Internet Stalking Is Real

Jill at Feministe has experienced online harrassment from members of AutoAdmit.com.

This article in the Washington Post and this post by Ann Althouse, both of which are about students on law school message boards posting pictures and nasty comments about female classmates, struck a nerve — because I’m one of the women they’re talking about, and my pictures have been posted on their site.

The WaPo article is about AutoAdmit, a law-school-oriented message board that is, essentially, a massive toilet of racism and sexism (not linking to the site — google if you’re interested). I’ve written about AutoAdmit before, when I found out that they were posting numerous pictures of me, making comments about raping and hate-fucking me, and debating whether or not I was fuckable or a stupid fat bitch. I’m hardly the only person they’ve gone after. While many of the threads on the message board are about law-school-related issues, they’re mostly obnoxious in some way or another. There’s an obsession with “prestige,” and commenters regularly disparage lower-tier schools, and use the term “TTT” to denote anything they consider not good enough.

The Ann Althouse post is the usual stupidity I have come to expect from her.

Too beautiful to appear in public? Too hot to be hired? Come on! What rational employer would deny you a job because idiots chatted about you on line in a way that made if obvious that the only thing you did was look good?

It goes further than that. I got permission from Jill to blog this. She has been stalked online.

Wants to learn about girl, but is social outcast, so have to stalk her on internet.

That is not what a young woman wants to see published about her on the internet. Althouse has a history of going after attractive young female bloggers. Case in point is the Clinton photo-op where Althouse took a mean-spirited swipe at Jessica. The irony is Althouse takes great offense when someone disagrees with her.

ADDED: Lindsay Beyerstein is more upset than I am about the fact that there is a lot of loose talk about people on the internet -- though presumably not about the dumb, loose talk about me on her own site. She fails to reveal what repressive remedies she has in mind to keep the internet from chattering. But I hope she'll at least do that "more speech" thing and condemn that blog where they impersonate me all the time -- or does she think I deserve it?

Let me get this straight. Althouse can make uncivil remarks about another woman's breasts and laugh off the concerns of women having sexist comments about them posted on the internet. But God forbid someone use their first amendment right to disagree with her. Thou does protest too much!

We have heard plenty of internet horror stories of people getting stalked. The issue must be dealt with seriously so women and children are secure. While not infringing on free speech. I have no idea how that will be done. I am certain it won't be the Ann Althouse remedy of laughing off everyone's privacy except her own.