Since the bots are flooding in I want to make a little post for the minors on here. Please remember when you see them that these are not targeting you personally, they're nothing, they're vapor, words a pathetic, angry coward spat out and then scattershot into the universe because they feel too helpless to do anything meaningful with their life. But what is real are the other women on here, the living, breathing adults here who care about you, yes you as an individual, who want you to be protected and supported, who are working to create a world that's safer for you to live in. We are real. Our words come from love, not hatred. They weren't blindly shot at you from a bot created to spread misery, they were thought of in our flesh-and-blood brains and typed with our flesh-and-blood fingers for you. We're real, and we care about you and we're here for you.
All that said, it is also okay to be distressed, upset, angry, whatever about having this shit flood your notifications. You are not silly or oversensitive for feeling offended or hurt or guilty, or for having these words trigger doubt in yourself and in your beliefs. That's what they're for. They're designed to make you feel as bad as possible, and you're not bad or wrong or stupid for feeling bad! I would argue that they are designed very specifically to make young, vulnerable people feel as bad as possible. Most of us who are older can cope with receiving threats and insults a little bit easier, we've often been called similar things before and have already had our "they don't know anything about me, I know who I am" moment. We have more confidence in our beliefs, less insecurity, more strength in our identity and a stronger sense of who we are, our emotional reactivity and its intensity has usually leveled out a little or we've figured out healthier ways of coping with it. Our most horrific traumas aren't as fresh or we've had time to at least partially heal from them. All of these things make it a bit easier to brush this kind of thing off and move on, but these are things most teenagers don't get to have because they come with time and experience.
I'm certain the author of these bots is well aware of the fact that those of us who are older will likely be impacted less, and the younger and more mentally ill/traumatized/prone to neurotic thinking we are the more likely these bots will cause us distress. I'm just speculating, but I can't help but wonder if frightening young, traumatized girls away from the movement isn't the whole point. It is not lost on me that an overwhelming amount of the bot reblogs center around pedophilia, something many, many young girls have been profoundly hurt by and haven't yet had the time and opportunity to heal from whatsoever. They may even still be in physical proximity to the perpetrators. It's natural to be extremely alarmed at being accused of participating something that has hurt you so badly. Please try to remember that while these are ultimately empty words, it's also normal for you to have strong and complicated emotional reactions to them. Please be kind and understanding to yourself.
And I'm so, so sorry. It's not fair that you have to experience this kind of vile harassment just for speaking your mind or existing in this space. It's not fair that @staff isn't protecting you from this. It's not fair that you have to feel these painful feelings just because some maladjusted adult refuses to work out their shit in therapy. It isn't fair, and it isn't okay, and you have every right to be angry.