Do men and women react to Twitter trolls in different ways?

[bushwackerbob]

There was an article written by a female reporter. The article was poorly written containing an obviously false premise which obviously rendered what followed utter nonsense. The female reporter received a ton of criticism for the piece including some personal attacks from some hooligans on twitter. (Side note, am I a chauvinist for being more peeved on behalf of women rather than men on the subject of Twitter personal attacks?) The female journalist complained of Twitter harassment. That started a conversation about how men and women deal with Twitter attacks. There was actually a piece on ESPN with pro athletes reading nasty tweets addressed to female sports journalists. One male member of the media that does a radio show noted that he often gets personal attacks on Twitter, attacking him, his wife, and even his daughter. He blocks them on twitter and simply ignores the trolls. His argument is that if you give these Twitter trolls attention, if you acknowledge them, that you are giving them what they want, much as a fire needs oxygen, these trolls crave validation for their meaningless lives. I believe that a woman can do anything a man can do, but conversely I also believe that in the quest for equality among men and women that in forums like twitter, women would be best served in not playing the victim/harassment card because one cannot claim equality in one arena while simultaneously demand to be a protected class in another. The reason you rarely if ever hear about guys complain about Twitter harassment is because men see the complaints as a sign of weakness, an admission that the trolls have found their weak spot, an area of vulnerability that they rather not be seen. In terms of personal attacks on Twitter, women need to develop a thicker skin and ignore the negative nellies.

[lionbadger]

It's not playing playing the victim card to complain about what are ultimately criminal acts

It is also not on the victim of crime to "toughen up" because some people deal with it differently

[Ninja J.]

I don't understand why we should criticize women for how they deal with shitbags on the internet or how that has any effect on gender equality whatsoever. If it is harassment (which is illegal) then I have no problem with how a man or a woman deals with it whether they ignore it, block it or sue whoever is doing the harassing.

However, I will say that there are claims of online harassment that don't hold up, in my opinion. For example, I don't think that simply disagreeing with someone else's opinion that was posted for the public to be harassment. A lot of people get butthurt when they find that no one agrees with their public stupidity and then say things like "My freedom of speech is under attack." No dumbass. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean you don't have freedom of speech or that you're being harassed. The point is not every case of harassment is on the same level and in some cases not even harassment at all in my opinion. Still, I'd be wary of blanket statements like "Women need tougher skin."

[Heroine Addict]

It's worth remembering that the online abuse received by women is much more likely to contain rape threats. If somebody is uninhibited enough to post such threats, they should be taken at their word and reported as a potential danger.

This isn't anything like this community and our peril fantasies. We're talking about people who contact an actual human being to state an intention to rape them. If someone makes such declarations, they need to be taken at their word.

[tallyho]

I believe that a woman can do anything a man can do

Well, you are clearly mistaken as they can't scratch their own testicles.

It all depends on the individual and how they take things on board - everyone is different. When the European Space agency landed Philae on comet 67P and the scientist gives interviews on this amazing feat and you had female scientists posting comments not on the achievement but on the fact he had scantily clad women on his SHIRT FFS, cos that's obviously the important news here. The fact that they were basically overlooking a monumental scientific achievement to comment on the guys fashion sense played into the hands of those idiots who say women have no place in science. Yet there were women on the team who didn't give a damn about his SHIRT because, quite rightly it wasn't important. It's all down to how individual men and women perceive the situation and handle criticism and there is no right or wrong way as we are all different. Some get defensive, some ignore it, some laugh it off, some delete their Twitter account, some get aggressive.
But I would say any violent threats should be automatically reported and the same goes for any thing said here on this forum. You can report any harrassment issues to myself or MH , even if you feel its me who is being abusive.

[bushwackerbob]

I wholeheartedly support reporting these twitter knuckleheads to the proper authorities 100 percent. I just think that broadcasting to the world that one is being harassed on Twitter does nothing but exacerbate the problem, it gives these losers what they want, which is a reaction. Raising awareness for this issue does nothing but put gasoline on the fire. Most of these losers sit around in their Mom's basement all day dreaming of a way to be relevant, to be famous for one glorious moment, that they can be somebody, even if it is being a twitter troll. I just hate to see them get rewarded for their efforts with the attention they so crave.

[sugarcoater]

Discussing such a topic is fraught with peril as some love to infer evil intent to any comment that isn't trite and empty of any point.
For example, the safe comment that women can do anything men can do is ridiculous. Having stated that, I could now be accused (quite erroneously) of being a mysoginist. But my point is true: We know there are things men can do that women can't, in some cases to varying degrees. And the same goes for men--there are things women can do that men can't. To state such a trite comment is too simple.
Furthermore, two simplify women and men's reactions to something is nuts. Taking such a large population and looking at one difference makes no sense. There are thin- and thick-skinned men and women. The real question should be: do women consistently receive a different type of trolling than men? We can't simplify the point to how women react as compared to how men react. It would be tr same as asking "do Hispanics react differently to trolling than Asians?" We can't simplify psychology to such a huge extent.

