We would have thought that not being Jeremy Clarkson would be advantageous these days, but it’s such a crime that The Great British Bake Off’s Sue Perkins has been sent death threats. Seriously.
Following Jeremy’s sacking from Top Gear, a bookmakers put odds on someone to replace him. Instead of suggesting a boring middle-aged bloke for the job, they put Sue Perkins at evens to get the role.
Then, because Sue Perkins presents another of the BBC’s most-watched shows, and since she was the bookies’ favourite, there was a lot of chatter about her. Some were excited, Photoshopping her onto Top Gear posters and joking she’d be worth the BBC licence fee, but others weren’t happy at the prospect of Sue nattering about their beloved broom-broom fast cars.
Then followed the sort of Twitter trolling sadly too recognisable to any woman who gains a bit too much attention – for whatever reason – online. The end result? Someone told her to ‘burn to death’.
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She tweeted this morning, reports the BBC: ‘guys, post the utterly fabricated story about me & Top Gear, my timeline has been full of blokes wishing me dead…
‘This morning, someone suggested they’d like to see me burn to death.’
‘All of which goes to say that I am off Twitter for a bit. Love and peace x’
Now, we can’t see much trolling any more because in a sort of majestic way, Sue’s @-feed is brimming with well-wishers saying stuff like: ‘Stay strong Sue x be back soon :)’ but there are a few comments around to make us wonder why a whole bunch of post-pubescent men are getting their boxers in a twist about a show following three men flirting with each other over the bonnet of a Bugatti Veyron.
Hopefully, Sue’s felt supported enough to report this to relevant authorities and they can take action against the trolls. If high-profile women like her are victim to death threats because of some random company’s guess about something that might or might not happen, then what hope is there for the rest of us?
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Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.