the End of kindness

What a magical age we live in, where harassment and intimidation is seen as sport, and sad jilted men trade degrading messages and photos about the women that said no. Revenge porn, trolls, and a threatening faceless mob of the forever alone; and most of it orbiting the imminent threat of women’s sexuality.

Easily one of the best articles I have ever read on the subject of harassment and abuse online.

Twitter threats are just one example of online harassment. In July The Washington Post published a story about men who post phony ads to make it appear as if their ex-wives or girlfriends are soliciting sex. One man, Michael Johnson II of Hyattsville, Maryland, published an ad titled “Rape Me and My Daughters” and included his ex-wife’s home address. More than 50 men showed up to the victim’s house.

“Ultimately, all these actions would be treating the symptoms and not the cause,” Criado-Perez told the audience. “Social media doesn’t cause misogyny; the police can’t cure it. What we really need to do is sit down as a society and take a long hard look at ourselves, in order to answer the question: “Why are we producing so many people who just seem to hate women?”

— Greg Sandoval for The Verge