I’ve been thinking about this all evening. While there can be double standards when a woman is the alleged abuser and that was definetely the case among the wider pubic when Caroline flacks story broke, I think it also became an overstated issue. Most people did accept it was wrong.
But something else happens when a woman is accused of something like this - the amount of specific social media trolling they get is astronomical. It’s like a hunting call to the ‘anti pc’ keyboard warriors. The people who deride ‘snowflakes’ but are themselves immediately triggered if they even see words like “racism” or “sexism.”
They were escatic about the “#vindication of Johnny depp” last week when recordings implied amber heard could be violent with him too. These people never expressed concern for amber heard over her origianl abuse accusations. Same with the fake racist attack by Jussie smollett. They couldn’t get enough of that story, but the uncountable daily stories of real racist attacks, even the most high profile, are always ignored or played down.
Caroline flack fit this mould. “Woman can be just as violent as men. The patriarchy is made up by femi nazis and doesn’t exist” etc Conveniently these people are some of the most organised online, they are the same general group that drove those Star Wars and ghostbusters actresses from twitter.
I bet they were trolling her like crazy. People who’ve never heard of her or love island would have been directed her way by certain sites and YouTube videos. The internet is a very powerful and dangerous place these days. If it can get Donald trump elected, it can for sure troll a single user with so much hate they break.
I’m not at all saying that’s all there was to it. Not remotely. And there’s definitely always going to be lots we don’t know. I just think this particular online phenomenon of using the statistically unlikely to disprove structural bigotry, and the hate that comes with it , needs some recognition.
But something else happens when a woman is accused of something like this - the amount of specific social media trolling they get is astronomical. It’s like a hunting call to the ‘anti pc’ keyboard warriors. The people who deride ‘snowflakes’ but are themselves immediately triggered if they even see words like “racism” or “sexism.”
They were escatic about the “#vindication of Johnny depp” last week when recordings implied amber heard could be violent with him too. These people never expressed concern for amber heard over her origianl abuse accusations. Same with the fake racist attack by Jussie smollett. They couldn’t get enough of that story, but the uncountable daily stories of real racist attacks, even the most high profile, are always ignored or played down.
Caroline flack fit this mould. “Woman can be just as violent as men. The patriarchy is made up by femi nazis and doesn’t exist” etc Conveniently these people are some of the most organised online, they are the same general group that drove those Star Wars and ghostbusters actresses from twitter.
I bet they were trolling her like crazy. People who’ve never heard of her or love island would have been directed her way by certain sites and YouTube videos. The internet is a very powerful and dangerous place these days. If it can get Donald trump elected, it can for sure troll a single user with so much hate they break.
I’m not at all saying that’s all there was to it. Not remotely. And there’s definitely always going to be lots we don’t know. I just think this particular online phenomenon of using the statistically unlikely to disprove structural bigotry, and the hate that comes with it , needs some recognition.