In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

So moustachioed dads are funny and all, but…

Jill

I just can’t really bring myself to find this whole thing very entertaining. An eleven-year-old girl is being harassed on the internet; strangers are calling her a whore and threatening her with rape and assault and all kinds of disgusting things that no eleven-year-old should have to hear about; and her home address, telephone number, real name and other contact information are being given out so that online harassers can “go get her.” But yeah, her dad got mad and he has a funny moustache and an accent that is associated with being low-class, and in his anger he says a few things about the internet that all of us young hip kids know are ridiculous. Because, you know, he was yelling at the people who are threatening to rape his daughter and who have his home address. Who are talking about showing up at his house. Who have sent pizzas and made phone calls and are talking about posting the info on Craig’s List, or at least sending Craig’s List sex workers. While his daughter has a sobbing break-down next to him.

HILARIOUS. NEW MEME. MOUSTACHE!

Seriously, internet, an eleven-year-old girl?

31 thoughts on So moustachioed dads are funny and all, but…

  1. Another round of bullshit from the Chan boards. Seriously–I’d love to see this shit get turned around on them. Or maybe, you know, these asswipes get some legal heat for this. These aren’t just kids pulling this shit–a lot of them are grown and they know better.

    And you have an ED apologist on Gawker saying that she had it coming (though when an adult ED editor was trolled and harassed a few years ago, she freaked right out and ran to Weev, but I guess it’s different for them. . .) Also: the ED wanker started whinging about freedom of speech. Dude– freedom of speech doesn’t mean it’s okay to harass 11-year-old kids. Dipshit.

  2. I watched one of the earlier videos she posted (possibly the one that ended up bringing the collective wrath of 4chan upon her family?), and, uh, yeah – perfectly normal (though not necessarily representative) eleven-year-old. Insecure, overconfident, self-effacing, narcissistic, conventionally rebellious, and willing to use every bit of foul language ever learned in a single grammatically-insensible sentence when her parents aren’t listening… Like looking back into my own past! I weep that she was made an internet target just because she happened to be a normal, semi-horrifying eleven-year-old on YouTube.

  3. The problem is, with all this hype and the reaction this is (deservedly) getting, it is only getting better for /b/. It sucks, but it’s true – the more attention they get, the more people they anger, the more “lulzy” the situation gets.

    I believe this whole situation is horrible for the girl, but her father did the exact wrong thing (as did she) by reacting at all to the trolling. My suggestion is to note how horrible this is, but keep all discussion as emotionless and as uncritical of /b/ as possible – because once they get going, they won’t stop, and there’s a lot more harm /b/ can do to her and everyone associated still. The easiest way to get this to coll down is for her to delete and shut down all Myspace/Facebook accounts (her father should as well), and let this ride itself out, or it will only get worse – and it will start to spill over to supporters.

    That’s the thing about /b/ and trolls – they want reaction. They want as visible as reaction as possible, and they’ll do what it takes to get it. So discuss how horrible the treatment of this girl is, please, because this is NOT how an 11-year-old deserves to be treated for acting her age, but keep it cool, calm, and as emotionless as possible.

  4. Its an ugly place, to be sure, but I think one of the best things that can be done in a situation like this is to not mention the Chans/ED in general (and /b/ in specific). They feed off the publicity, off the sense of importance and power they feel when they get PR as the internet’s big bad guy (they like to describe themselves as “The Final Boss of the Internet,” to give you an idea of the culture). That doesn’t mean the story shouldn’t be talked about, but specifically namechecking them just increases their reach. Every “raid” that gets media attention funnels a few more people into the community, people who were attracted by the brutality and are eager to catch up.

    Its also worth noting that this kind of fallout is the reason these raids happen in the first place. The culture of the Chans is based in boredom and shock. They target an 11 year old girl and they have fun for a few days, but when we start talking about them we show ourselves to be new targets, something to focus on for the next couple of days. When the fallout comes from that, whoever seems to care gets the next wave. Eventually someone starts mentioning the Chans and at some point the older, scarier members of the community get it in their heads that the publicity is a threat to their culture and you run the danger of getting one of the longer-term attacks that advances beyond verbal threats and annoyed pizza delivery guys.

