“You f—ing whore”: What happened when a young activist took on a US rapper

[redqueen]

Abused, threatened, but Talitha Stone won’t be stopped

One of the great rewards of this work is seeing a growing wave of young women go into battle against violence against women in all its brutal manifestations, calling out and naming this violence as unacceptable. One such woman is 24-year-old Talitha Stone. Talitha decided she had to speak out and has been involved with the work of Collective Shout for a couple of years. Talitha’s passion and gutsy activism gives me hope that things can change. I first introduced you to her when she infiltrated try-outs for the Lingerie Football League last year. You can read about what she experienced here.

Talitha copped a raft of violent threats, including death and rape, when she participated in Collective Shout’s social media campaign against US rapper Tyler the Creator, who we believed was in breach of his visa conditions for vilifying women and celebrating violence as entertainment. She didn’t think his behaviour should be supported and naturalised and threw herself into the fray. The level of venom and abuse she received provided further evidence for our arguments. You can read about the online harassment here. (There have been even more threatening tweets since then, forwarded to police).

...

Despite the tsunami of hostility against her, unlike many attacking her Talitha chose not to hide behind the anonymity of the internet. She could have used a false name, or requested that her image not be used. But her intimidation is what Tyler and his fans wanted, it’s what misogyny always wants of women. Talitha refused to fear them or to be silenced. If they were going to attempt to abuse a woman, it was going to occur in the light of public scrutiny.

I really like the way ‘Hecuba’ expressed it in a blog comment.

Tyler obviously didn’t like that brave woman who held him to account for his women-hating insults, because Tyler reacted by directing sexually degrading insults at her. Typical male behaviour whenever a male is challenged on his women-hating views, he reacts by uttering male threats and sexualised insults.

Unfortunately all but one of our elected officials gave a damn. The Immigration Minister didn’t reply, and not one female MP had even a word to say about it.

But we press on. Women like Talitha Stone give us the inspiration to do so.

http://melindatankardreist.com/2013/06/you-f-ing-whore-what-happened-when-a-young-activist-took-on-a-us-rapper/

Check out Collective Shout:
Collective Shout is a grassroots campaigning movement against the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls ... http://collectiveshout.org/

[clarice]

1. good for her.....

"violent threats, including death and rape," I have been railing
against these kinds of things being perpetuated on our Muslim sisters in the Middle East but have been met with a wall of silence. She showed great courage.