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Markos’ Tiny Penis
By Jeff Fecke | April 12, 2007
Wege is right, this is possibly the dumbest thing Markos has ever written. And he’s had some doozies. The death threats that Kathy Sierra faced were startling in their rampant misogyny and hatred. This wasn’t Markos getting a “liberals will die of AIDS” post, or Swiftee telling me to kill myself.
But when it was my turn, somebody crossed a line. They posted a photo of a noose next to my head, and one of their members (posting as “Joey”) commented “the only thing Kathy has to offer me is that noose in her neck size.” My first reaction–and probably yours–is to think, “Of course he doesn’t actually mean it.” But the “funny” thing about crossing the line from criticism to suggestion of death is that your mind starts to wander: * The guy who wrote this is anonymous (to me… I’m sure the people behind the site know exactly who made that comment and who posted the photo). I have no way of knowing just how disturbed he might be. * Normally sane adults don’t cross that line, especially when they know they’re breaking federal law. * The (apparently) same person made several sexual comments about me as well… for example, analyzing my “Canyon of Pain” graphic and turning it into a metaphor for what I want sexually (you can imagine). Noose. Sex. Hatred. Misogyny. Willing to commit a federal crime. Anonymity. I started to slide down a very bad path (and I’m showing you only a snippet of what was actually posted and sent to me)…
The online blog integrity crud is pointless and vapid, and I’m not signing onto it, because the people who hated on Kathy Sierra won’t be dissuaded from hate by it, and the rest of us who are human don’t need a code of conduct to tell us it’s not nice to demean and threaten, targeting women specifically because they’re women.
So I’ll agree with Wege. “Markos Moulitsas has a very tiny, shriveled, disease-ridden penis.” That’s the tenor and target of the hatred Kathy Sierra put up with. And Markos is way off in pooh-poohing the very real vitriol she and so many other female bloggers have had to face.
UPDATE: zuzu’s noticed this too.
UPDATE II: As has Jessica.
Topics: Blog Navel-Gazing, Feminism | 3 Comments »
April 12th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
The online blog integrity crud is pointless and vapid, and I’m not signing onto it, because the people who hated on Kathy Sierra won’t be dissuaded from hate by it, and the rest of us who are human don’t need a code of conduct to tell us it’s not nice to demean and threaten, targeting women specifically because they’re women.
So I’ll agree with Wege. “Markos Moulitsas has a very tiny, shriveled, disease-ridden penis.” That’s the tenor and target of the hatred Kathy Sierra put up with. And Markos is way off in pooh-poohing the very real vitriol she and so many other female bloggers have had to face.
word.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
What Sierra put up with was more along the lines of “Markos Moulitsas has a very tiny, shriveled, disease-ridden penis and I want to cut it off of him. Do you like my photoshopped image of Markos without his shriveled penis? Here’s some of my slashfic about how exactly I think one could best go about cutting off Markos’ very tiny, shriveled, disease-riddled penis.”
Yeah, that’s a start at least.