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In reply to the discussion: The Terrorists of 4chan [View all]DetlefK
(16,670 posts)That is merely one of many examples of "putting a woman in her place". Whether it's torture or rape or a terrorist threat, the goal is always the same: to exert control over the decisions somebody else will make.
The threat to release nude pictures of her has the purpose to make her uncomfortable and to make her scared. (I've read that Taylor Swift said in an interview that she checks every bathroom and every dressing-room she uses for hidden cameras. Everywhere, all the time.) It's the same method as using rape as a punishment for a social crime: Don't you dare being independent.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-i-learned-as-internets-most-hated-person/
Not so long ago, another woman faced a full-on online-assault and smear-campaign: She was in the gaming-industry and had made a game. It recieved good reviews from videogame-journalists.
Then she left her boyfriend. He complained online that she had cheated on him.
Then other gamers piled on: Those good reviews? She whored herself out to get them.
Death-threats, calls for her suicide, "I'm not a bad guy but I want to see her dead", posting of personal information, calling her father and telling him his daughter is a whore...
The gamers called on the gaming-industry to disavow her. They refused. "OMG, she's also fucking those guys!"
"OMG, those guys defending her are feminist white-knights licking the boots of their queens."
And she was also somehow singlehandedly responsible for "ruining" a game that was developed to cater to a broader base than hardcore-gamers.
The rage boiled down to two core-sentiments:
1. How dare she?
2. She couldn't possibly have achieved that on her own merits.