When Nigel Farage stepped down as the leader of UKIP on Monday, celebrities starting to speak up. One of our favourite responses came from actor Christoph Waltz called Farage the ‘head rat’ on Sky News.
Singer Charlotte Church, who has been a vocal critic of the government's austerity measures, also got involved, tweeting:
And obviously, because she's a woman, and not Christoph Waltz, the standard response was to ask if it was her ‘time of the month,’ or compare her to a toddler having a tantrum (at best). Because heaven forbid a 30-year-old women who is obviously quite passionate about the future of the country comments on issues that affect her.
And she's not alone. when writer and filmmaker, Billie JD Porter, tweeted:
She received replies that included: ‘who are you you half dressed person,’ and ‘shut up you no neck.’
If we compare that to the response Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow got after basically saying the same thing thing, you'll see that not everyone agrees with him, most people are engaging in a debate around the subject - and he's certainly not subject to the same sort of abuse Charlotte has been getting.
Twitter have made is clear that they haven’t got Twitter trolling under control, with the CEO taking personal responsibility for the platforms problems with harassment and abuse. And with studies showing that 88%of abuse social media mentions come from Twitter. It’s not surprising that during this weird Brexistential time abuse is going to be a serious issue.
And I can't believe I even have to say this because it's 2016, but being a woman rubustly sharing our views on Twitter (i.e. getting a bit sweary) does not mean we’ve ‘got our knickers in a twist' (that was from another tweet that was kindly directed to Charlotte). Nor is it an excuse to bring it out the trolls.
As it happens, she later on tweeted that she perhaps shouldn’t have called Farage names, but just because you don't like the F Bomb, doesn’t mean she should receive threats so horrifying she has to call the police. Things are stressful enough without adding sexist trolling into the mix, right?
And let's not f0rget the halcyon days of last week, when Euan McGregor called Boris Johnson a c$&t. #Lad.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.