Those words above were said by AztecLady in the comments about the GoodReads Bullies and I wanted to highlight it. Because this is exactly what it's about.If it was just about reviews and authors being loud imbeciles, I frankly wouldn't give a flying monkey's hairy ass--we have seen that before, and for the most part we have forgotten the names of the idiots. They were special and sensitive snowflakes who had no perspective (book =/= your baby)
But the people behind the StGRb site are endangering the people they highlight. First they give you all this personal information about them, from residence to real name, and pictures. Then they tell you how these women are lowlifes who deserve whatever comes at them.
Do you think for a minute that there won't be people who will take that as gospel?
It has happened before--google Anita Sarkeesian if you want to see how far it can go.
So we need to do more than say, "authors should ignore reviews" and we should do much more than just say, "oh those authors are hypocrites and crazy and scary"
We need to highlight stories like these, and raise awareness that the more women shut up to avoid being the targets of this type of behaviour, the less freedom we have.
Yes, we have come far in the last fifty years, in most countries, but we have to keep fighting to retain at least a semblance of equality in our right to speak out--let alone to achieve, you know, actual equality (such as salary parity, etc.)
Right there. Pay attention.
This plays into the the socialization of women. We live through emotions and so we see someone we don't especially like and we process it through emotions. So Ridley annoys me and I think she's rude. Someone else experiences her rudeness/bluntness as a personal attack and then the drama begin.
I know Ridley isn't a bully. But the person who feels attacked then does the **sobs** and the "I've been picked on" dance and then that feeds into the other person who feels picked on and before you know it...
snowballs into evil, Cruella deVille behavior the likes of which we haven't experienced since junior high school.
We need to stop relating emotionally to these situations and think for once like men do. You piss me off, I call you out on it when it happens. I don't stew and create drama around it. Or I learn that it really isn't personal at all since it's on the internet and not in my home and get over myself.
Everyone needs to stop looking at these train wrecks and being gleeful but instead go directly to site admin and tell them to close it down.
We need to show that we can stand together to protect the rights of mouthy women, bitchy women, women we might not like but who deserve to speak their minds and not be threatened for it.
If we don't defend each other, then who'll be there when we need defending also?
