As an outsider reading this, I feel like there is a missing side of the story. Did those people really do all those things for no reason? What prompted them to harass her? Edit: I'm not saying there are ever circumstances where what they did is warranted. The story just seems to be so one dimensionally against her, couldn't help but feel something was missing.
How does that actually help? Who would even think that those things are reasonable? It makes much more sense to try to understand why it happened and how it can be prevented.
Well, what's missing is that if you're a dude, it might be hard to believe that men can behave this way towards women in everyday life, even in the 21st century. Problem is, this stuff is mostly hidden from us. Remember that 10-minute street harassment video from a few weeks ago? Turns out, it's fairly representative.
After realizing that, yes, this stuff happens to women all the time, it's not hard to extrapolate this behavior to the internet, where people are bigger targets and harassers are even more anonymous.
I guess I'll have to take your word for it. Still seems odd that they doxx you and try to get you fired if you're a woman. Maybe you're right and people are that crazy on the Internet.
Seek out the stories of prominent women on the Internet. This stuff happens over and over and over. The first time it seems odd. But the 20th? Nope.
Another way for it not to seem odd: Go read the book "Why Does He Do That?" by Lundy Bancroft. [1] (If anybody would like a copy, just contact me via email and I will send you your choice of paper or Kindle versions. I've given 12 away so far.) It's a book by a fellow who spent 15 years as a counselor in a program for abusive men. If you read that, then it's pretty clear that there are a lot of men out there who want to abuse women.
My take on a lot of this behavior is that the Internet, in connecting everybody to everybody, has connected a lot of would-be abusers to lots of women. Previously, they would have been sad and alone in their basements; they wouldn't have anybody to harass. But now they can mob up and attack women jointly.
Careful, that question is forbidden. You will probably be accused of "victim shaming" in a minute.
Sadly most people seem not interested in the psychological or sociological motivation of those abusers. There is always something that triggers abuse (no, I am not saying that it must be something the victim did). I wish we would investigate into that and help people stay clear of the psychopaths that way.
"I now believe the most dangerous time for a woman with online visibility is the point at which others are seen to be listening, “following”, “liking”, “favoriting”, retweeting. In other words, the point at which her readers have (in the troll’s mind) “drunk the Koolaid”. Apparently, that just can’t be allowed."
Read the whole thing, it's heartbreaking and eyeopening. It also involves some of the same people that attacked the author of the current post.
So whatever these two woman did to "incite" this harassment was shared by at least two kinda-succesful woman in tech.
