Warning: Trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence.
Every moment of every day, now that the internet has been invented and billions of people utilize it relentlessly, there will always be someone attacking another individual through the written word. Unfortunate as it may be, the reality is that people are prone to type incredibly harsh statements to others online (particularly if they are strangers) because the anonymity offers users a false sense of bravado.
The point Just Not Sports seeks to make is that if people were standing in front of each other, they’d re-think the statements they make to those they might disagree with. The video below drives home this point.
In the footage that follows, two prominent female sportswriters, Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro, sit in front of ordinary men who read some of the vile online comments the women have received. The men are volunteers who did not write the comments but were willing to speak them out loud.
At the beginning, the experiment feels like a joke. But then, the atmosphere quickly devolves as the men read statements like, “I hope you get raped again” and “One of the players should beat you to death with their hockey stick.” As Upworthy points out, these women don’t offer opinions on the outcomes of sporting events, they simply report as are instructed to do. Nonetheless, they’ve each received their share of horrendous comments and, in the case of DiCaro, death threats. Try watching the entire video without pausing it or gasping due to disbelief…
The takeaway? If you wouldn’t say it to her – or anybody else’s face, don’t’ type it.
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