  5. it would be great if we could refrain from using ableist language to disparage the bullies. (“/b/tards”) whether or not it’s what they call themselves, ableist language should be redacted here.

  6. I stopped reading Boing Boing some time ago and I haven’t seen anything that makes me think I should go back.

    I particularly love Xeni’s complete and utter dismissal of anyone having a problem with the story. Because you know, it’s our fault for not thinking it’s hilarious.

  8. The ED guy saying she had it coming? Hello, rape culture. “Just ignore it.” Yeah, that works so well—-if you’re the sort of place that thinks 11-year-olds ask for it.

    Wasn’t ED one of the places that posted under age nudes of Miley Cyrus? When one of their mods was harassed by some other assholes, she went crying to Weev. Guess it’s not that fun getting treated the way they treat everybody else.

  9. @abby jean

    While I understand the reaction, I think classifying the term /b/tard as “ableist” and saying it’s used to “disparage the bullies” shows a gross misunderstanding of 4chan culture. These people use deliberately offensive terms as self-reference — ‘/b/tard’, ‘newfag’, ‘oldfag’, etcetera — along with in-group terms of unity — /b/rother, /b/lackup, and such. I realize that it’s easy to presume that 4channers must be insane and have hatefully reactionary views on sex, gender, sexuality, etcetera. But as I said, this goes along with an odd solidarity. Keep in mind, this is the same website where it can actually be desirable to be a “fag” or a “nigger” or a “trap”. They are not as much of a caricature as they sometimes make themselves out to be.

    The thing is, many 4channers value being an insular, hidden group. To maintain this insularity and privacy even on an open, freely accessible message board, they have put up walls of hateful speech and disturbing materiel. They want to be hated, because being hated allows them to actually form an ‘us’ mentality and have a group. Since many of them want this wall up, 4chan is generally eager to welcome any type of hate speech or insult, though it usually is just as happy to turn it on itself as it is on others.

    Regardless, it’s important, from an anthropological perspective, to understand someone’s own terms and to apply them correctly (an emic account). The kind of people who perform these raids are /b/tards and EDiots. That is the in-group term. It’s root may be in ableist language, but it has taken on a life of it’s own.

  10. Since when is it “perfectly normal” for 11 year olds to threaten to blow people’s brains out?

    And, realistically speaking, why is it acceptable for an obviously behaviorally challenged 11 year old to have a private internet connection and a freaking webcam in her bedroom, where (clearly) nobody is supervising her?! Yes, the attacks on the girl and her family are totally unacceptable by any measure, but letting your kids run around unsupervised on the internet is like letting them hang out at a porn store after school instead of spending the money on a babysitter.

  11. Sure thing, Sheelzebub.

    And, look, the point of this post is not to debate whether certain terms are or aren’t acceptable. We don’t use ableist language on this blog; I’m modding this thread, so I think “/b/tard” qualifies. No more using it, please.

  12. nobody, people have a right to trust their kids. Further, you employ this logic:

    Child has access to internet.
    Child explores internet and self expression.
    Child doesn’t deserve to get death threats and to have her address passed around, but why would her parents give her access to the internet with minimal monitoring??

    Which is replicated in this argument.

    Child has access to internet.
    Child explores internet and self expression.
    Child doesn’t deserve to get assaulted by a child predator, but why would her parents give her access to the internet with minimal monitoring??

    James, 101 site please. Abby understands that it’s used self-referentially, but many times you’ll find someone who is mentally challenged who finds it okay to use the word “retard” self-referentially – but it doesn’t make it less offensive to others who hear it derogatorily. That’s why there has been a redaction request. No one cares about the feelings of the kind of people who get their hahas picking on 11 year old kids on the internet. We’re not showing up in their space and trying to police them. We care about people in this community. Also, your use of “insane” is offensive.

