Toxic People, Net Community, and where to go from here?
I first became aware of the "Requires Hate" blogger when people would link to her vitriolic reviews of certain books. Many of these reviews were lauded by people who felt that "Requires Hate" was speaking up for minorities who have been silenced for far too long.
But when I joined the now-defunct LJ group meant to discuss and propagate word of works by persons of color, and saw the nasty posts by someone named Winterfox that effectively shut down the conversation, and subsequently heard that Winterfox was another persona of Requires Hate, I set out to avoid both those personas as much as I could.
When the kerfuffle over rachelmanija's and my book Stranger evolved into the Yes-to-Gay-YA movement and then was turned toxic by another troll, Requires Hate/Winterfox/whatever-new-sockpuppet used the opportunity to slam Rachel some more, and me by association, as well as our book (which needless to say she could not have read, as it only existed in ms form) and I went even more head down. I thought this was random troll action.
Well, it turns out that the situation was a whole lot worse than I thought. This is over ten years of systematic and frightening abuse, the most frequent targets female writers. Of color.
In the comments there, you will find links to posts by some of this persona's many other victims, including rachelmanija's full story.
I'm linking this because it seems to me that without any kind of legal protection against this kind of abuse, the net community, specifically the SFF community in which this particular troll, whatever their real identity is, is operating, needs to form its own net of safety for victims to be able to speak out and feel safe against abuse and attack.
I'm closing comments because I think enough vitriol has been splashed about, but I encourage anyone reading this who was also a victim, and thought they were alone, to read that link and speak up, if only anonymously, or write to Laura or the others directly.
I think the creation of safe space is important in this weird new iteration of human culture. We have to protect ourselves as we can.
EDITED TO ADD: And here is an attempt to provide that space.
But when I joined the now-defunct LJ group meant to discuss and propagate word of works by persons of color, and saw the nasty posts by someone named Winterfox that effectively shut down the conversation, and subsequently heard that Winterfox was another persona of Requires Hate, I set out to avoid both those personas as much as I could.
When the kerfuffle over rachelmanija's and my book Stranger evolved into the Yes-to-Gay-YA movement and then was turned toxic by another troll, Requires Hate/Winterfox/whatever-new-sockpuppet used the opportunity to slam Rachel some more, and me by association, as well as our book (which needless to say she could not have read, as it only existed in ms form) and I went even more head down. I thought this was random troll action.
Well, it turns out that the situation was a whole lot worse than I thought. This is over ten years of systematic and frightening abuse, the most frequent targets female writers. Of color.
In the comments there, you will find links to posts by some of this persona's many other victims, including rachelmanija's full story.
I'm linking this because it seems to me that without any kind of legal protection against this kind of abuse, the net community, specifically the SFF community in which this particular troll, whatever their real identity is, is operating, needs to form its own net of safety for victims to be able to speak out and feel safe against abuse and attack.
I'm closing comments because I think enough vitriol has been splashed about, but I encourage anyone reading this who was also a victim, and thought they were alone, to read that link and speak up, if only anonymously, or write to Laura or the others directly.
I think the creation of safe space is important in this weird new iteration of human culture. We have to protect ourselves as we can.
EDITED TO ADD: And here is an attempt to provide that space.