women? I got told to delete my account, that was my option. They were like, “Why are you fuelling this?” Me fuelling this? Are you kidding me? I’m speaking out against rape and I’m getting rape threats in return, yeah that makes sense,’ she said.
‘So much in me wanted to hide away and never do anything like this again, but at the same time it also fuelled me to keep doing this, I was like: There’s no way they’re going to silence me. It made me more determined,’ she said.
This determination gave her the energy to try to get Snoop Lion (aka Snoop Dogg)’s visa revoked when he came to Australia in January.
Her main objection to Snoop Lion was that he had admitted to pimping out girls in a Rolling Stone article in 2013, saying he had a bus follow him on his 2003 tour with ten women on it.
‘I could fire a b****, f*** a b****, get a new ho: It was my program. City to city, titty to titty, hotel room to hotel room, athlete to athlete, entertainer to entertainer,’ he said.
Again Talitha petitioned (unsuccessfully) to have Snoop Lion denied access to the country, again she was hit with an onslaught of abuse from the rapper’s fans.
She said that this time she received less abuse and Snoop Lion did not engage with her directly, but the impact of the abuse was a lot worse.
‘I didn’t have anything left in me, I couldn’t do it. I was completely drained. It’s just so exhausting and you just feel like, what’s the point sometimes, when is there ever going to be change?’
The Snoop Lion campaign was the third campaign the young activist has headed up, the first involved her trying out for the Lingerie Football League in 2012.
Talitha said she wanted to see what the experience was like and whether the League’s insistence that the women would be treated as athletes was true. She found that it wasn’t.
She said that walking into try-outs ‘was like walking up to a nightclub. We got told we had to have a dress code at the try outs – sports bra and short shorts. I had to take my top off so I had my sports bra on.
‘If we lost they would scream at us and call us a pussy and make a ‘pussy symbol’ above our heads. It was a huge joke.’
The reaction to Talitha’s exposé was her first experience of serious online abuse, with people taking to Twitter to threaten and attack her.
‘They were trying to scare me, with rape or death,’ she said.
Talitha is speaking out as she is about to return to work with women’s advocacy group Collective Shout after a six-month hiatus.
The Sydney woman became involved in advocacy work for women and girls after ‘frequent unwanted sexual experiences’ as a child and teenager.
‘It’s so sickening, I hate that this is a reality for women and it’s becoming more and more common,’ she said.
She began researching different organisations and read news articles before she stumbled on Collective Shout, a grassroots Australian advocacy group headed up by Melinda Tankard-Reist.
After the draining experience of her campaigns against the two rappers, Talitha took some time out – travelling to Europe, working a series of odd jobs and spending time with family and friends.
It is only in the last few weeks, almost six months after Snoop Lion was in the country, that she has felt able to pick up her advocacy work again.
‘I took a lot of time out. I had to put in boundaries. I’ve only just in the last month slowly, slowly got back into it,’ she said.
The next step for the young activist is a new role at Collective Shout speaking at schools around the country about issues to do with violence, pornography, eating disorders and the sexualisation of children.
She has been visiting schools for years alongside Melinda Tankard-Reist and can’t get over the fact that many of the students recognise her.
‘The young people at schools I’m going to, they’ve heard of me. I have young kids come up to me and say: “It is an honour, can I please shake your hand? You’re my hero.” It makes no sense to me. It is just overwhelming.
‘I’m doing this because I have to. I need to do this for them.’
9 Responses
This is the reality of institutional male power over women. Talitha contacted the police concerning her being subjected to pandemic threats of male violence and how did the male dominated police force react? They laughed at her!! Just as the male dominated police forces continue to laugh at women who dare to report their male/ex male partner is stalking and threatening them with violence. Nothing changes because men are still the ones clinging tightly on to their political power.
Of course male threats of violence against women and girls are not serious because no male is being threatened. Imagine if a black male had contacted police and said he was being regularly threatened by white men because he is black. Police would have immediately responded but male violence against women isn’t an issue is it??
It is not ‘people’ making these vile threats of sexualised violence against women and girls – it is males. Yes we know some women imitate the men and also threaten women but these women are mens’ puppets. It is men who are the ones using social media to intimidate and silence any woman who dares to hold men accountable for their never-ending women-hating propaganda and incitement to commit male sexual violence against women and girls.
Sadly too many women believe each and every pandemic incident of collective male threats to women and girls are ‘trivial rather than a systemic male initiated campaign to finally silence women once and for all.’
