Three separate people have e-mailed to tell me that a certain women’s rights warrior (whose activism seems to revolve around setting up a blog to trash me and Ren and other undesirables), is clamouring for my attention again.
“No Frodo! Don’t give in! Not now!”
Yes, I’ve been doing a rather good job of ignoring her for the last month or so. Why do I want to throw away all that hard work now? Well, first of all, I’m bored. I’m not going on any exciting shopping trips or battling any particularly terrifying foes in my RPG, and with Ramadan coming up, I’m in for even less action and adventure than usual.
Second of all, I feel as though a major line has been crossed. Again. I’m content to have Feminist Anonymist rant and rave about my politics for as long as the moonshine and battery acid last her, but the minute her dirty little paws start grasping at my personal life, I feel like I need to say something. I don’t like it when people make up lies about me. It’s violating and icky and makes the entire thing feel like a cross between “Fatal Attraction” and an episode of Jerry Springer.
Before, “Feminist Anonymist” was content to call me a “whore.” Now she’s saying that I’m duping my readers by placing a “donate” button on this blog, because I am, apparently, richer than King Solomon. I mean, how else could I have gone to Duke?
Student debt? What’s that? No, no, student debt is for people we like. I probably stole that money from weeping orphans and endangered lemurs.
The “donate” button still comes with a sizeable disclaimer attached, but perhaps this warrior for justice just wishes to pretend that the disclaimer doesn’t exist. Who am I to intrude upon her fantasy? And who am I to point out that a woman who lives off an inheritance should probably not be scrutinizing others’ financial privilege? Oops.
An attempt to use my friend’s death to score a cheap point was what got FA banned from this site. I’m surprised to see her revisiting this episode; nobody’s that cruel and stupid, are they? Laughing in my face about the untimely demise of a beloved individual who left grieving family members and friends behind? This is what passes for speaking truth to power? I’ve met ogres more courteous and thoughtful than that.
As for the other stuff, it’s amusing. I laughed out loud when I read about how I “pull the Slavic card.” I’m picturing a very shiny and ornamental card, something I can wave around like an FBI badge, only with more frou frou. Pictures of me on this site? Well, I don’t have a pathological need to make myself invisible lest someone, somewhere, is horribly offended by my evil visage, ugly nose and all. Liking men? As a heterosexual woman, I *omigod* do, one man above all in particular. I know all of this information is rather shocking, but do steady yourself and have a drink of water or something stronger, you’ll be alright in no time.
For someone supposedly fighting on the front-lines for the liberation of women (or at least those women deemed worthy), FA sure does have a lot of time to spend on this particular… glorious battle. And you know what? If she employed actual arguments, I wouldn’t mind. As it stands, conversations with my bunny are much more stimulating.
P.S. Don’t you just love it when people (people like FA) who admit they don’t know a certain person (a person like Ren) nevertheless insist, mockingly, that said person ought to get psychological help? But then again, it seems like no discussion surrounding Renegade Evolution can occur without an attempt at her humiliation (good luck with that one, assholes!).
Natalia A. 
I have run across the same feminists. They are quite angry people. I think what struck me the most is how frightened they are.
I put the word “feminist” in quotes here, because I just don’t take this charade seriously enough to consider her an actual feminist. At best she’s a troll who latched on to feminism out of boredom.
I am afraid the term, “feminist” has been hijacked by some angry sociopaths. I read a nice female’s description of herself–a “self-made woman” and thought it might be a nice alternative.
Natalia, I realize that you do not need advice on how to deal with Feminist Anonymist, because you really, really are in fact a seasoned veteran of combat with hate mail, online stalkers, and the like.
But I hope you’ll stay aware that Feminist Anonymist might be the equivalent of an online stalker who, in his/her latest post, might be fishing for information about you, by asserting accusatory “facts” about your personal life, in an attempt to induce commenters to refute such “facts” by providing correct data about your life.
That scares me. I speculate that FA might next state “facts” about your birth family and their socioeconomic status, your boyfriend’s socioeconomic status, etc., in the hope of inducing commenters to ‘correct’ FA by providing, again, the truth about your life and background.
