Sometimes I think people forget how the internet works. It’s not like a physical space where someone can follow you around and pester you with insults.
Our personal little corners aren’t open to the public, aren’t required to welcome everyone regardless.
And yet.
Frequently you come across the types who get indignant when you don’t want to engage. As a woman, this is not new to me. The utter sense of entitlement they have to attack or berate me with the firm belief that I am obligated to listen.
In public, women do this because we are calculating our risk. It’s not “respect.” It’s not that person’s right or their due. We just want to get out of the situation intact and unharmed.
But.
Virtual spaces don’t carry that physical danger, and there are tools to make these men–inevitably they are men–disappear.
Poof.
It turns out I had one such man, though I didn’t know it. Incensed I had blocked him on twitter, he came here to berate me. Left an email address and everything.
To berate me.
But even WordPress seemed to know he didn’t deserve a platform on my platform; there it sat pending approval for weeks without my even knowing it was there.
Imagine that.
That angry, angry fly beating his wings against the screen, and here I was, oblivious, admiring the view.
The world has changed, and the bullies don’t like it. The rest of us are tickled. Let them writhe in their frustration, let them seethe.
It has nothing to do with us.
Have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend.
A Bit to Read 
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