Subversive Knitting

Take Back the Blog Day

Hi Everyone. Thanks for reading this month's guest posts about sexual assault awareness. I hope you have all been inspired to take at least one small action to help stop sexual assault. I know you're all wondering where the knitting content is, and it's coming. Tomorrow I'll be posting a pattern for a shrug and this month's knitting lesson.

In the meantime, here's one last guest post because today is Take Back the Blog Day. What is that all about? If you haven't heard, a well known technology blogger, Kathy Sierra, received death and rape threats on her blog comments. Kathy's removed the violent content from her blog because so many readers found it so distrubing, but she saved it as evidence here, if you have a strong stomach. One friend of mine has received rape threats in response to a video she posted on You Tube. So far, I have been fortunate not to have received any threats of violence in my blog comments, even though I blog about controversial topics from time to time. Is that because most of my readers are women? I don't know.

What I do know, is that it is absolutely unacceptable for anyone, male or female, to try to silence bloggers by threatening them with violence of any sort whatsoever. It is particularly disturbing to see that strong women are being targeted in this way, by weak men who obviously do not have the balls to live their own lives without threatening women who don't conform to their deformed standards. If you think feminism is no longer needed. Think again.

Here's what blogger and journalist Lindsay Beyerstein has to say on this topic ( excerpted from this entry on her blog):

It is important to remember that the sexualized threats directed against tech blogger Kathy Sierra were not just the result of the perp’s personal perversions.

Sexualized threats exploit the pervasive low-level fear that women in our society have about being raped. Yes, most of these death/rape threats are pure fantasies from total losers–but think about what it says about the level of fear and shame in our society that anonymous threats can pack such an emotional punch.

Men who haven’t given much thought to their own vulnerability are often too quick to dismiss the apprehension of women who have been trained from childhood that they’re potential targets and that it’s their own fault if they are victimized.

Well-meaning people may inadvertently shame their allies who go public about threats by focusing exclusively on debunking the threat–as opposed commiserating with the victim.

If our goal is to reduce sexual violence, we must not lose sight of the fundamental question: Are we supporting the victim and stigmatizing the perp?

The first step is to acknowledge that the threat itself is an act of violence and intimidation.

So, when someone tells you they’ve been threatened, don’t try to reassure them by asserting that nothing bad is going to happen. Something bad has already happened.

If you have a blog, please consider posting something on this topic before the month is over (or whenever you read this). Blogs give those of us who are ignored by the mainstream media a chance to speak out. "And that," to quote another blogger I admire, "is exactly why the assholes want to scare us back into silence."