I can’t believe we still live in a society where this doesn’t lead to more noise being made. I often get into interesting/slightly frustrating conversations with people about whether it makes a difference that I’m a woman in my field. I answer no, that it’s a non-issue for me as a professional. With shit like this being done to women, be they in the blogosphere, in the streets or in far away lands, well my answer is now YES, it’s different.
Thanks Chris for the pic.
I should point out that this image isn’t from some national newspaper. It is a small paper called something like ‘creative weekly’ (i forget the name) that I picked up in an art cinema.
I fear that the reason why it does not generate more commentary is because it is too common for people to really care. Kathy just happens to be pretty prominent, but in Finland – and our blogosphere of what, 20,000 active blogs – there have been death threats (e.g. to me and my loved one), restraining orders, defamation suits, and lots and lots of cyberbullying, ranging from anonymous comments to full-blown fake blogs. Most of the recipients of the abuse are women, and the abusers are men, though there as a sizable minority of other cases as well.
I think this can be best illustrated by paraphrasing Eddie Izzard:
“you kill one person they call it murder, send you in jail. You kill a few people they send you to Texas and hit you with a brick. You kill a hundred people, they put you in a closed room and look at you through a glass window for the rest of your life. You kill thousands, then we can’t deal with it, we’re practically saying “congratulations, you must get up early in the morning”
“Death, death, death, lunch. Death, death, death, afternoon tea. Death, death, death, quick shower…”