  13. Also, nobody, behaviorally challenged? You could tell all this because she’s angry? You reduced an emotion every person feels and sometimes inappropriately expresses to a diagnosis. Uncalled for.

  14. I see a lot of saying “Oh my God why was does this child have private internet access, if I was her parent yada yada kids can’t be trusted in any circumstance.” Not necessarily just on here, so you know. Please. This is not normal 11-year-old behavior, and most people I know have had computers in their rooms since middle school or early grade school and, while they did do stupid shit, did nothing like this. Either I live in a miraculous bubble of sensibility or people who never dealt with the idea of children having access to internet because it’s a relatively new phenomenon are reacting to it like past phenomena, like those evil video games.

  16. Thank you for talking about this. One of my friends recently made his facebook status “The consequences will NEVER be the same” and I got so mad about it, so I attached a link to this. Hopefully he’ll get the point. I find it so sad that there are people out there who think it’s funny to harass an eleven year-old. Honestly.
    When I was eleven (this will make me sound so old, but oh well), the internet was not what it is now, and so I couldn’t have gotten into this kind of trouble then, but I do remember when I was about thirteen cyber bullying one of my friends, and I still feel terrible about it now. When my mother found out, because she did try to supervise my internet travels, she grounded me for at least a month. I’d never been in so much trouble. And what I did was wrong and I’m glad I didn’t get away with it. But I know what I did online, I never could have done in person. There’s something about the internet’s anonymity, or maybe it’s something else, that makes people willing to do things they wouldn’t do otherwise. It’s like drinking, I suppose. People need to realize that the people they’re tearing apart online really exist, and then I don’t think things like this will happen anymore. Or maybe they will anyway because some people are just that nasty.

  17. Wow way to go Xeni Jardin and Boing Boing. HURF DURF LOL ANGRY PEOPLE trying to protect their kids from rape threats are just hilarious. I guess the issue just wasn’t as important as DRM.

  18. Um, what? Why did the word “deserve” even enter this conversation? She is 11. She is eleven years old. Also, no woman or girl in this world is able to do anything that would make a rape threat “deserved”. There’s just no way. In no possible scenario is the rape threat “deserved”.

    Actually, the word does have its uses. I mean, I do have some very specific ideas about just what should be done to those pampered mimbo 4chan cowards, things that they indeed do “deserve”…

  19. Isn’t issuing death threats and harassing others online or IRL criminal offenses that should be investigated and prosecuted by the authorities?? Considering the degree of this, why hasn’t anyone been hauled in for questioning and/or arrested for this?

    most people I know have had computers in their rooms since middle school or early grade school

    This is similar to the conversations about kids having TVs in their own rooms back in the 1980’s/early ’90s and from the perspective of working-class and immigrant or visitors from foreign countries…a sign of high socio-economic privilege/indulgence until very recently as TVs and computers were considered very expensive items until the middle part of this decade.

    I also recalled a lot of those in the latter groupings wondering how parents could allow children as old as 16 to have a tv/computer in their own room as that provides a greater possibility of distraction from doing their homework, chores, or other “must-do” tasks. In their cases, they usually kept the TV, computers, and video gaming consoles out in the living room where they can exercise greater supervision and control over use when needed to ensure the homework, chores, and other “must-do tasks were finished first.

    Disclosure: My family always had the TV in the living room and when we first got a computer during the middle of high school years, that was kept in the living room not only to ensure I wasn’t spending all my time playing computer games/goofing off, but also so other family members could use it as needed….though homework received the highest priority.

  20. I don’t agree with but I understand people’s arguments that parents should monitor their kids but the fact of the matter is she’s an eleven year old girl and she’s expressing herself in a model that is common for many girls her age who have the same privilege. I mean, she is the victim of an advanced cyberbullying group and most parents wouldn’t be aware of this happening unless they were super knowledgable about the cyber community anyway so maybe they would have been monitoring her language at the most but why would they think her being on a website of other teens her age was inherently a bad thing?