It is not ‘abuse’ it is systemic male threats of sexualised violence against women and girls because their sex is female. ‘Abuse’ trivialises what those women-hating males and their female handmaidens are enacting. Misogyny is now so common it is scarcely recognised and men know they have the right to subject any woman to threats of male violence if her views are not identical to the mens’ and these men know their Male Supremacist legal System is 100% supportive of these mens’ threats.
News flash – police forces are supposed to protect all its citizens from threats of violence but of course only men are ‘citizens’ and only men have fundamental right of protection from other mens’ threats of violence. Women aren’t human according to police and mens’ Male Supremacist System.
What is the answer? Collective female action is the answer because when women join with other women and hold those vile women-hating males to account then the men in power will have to listen. One woman alone cannot successfully hold those vile women-hating men to account which is why these men target individual women. Remember herstory – nothing changes unless women collectively work together and hold men accountable. Men are terrified of female collective action and remember power lies in collective action. What is the male dominated Australian government doing? Nothing is the answer because the men in charge (sic) have more important matters to discuss such as how to further curb women’s fundamental socio-economic rights!
Note it is not ‘sexual violence’ because that phrase is a meaningless term – which sex is doing what to which sex? Is it nameless entities subjecting other nameless entities to sexualised violence? Of course not it is males continuing to enact their male pseudo sex right to threaten and indeed commit sexual violence against women and girls which is the issue.
Love this woman.
Such a testament to all those out there, battling a seemingly endless war. A testament of courage, hope and an unrelenting spirit to confront such brainwashed industries.
You, Talitha are one of millions who despise what has become of our standards in the media. The diference is, you are doing something about it.
I am honoured to know you.
You’re a true badass.
“Though you trip, you shall not fall. For The Lord upholds you in his hands.”
Stay awesome!
Tal your courage inspires other young women to be brave. Period. Don’t even worry bout the haters. Haters gonna hate. These young women need role models to look up to. To inspire them to aspire to be and do something greater. It’s so easy to live small. To fly under the radar and never actually put yourself out there because you fear the critic. You ever wonder how many amazing songs we will never hear, poems that were never released into this world because people feared others judgement? Eff that. And remember the words of home boi Teddy Roosevelt cuz baby, it is not the critic who counts!
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly!”
You have raised the bar for us all, Talitha! And you have set a shining example for young girls and women in a world where we have so few role models truly taking action out in the world. I love the fact you pick an issue and go after it, showing us all what can be achieved when you have the courage. You have let all girls know that it is possible to take a stand, you will do amazingly talking to young people about this. Congrats!
I just want to say I sincerely admire you. You are courageous and your work is very important and you have the support of many many many people. Any woman who speaks out against misogyny and male violence against women is subjected to said violence against them. But to stand up against misogyny is our only hope. We can’t let this world, which is also ours, be a toxic, limiting and scary environment for our girls to grow up in. It is people like you who give me hope for the future and for my two daughters. Women need to stand in solidarity against misogyny. For some, staying silent or worse, siding with the misogynists, seems to be the safest route, but this is not freedom, this is not respect, this is not integrity. I hope your organization will see more and more people joining in so we can truly change the world and make it better for women (and I’d say for everybody)!
Well done Talitha! You are such an inspiration. The Age @theage.com.au should do a feature article on you. I support you 100% and Iam looking forward to seeing all the great work to come. Best of luck and keep being brave!
Talitha is an incredibly brave and determined activist. It is clear from the article that Talitha has a strong conviction to fight against sexualisation and objectification to make the world a better place for our young people. What an inspiration for other young activists that may want to follow in her footsteps, or walk alongside her and join in with the campaigns.
I am also compelled as a fellow Australian to step up my efforts to name and shame those organisations and corporations so that brave activists like Talitha don’t have to fight this battle alone. Together as a community we can make a difference.
Thank you Talitha for showing us the power of a complaint, a letter, a tweet, a post, to challenge the status quo and not fall into the trap of feeling like “it’s too big a problem”. You have taken on some big names and left a lasting impression!!!!
Well done!
Talitha, Very powerful stuff,i’m quite proud of you…as a 40 something male i feel ashamed that a great deal of the men of today still act in this Cro-Magnon way.
It angers me to see that rappers have such a prolific following with a blind in the mind “Kool aid” mentality,we need to see performers who aren’t bringing their tainted baggage from their low socio-economic upbringing….i was always of the mind that RAP has a Silent”C” in front of it….
its heartening to see women stand up for their simple right of being the other half of the world, of which no man would be here without!! i hope to raise my son as my father did with me, to love and respect the women of our world.
@HECUBA – i feel your anger and i’m sorry,but please don’t tar ALL men with the same brush…how i wish it was different…