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Under the hashtag #mencallmethings, female bloggers, columnists and Twitter regulars have started reprinting some of the threats they say they receive daily from anonymous emailers, posters and other trolls.Anna Raccoon has already gone into this in depth and if you haven't already read it I do recommend nipping over and seeing what she had to say on it. All I'll say is firstly that those threats that clearly can't be followed through on are empty threats and therefore, while no doubt unpleasant, actually no real threat at all; secondly that I'm not sure this really is trolling (see Dizzy); and thirdly if it is trolling then it's worth remembering that the internet has a fairly long established procedure for dealing with trolls:
While milder insults such as feminazi and ugly bitch are common, so, also were threats of rape and other violence. New Yorker Shelby Knox was told to "die in a fire". Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore said she "can't put here some stuff men write to me. It involves dismemberment, blood and excrement".
Prominent feminist blogger Jessica Valenti welcomed the #mencallmethings hashtag as a way of fighting back.
Now, hands up everyone who thinks repeating their spittle flecked ramblings on line under a slightly plaintive sounding hashtag like #mencallmethings instead of, say, #whatabunchofsoftcocks or #hahahayouwontrapeanyonewiththatlittlething, qualifies as not feeding the trolls.
Someone? Anyone? Anyone at all? No?