  21. everyone needs to understand this: once places like 4ch get wind of your existence, nothing you could ever do would stop the escalating harassment.

    they will use whatever happens to escalate things in different directions: whether you react or don’t react, how you react, what you say or do. if you’re polite, demure or if you’re arrogant and angry, that will become what you “did wrong” to invite their harassment. because you don’t have to feed thse kinds of groups. they feed themselves on whatever is available to them.

    don’t sit here and tell me that this 11-year-old girl or her father or anyone else did anything wrong except to fucking exist. if you avail yourselves to these groups, they will devour you. if not, they will devour whatever else they can find. you could become their target without even knowing they fucking exist. and once you are a target, there’s nothing you can do to stop it except to fucking die. even then, their harassment would still continue, you just wouldn’t be aware of it.

    the fact that people can put this all down to “well they reacted wrong” makes me fucking sick. well, the whole thing makes me sick, but seriously, people? ugh. i can’t believe the ugly shit that comes out when something like this happens. you find out fast what sort of ugliness is lurking in the people you thought were trustworthy.

  23. Isn’t issuing death threats and harassing others online or IRL criminal offenses that should be investigated and prosecuted by the authorities?? Considering the degree of this, why hasn’t anyone been hauled in for questioning and/or arrested for this?

    what are the police going to do? this is 4chan we’re talking about. virtually all of the actionable internet harassment was likely routed through tor or a browser proxy. even the phone calls probably came from throwaway skype numbers further anonymized through proxies. some of the more experienced offenders are almost sure to have gone through unsecured wireless networks. the attacks came from across state lines and, in some cases probably across national borders. the planning and coordination happened in unlogged IRC rooms and on threads that simply don’t exist anymore after a few hours.

    thats one of the things so few people really get about 4chan. some people think of them as the internet’s plucky antihero some people like to see them as an example of all that is bad about the web some people like to laugh at them and call them pathetic but that really kind of misses what 4chan has become. they churn out cute cat macros and originate memes on the internet but they’re also a really good example of why the internet is a scary place and how our laws haven’t caught up. they’ve hounded people to the point of suicide more than once they’ve cheerlead people killing themselves on webcams they’ve gotten people arrested and at every step they’ve gotten away with it because they’re experienced. put 100 people on it and you can get most of someone’s vital information in an hour. if you’ve got the right directions virtually anyone can take over a facebook account inside of 20 minutes with no real computer skills. anonymizing software good enough to foil most local authorities and completely circumvent any attempt at banning people is freely available on the internet and requires only the most basic of skills to use. the website itself is designed so that idle threads get deleted and rapidly overwritten with no real hope of recovery. popular threads are short-lived and have a maximum life span of maybe a few hours before they disappear forever. anonymity is structurally encouraged and culturally enforced. at goes on and on. 4chan is a community of people who have developed those kinds of knowledges and skills and have devoted themselves to seeing how far they can push things just because they can.

    the really scary part is that in the scheme of things this girl isn’t unusual. she isn’t an extreme case. shes common. the only reason this as opposed to the dozens of people who experience the same thing each week is even on your radar is because her father responded in a way that entertained the channers. we know about her because they bragged. this whole thing started because someone at her school started a rumor that she had had sex with the lead singer of a band she likes. that singer is now the target for the next “raid” and 4chan has already begun trying to get him arrested for statutory rape.

  24. @anon So what you are suggesting is that a community that flourishes in a culture of fear, intimidation, and harassment without consequences should be met with silence, fear, and dread when they attack an 11-year-old girl?

  25. I don’t think AnonThisTime was suggesting this so much as they were answering another person’s question about why no one’s been “hauled in for questioning and/or arrested” over the incident.

  26. So what you are suggesting is that a community that flourishes in a culture of fear, intimidation, and harassment without consequences should be met with silence, fear, and dread when they attack an 11-year-old girl?

