You get it… right?

At the risk of generating a storm of #notallmen responses, some of which have occurred today and included the highly original and clever words “bleating”, and “woketard”, I’m a little bit fearful that perhaps the whole “women and NB folks are consistently being targeted in multiple ways and that’s a problem ask me how” message hasn’t really gotten through.

You know how I know that?

If the signal of whether things should be taken seriously or not is how many very serious men in media and politics are collectively talking about this then the answer is… not many, eh.

Guys, if someone is saying to you “hey this thing is constantly happening to me and here is the very long list of things that would mean our daily lives resemble yours a bit more closely but we need a bit of consensus and momentum from your end…”

If the answer is then to say “oh well it’s just one guy and obviously we don’t condone bullying and we’ll take a look at our Code of Conduct that we’ve been looking at for maybe two or three years now” then you are not hearing that the problem is actually systemic and you are the system.

Harrassment and stalking, threats of violence are a daily lived experience for women in high profile positions. Hell, harassment is a daily feature of most women’s lives in some way shape or form. Harrassment also affects marginalised groups in particular.

It is unacceptable that women are targeted this way in either their professional or private capacity.

It is unacceptable that the systems we have in place are inadequate to prevent this.

It is unacceptable that the culture that keeps those systems in place is upheld by those who refuse to acknowledge or even vaguely consider that the status quo actually only benefits them.

So the next time someone speaks out and says, “hey this absolutely devastating thing has occurred and is occurring in some form for literally all of us”, maybe at the very least say, out loud so other people can hear you from your vast platform “that’s fully unacceptable and how can I help?”

Maybe turn your platform over to those that are thinking about the answers. 

Dr Bex @BexGraham

If you've ever felt like there's nothing you can do about the flood of abuse and filth sent to women, BIPOC, LGBT+ etc, I had some thoughts about things we CAN do, achievable, little things we can all do to make a difference with the power that we do have. A 🧵:

Dr Bex @BexGraham

@Writagal @CateOwen @Moce_Doce @AychMcArdle @FoxyLustyGrover Yes, it is getting worse because it is being intentionally used and encouraged by certain groups seeking to disrupt the political landscape and to silence ppl they don't agree with. But. There are LOTS of things we CAN do:

Do you know what kind of sea change would happen, if the next time an MP stood up and said “you know what I’m just saying my image is consistently photoshopped in ways that are derogatory and my family members are consistently vilified and people send me death threats constantly” and every single man in that building also stood up and said “fuck that shit we’re getting that sorted.”

No. Me either. 

Guess it’ll be covered under the Code of Conduct.