[Femina]

The biggest problem is Twitter IMO. There isn't a more stupid concept in all the world. '250 characters to state your most reactionary thoughts' was a disaster waiting to happen. It's ended relationships pointlessly, it's gotten people fired pointlessly, it's given psychos an outlet to send violent rape/murder threats anonymously, and it could all be avoided if everybody just wizened up and realized they didn't need to use Twitter, because it's stupid.

[sugarcoater]

Excellent above post. It definitely seems like Twitter was made to be a disaster: an app to post one's reaction to something (often inflammatory) for all to see. I'm often amused watching an ad or show when they ask people to tweet in their thoughts. Does anyone care what some person in some place thinks about what just happened on some show? Really?

[Femina]

Excellent above post. It definitely seems like Twitter was made to be a disaster: an app to post one's reaction to something (often inflammatory) for all to see. I'm often amused watching an ad or show when they ask people to tweet in their thoughts. Does anyone care what some person in some place thinks about what just happened on some show? Really?

Well I don't!

Start the Anti-Twitter Revolution!!!!

Quick, let's all get on Twitter and tweat to twitter that we're mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore! (Use violent death threats it you have to!)

P.S. Don't send Twitter violent death threats...... I know I'm insulting someones intelligence by adding this post script but... yeah, it has to be here.

[Mr. X]

One women does not define "women".

[Dogfish]

The "Don't feed the trolls" defence is proven to not work. If you don't feed the trolls they just escalate. It's like when you're a kid and you're told to ignore bullies, they just get worse. The only defence is to snitch. Snitch loud, snitch often, snitch to everybody. The problem is Twitter doesn't give a fuck. It's crawling with actual Nazis, in plain sight, in their thousands, and nothing is done. You can't show a clip of a football match without authorisation but a person with a Swastika avatar can send gore pictures and racist abuse maybe, just maybe, they'll get a ban and start a new account to do it again.

One successful approach I've seen on Facebook is saving up a big file of all the abuse and sending it to a harrasser's mother, employer, or just in public.

Something that it is worth noting though is that women get a much, much worse time of it on social media than men do. That's not a political left or right thing either, you see women get more abuse from the political left and right. It's very weird. It's like people will let a man be wrong, but a woman? Some people, be they SWERFs, TERFs, MRAs, GOP, furries or Jedi cosplayers, they just can't let it go unanswered.

Also worth a mention that the whole, 'attempting to ask people questions is not abuse' thing, it kind of is. Or to be specific it is so often done with abusive intent that a lot of people won't know if you're being genuinely. Bombarding a complete stranger with questions, demanding that they explain themselves, it's just rude as fuck. Nobody would feel it polite to go around interrogating strangers in the street, yet online people do it and they think it is perfectly acceptable.

I think what needs to happen basically is people need to get used to the idea that there is no long divide between online and real life, there is just real life and real life has computers in it. It was stupid to ever create the idea that there was a divide, like you should be this other person. I'm not talking about anonymity, I'm talking about the idea that your online presence is not yourself, like we're not real people on here. If you talk to somebody through the internet, you are talking to a person, and anybody who forgets that is probably a bit of a dick.

[bushwackerbob]

One women does not define "women".

The piece that ESPN did on Twitter personal attacks with pro athletes reading the tweets was only tweets addressed to female sports journalists, no men. By using only female journalists as examples of those who have received vicious tweets, ESPN was basically calling it a female issue. You should check it out. There have been several cases in the last few years that I have been aware of reports of Twitter harassment and most invariably involve women not men. I do take the point that others have made on this board that the attacks on women do tend to be more personal and more vicious in nature. I would like to see some of these guys in jail myself, like those scumbags in the Leslie Jones case. I think that it is a great idea to report these thugs to the proper authorities and shut these guys down, but don't let these Internet trolls win by claiming Twitter harassment in the public arena because you are giving them what they want and encouraging further verbal abuse in the future. The problem with "snitching to everybody" is that trolls get satisfaction out of that exchange. By not acknowledging these jerks you are telling them that in your universe that they are not in your head, that there hate filled words do not take up any space, that they do not exist in your universe. Internet trolls loathe that. Short of reporting these jerks or identifying them I am afraid that is the best that we can hope for.

[Heroine Addict]

By the same token, some men are too proud to let it go and will continue an argument with a troll in order to 'win'. Without a truly representative sample of the volume and types of abuse received by men and women, along with a truly representative sample of male and female reactions, any generalizations about how the sexes react differently are informed by our own confirmation bias towards data we like.

Looking at the small sample of tweets sent to the ESPN presenters, several of them do explicitly state that the recipients should be raped. Including mockery of an actual rape victim. I strongly suspect that this specific type of abuse is received disproportionately by the female ESPN presenters in comparison to their male colleagues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tU-D-m2JY8

Aside from the rape comments, a lot of the recent tweets directed at female reporters (such as former Fox News host Megyn Kelly) are deriding the recipients' suitability to do a "man's job". Often with a suggestion that she must have fucked her way to the top. There doesn't appear to be an equivalent torrent of abuse directed at male hosts/reporters based on the characteristic of sex.