    …not really. i was more suggesting that the normal kinds of consequences don’t really work in this situation. even if by chance you manage to get the authorities interested there just isn’t much they can do.

    say you want to prosecute someone who threatened this child who was using the name “Smith123.” “Smith123” has an ip address. the police look for the owner of that ip address and find someone operating a Tor exit node. now the police run into a problem. that node isn’t in their jurisdiction, theres a good chance it isn’t even in the US. even if it is running a node isn’t illegal and the operator isn’t responsible because they don’t know what is going over the network they only relay traffic and only know the next link back in the line. now try to trace that back through four or five different links across jurisdictions and in different countries. even if the police are incredibly lucky and manage to track “Smith123” back to their originating IP address they deadend if that IP address is someone’s unsecured or under secured network. they deadend if “Smith123” used a bridge. they deadend if “Smith123” was using another proxy. now reproduce that process hundreds or thousands of times.

  27. It’s easy to say things like “why isn’t the father doing this, what are the parents thinking,and why are people so mean” etc but I don’t think that it’s productive any longer. We see examples in the news every day lately of how callous so many people have become (including our politicians). Mean has just become a part of our culture and I sure wish I knew why.

  28. I don’t understand what the argument about the parents has to do with the threats themselves. Even if this was a case of severe neglect by the parents, surely children with bad parents are just as entitled to protection from threats of rape as children with good parents.

  29. While I completely agree that the mean ol’ internet has definitely gone overboard in their harassment of this girl, I’m almost more disturbed by the number of people asserting that this is “normal 11 year old girl behavior.” I’m by no means defending those who threatened her and invaded her privacy, but I’d hope that a large amount of our anger SHOULD be going to her parents or the culture that “normalizes” her behavior, not shrugging it off BECAUSE it has so regrettably become normalized or expressing annoyance at the classist reaction to the father’s horrible and inappropriate tirade. No 11 year old should be exuding that level of narcissism, no 11 year old should know about “fisting” or “beastiality,” should have either such little parental involvement or worse, parental involvement that condones her internet presence and behavior, no 11 year old should have an internet profile that cites how much she likes to “fuck til she bleeds.”

    4chan and all the trolls making fun of her across the internet are doing exactly what they always do. It should be assumed by the intelligent and logical adults on this board that inappropriate humor at other’s expense runs rampant in these forums. Nothing 4chan has done surprised me. This girl and her videos surprised, shocked, and saddened me. In my opinion, it’s incredibly counterproductive to ignore (and go so far as to defend) the glaring atrocities of our culture and the children being raised in it that these videos represent in favor of trying to make the internet trolls nicer and more pc.

  30. Having been an 11-year-old who knew about some pretty extreme and occasionally repulsive things and who dealt with them the way many (not all) 11-year-olds do (by being immature about it), I don’t think I stood much to gain by being pathologized as deviant, abnormal, or disturbed simply for knowing about those things and behaving immaturely about them. It’s not like I would have been magically prepared to be super mature about things in my twenties if I hadn’t learned how to deal with some of them in my teens. That was kind of part of the maturation process. And, yeah, it’s a bumpy ride.

  31. anon for this: that’s the mystique 4chan would like to spread. Truth is, its members have a really short attention span. As soon as enough of them get bored, they’re off to the next target. Expect them to target the media reporting this shortly.

    prairielily: that’s the other thing that gets missed. 4chan has a really, really disturbing and sick kind of morality that drives their actions. The attacks on this blog and many others started when they came to the defense of a previous target, a feminist forum in which one of the posters said she wished her son had been aborted because he looked at porn and the other forum members supported her. This incident covers a whole bunch of common 4chan pet hates, including Internet Tough Guys. (Both Jessi Slaughter [not her real name] and her dad are Internet Tough Guys.) Their reasons in no way resemble reasonable, but they always exist. Harming a cat and posting a video of it will reliably anger them, for example.

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