"I was like ‘the spelling’s so bad, I’m not taking these people seriously; they have eggs for avatars, I don’t care!’ And you walk through the day and these horrible phrases are being repeated through your head… There are things that affect me; I’m weird, I’m affected by violence, threats of rape, I’m a mess!"Her solution is not to look at Twitter at all. She writes her own tweets (she says), but sends them to someone else to post for her and to let her "know if there’s an important response."
This corresponds to what I was saying to that philosophy professor, quoted in in the NYT, who was dismayed about the insults she read about herself on Yik Yak. Don't look at it! Stop mentally engaging with it.
And this is a cue to quote 2 of my mother's favorite expressions: 1. "You're only encouraging them," and 2. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you."
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Not sure it is as simple as ignoring it. I have been making study of RHOBH and how each HW is perceived on the Internet. There is one HW in particular who is a single mother and who seems to need the cash flow from this job but somehow the fanbase has turned totally against her and unfairly in my point of view. Yes, the individual ugly cruel tweets sent her way could possibly be ignored by her but what about the 'fanbase' turning against her having got caught up in a whirlwind of false impressions reinforced by twitter and Facebook. That could cost her her job.
Same for the Philosophy professor -- what if the department used those spurious comments to deny her tenure? She is right to fight back.
What better definition of a latter day Swiftian Laputan Flapper than the person detailed to post another's 140-character theses?
"2. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you."
My mother once told me "She's just trying to get a rise out of you' but that was because mom walked into the living room while my girlfriend's hand was down my pants.
I am Laslo.
I’m affected by... threats of rape,
Some other people are affected by false accusations of rape.
Just sayin'
Twitter has unleashed the crazies of the world.
Perhaps, incest was the word that bothered her most.
As I have gotten older, I have come to realize that its best not to take much to not take much of anything personally.
Words used against Dunham are violence. Words Dunham uses against others are jokes, see, or just her post-ironic way of writing, so you'll just have to adjust. When Dunham tars Republicans by alleging her (alleged) rapist a Republican in her (alleged) autobiography, that's ok because Republicans are gross. When Dunham does it, and when people Dunham like do it, it's ok and those stuck up regressive prudes who disagree need to shut up. When it's done to Dunham, though, that's a different story--that's violence and shouldn't be tolerated. You say free speech, I say violence against women.
Can't she just hire a flunky to write private, ego-affirming tweets for her, and just read those?
I never go on Twitter, but I imagine the appeal of the format is that among the millions of tweeters there are some worth following because they may have funny or insightful things to say within the character limits (maybe a comedian or philosopher type). But the idea that anyone would find Dunham worth following (considering just what Althouse has quoted from her on this blog from time to time) is baffling. Warmed-over leftism spewed out from someone who has put very little thought into what she has to say? How has that not been done to death already?
Not that there aren't nasty people writing particularly nasty comments, secure in their anonymity. But if you're going to participate in a public forum, that's unavoidable. Sucks that such venom flows so often, but the alternative is restriction of speech.
"I’m weird, I’m affected by violence, threats of rape, I’m a mess!"
Delete everything between the comas and you've got the comprehensive Lena Dunham autobiography.
Please ignore that person until she writes something worthy of reading. She's just trying to get a rise out of you, Professor.
Some other people are affected by false accusations of rape.
Roger Kimball has pointed out that just last Friday a Durham jury found former Duke Lacrosse accuser Crystal Mangum guilty of second-degree murder.
No attention to that development was given by the national press or the Modern Language Association or Lena Dunham.
Free speech for me, but not for thee.
And the government should force people to watch my shows or you are racist sexist republican.
Thsts someone with too much money. Paying someone else to write your tweeted and monitor Twitter. How about just don't go on Twitter.
Retired baseball player and ESPN analyst Curt Schilling has gone on the offensive. He tweeted out that his daughter had gotten admitted to her preferred college and would pitch for their softball team. He got back some very vile responses, including threats of her being raped, bloody sock analogies, etc.