I realize I’m being paranoid about this, and I also realize that you actually do not need advice about how to deal with people like FA.
But again, I simply urge you to be cautious in responding to FA, if you respond at all. To me, FA
does seem to employ a strategy designed to elicit certain kinds of responses, and in light of that, FA’s attention to your financial status in his/her latest post really threw me.
Good luck in dealing with FA, and please stay aware that FA might be much worse than just another obnoxious troll.
I’m sticking to “feminist,” though a lot of people no longer don’t.
As for FA phishing – that indeed may be the case, though Duke and student debt I talk about a lot. I don’t see how this is new information for anyone who reads this site.
Natalia,
Perhaps if people like you stick to “feminist” the term will recover.
Such a hypocrite! How dare you complain about being trashed after trashing Germaine Greer?
Thanks, manupmen.
Hypppo, darrrling, while I appreciate the irony of the situation, you only get to call me out if I:
– called Germaine a “dumb hooker,” “whore,” etc.
– implied that Germaine is purposefully misleading her readers
– attempted to use the death of Germaine’s friend as an opportunity to insult and belittle both Germaine and her dead friend
– expressed outrage that Germaine published pictures of herself
– stated that Germaine will one day “get what she deserves.”
– launched a foul-mouthed attack on Germaine’s relationship with her significant other, because said significant other is of the “wrong” ethnicity
Try again.
hyppo
one is not allowed to trash greer?
I’m sorry I was one of the three who e-mailed. I was trying to be helpful, now I’ve made you upset. She’s got some nerve, but don’t let her get to you. Everyone has told her to bug off, she just does it for self-punishment now, or because she’s got nothing going on in her sad little life.
Hypppo, shut your big mouth. And don’t open it again until you’ve learned something.
One thing that’s notable about the blogger clones of Twisty Faster is not that they don’t show a whole lot of ideological variation (though that’s true as well) but that they all cop her writing style; hyperbolic, casually accusatory, self-righteous and written in a tone of perpetual abyss between droll amusement and seething anger. Most seem to have a somewhat unrealistic appraisal of their own level of intellect and writing capability, but that may just be a jaunty stylistic thing I’m not up on. Nine Deuce is easily the most entertaining, in sort of a High School goth girl way; she makes a big deal out of how smart she is and how you’ll have to contend with her overwhelming intellect if you want to debate her, and then proceeds to tell her challengers to shut up and that they’re stupid. The funny thing is that with internet radfems, as with nutcases of any stripe, I agree with a lot of the claims that are made until I can’t add a ‘but’ to them. ND says most men are assholes; hey, I don’t disagree, but most women are too. I’m sure if MRAs (who, radfems are right, are basically all cocks) start with their whole “Women are deceitful, fucked up bitches” bit, I’d want to get away from it, but it’s not because I really think it’s incorrect, but simply because the MRA doesn’t want to remember that men are just as bad and have a lot of the social power to boot. When someone tells me that Mexicans will steal your car, they’re not lying; my problem is the built in implication that their aren’t plenty of crackers out there who would slit your throat for $5 and a tall boy of Icehouse.
Twisty and ND, to be fair, have a few basic points that aren’t totally insane and write the occasional amusing sentence. FA is like a junior high attempt at the same thing; it’s just ugly. Also, I’ve also never observed the others to fixating on someone the way FA has such a total hard on for you and ren.
Heya Natalia-
The stupid on this one really burns, don’t it? I do find myself laughing at her though. It’s hard not to.
I’d take Twisty and Nine Deuce over FA any time. I may disagree with them, vehemently sometimes, but they act like human beings and both have a sense of humour (and I completely agree with Nine Deuce that Phillip Roth is overrated, for example). FA’s just a bilious hater with a dumb, attack-dog mentality (which may be an insult to canines) and a weird obsession (I wouldn’t be surprised if she has other blogs under different names, devoted to other people in a similar fashion).
I’m sure that if tomorrow I said that the forest is green, she’d seize upon that as “evidence” of me being a serial killer in glittery mascara who drinks the blood of radfems for breakfast.
It’s encouraging that no one in the radfem blogosphere has befriended this creature.
But Ren’s right, she’s also really funny. Not because she’s trying to be, though.