He figured out who two of the tweeters were. One was a part time DJ/sports guy at a college radio station. Lost his position. One was a college student that worked as a ticket taker for the Yankees and an officer in this fraternity. Yankees fired him.
He has said he is looking into legal action, but I think that's futile. But kudos to him.
"There's no such thing as the 'real world,' it's just a rumor you should rise above."
pm317 said...
Twitter has unleashed the crazies of the world.
Indeed. The signal to noise ratio for Twitter is even worse than for YouTube comments. Perhaps this classic xkcd comic offers a solution by adapting the technology for Twitter.
Funny...just this morning the dallas morning news ran a front page story about the havoc yik yak is causing on college campii. I had never heard about it. A platform for adolescents and teens to let rip anonymously? What could possibly go wrong? We are rainbows, we are unicorns!
Retired baseball player and ESPN analyst Curt Schilling has gone on the offensive.
I read that post the other day and it was fantastic. People have become so ill mannered and vile these days.
I don't do Twitter in part because it seems to be a complete cesspool.
As HoodlumDoodlum points out, Dunham can't exactly occupy the high ground when it comes to defamation. And beyond this, the sting of an insult lies in its truth. Her television show makes her ass look fat. She deliberately chooses the most unflattering clothes possible, and then she takes them off.......Every human being deserves to be treated with respect, but she purposefully invites abuse. If she weren't abused, she'd be a failure as an artist.
""[Y]ou think you can take it all, like, 'oh my god, that’s so funny, somebody called me a fat cow who deserves to be dragged through the street,' but it does affect you internally.""
It wouldn't affect you if there weren't some truth to it. So stop whining and go on a diet.
Want to see Lena in real distress? Ignore her... completely.
I like manners, in my "real" life I take care to exercise good manners, and in any serious discussion online I try to be (or at least start out) relatively well-mannered. But manners are a two way street. It's silly to attack and belittle others and then ask for sympathy when others aren't polite to you. Progressives are awfully happy to congratulate themselves for disgregarding bourgeois convention (like manners) but can't seem to let go of the idea of themselves of victims within that bourgeois framework (they're so rude to me! they assault me with their words, with their hate!). Shouldn't Lena be whirling around on these Twitter-ers and telling them she doesn't give a fuck what they think?
Maybe it's a coincidence that the people claiming to be harmed by these verbal assaults are mostly women, but it does seem odd. Am I supposed to feel a sense of chivalrous umbrage on Lena's behalf? If I did wouldn't that make me sexist, assuming she's due some extra deference on account of her gender? Nah, probably a coincidence.
Was Prof Althouse making a point by posting her item on Dunham wherein the advice given is essentially "don't take such things to heart/don't feel too much" right after her item on the Madison protester's exhortation to feel anger, etc (but not act destructively)? Is the Professor suggesting a golden middle ground where one takes the injustices of the world to heart but doesn't let them cause dispair, while not taking notice of petty insults that do not matter?
WELL! Yer not gettin' a rise outa ME!
What Hoodlum Doodlum said.
"Free speech for me, but not for thee."
And, of course, this is not in the least what Dunham is saying.
Either you never mastered reading comprehension or you are purposely misrepresenting her remarks to make a dishonest point.
"Her television show makes her ass look fat. She deliberately chooses the most unflattering clothes possible, and then she takes them off.......Every human being deserves to be treated with respect, but she purposefully invites abuse."
Ridiculous. That's like saying that because Christopher Walken or JK Simmons plays a really vile villain in this show or that movie, they deserve to be spit on in the street.
But she doesn't have any angst for falsely accusing someone of rape. Typicall lefty, free to "Alinsky" anyone, but no fighting back allowed.
You can live a long and happy life never knowing what's written about you on the bathroom wall.
...middle stall, right above the ass gasket dispenser.
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