I think you’re giving NineDeuce entirely too much credit.
The only thing Twisty ever had going for her was that at least we could all point and sigh with relief that there was only one of her; cheap knock-off versions like ND and FA just serve to give everyone headaches.
Yeah, I can’t even begin to compare Twisty or Nine Deuce to Feminist Anonymist. As much as I’ve disagreed with Twisty in the past, I just can’t see her stalking anyone like this. I’m pretty sure’s she’s just not constituted in a way that makes that plausible.
Plus, if it came right down to Twisty and FA in a room, I think Twisty would actually condemn FA’s actions.
Hi Natalia… just to let you know this “manupman” (.wordpress.com) person took a Troll stroll through a few recovery blogs this week. He spent a long, long time harassing people with mental health issues with gems like “Everyone who suffers from chronic depression is choosing it.”
Regarding your Troll, I love these kind of outrage points they make: “She bans people from her blog if they don’t agree with her.” like there’s some Second Amendment Right which forces bloggers to let just any old Troll drop diarrhoea into our lives.
Yes, I think it’s entirely misguided to compare Twisty and Nine Deuce to someone like FA. Twisty and Nine Deuce are online personalities, and as much as I have disagreed with them on a given issue (or even the way in which they expressed themselves on said issue), I’ve never seen them stalk and harass anyone. I can’t imagine Twisty calling anyone a “dumb blonde hooker” and I can’t imagine Nine Deuce gloating over the death of someone’s friend.
Now I do view FA as a logical extension of some forms of feminism – like Janice Raymond (whose work really gives me the creeps, overall). I understand that she’s nothing but an online stalker who uses feminism as a fig leaf, but when I see the contempt that some feminists express toward other women, I have to wonder if FA’s just saying what someone else might be thinking. But I wouldn’t automatically hold her up as anyone’s symbol or mouthpiece.
Gabriel, as someone who has suffered from depression for many years, I could only laugh at something like that. I don’t know if this is the same guy, and he’s certainly behaved himself here, but if anyone were to tell me that I “chose” to be depressed, I would just find it so ridiculous that it would be funny. It’s like saying, “you CHOSE to have that ton of bricks fall on your head! Hah! Loser!”
I’m not saying that FA is the same as Twisty or ND, just that I think FA is cribbing from their playbook and her low rent version of their act sort of takes it to a predictable conclusion. Twisty and the blogs she’s inspired seem pretty free with invective, and liable to say things for effect rather than sincerity or usefulness (I mentioned ND partially because of her recent claim that rape should be redefined as emotional manipulation for sex, and that a man accused of it should be automatically found guilty and summarily castrated; nobody could actually believe that’s a good idea). Directly going after and trolling people seems like a logical next step to me. Maybe Twisty et al wouldn’t do that, but the distinction seems to me similar to the one that separates the people who go out and commit homophobia-fueled crimes and the evangelical leaders who claim that their constant homophobic rhetoric didn’t lead to it.
Well, it was only a matter of time before someone like FA arose to fill that particular vacuum. Though, like Lal and James, I don’t really buy her feminism shtick from the get-go. I think it may be likely that she’s a troll who’s having herself (himself?) a good ol’ time. Perhaps she’s convinced herself that she’s the righteous voice of feminism, who knows, there are plenty of weirdos out there capable of doing that.
And I did notice that she went after Twisty once too – apparently Twisty’s refusal to participate in “ad feminem” and call people “whores” and whatnot really bothers FA.
much as Twisty and Nine Deuce make me want to bang my head through the keyboard, they aren’t creepy-ass stalkers like this…person, who I’m still not even convinced is even remotely who/what she says she is. it’s got nothing to do with politics; she’s just a hateful little nose goblin with more issues than National Geographic
that said, I do agree that Twisty’s not exactly been a salutary effect on the feminist blogosphere. she’s like Go Fug Yourself in sensible shoes, but at least they don’t pretend to be anything other than what they are, you know.
and the reason she gives off familiar vibes to certain more well-known people is because they all draw from a common root: good ol’ fashioned misogyny, misanthropy to boot, and a rigid, paranoid, black and white view of the world.