When men lash out
gender-based digital hate
Image description: a man’s reply to me on X (Twitter) after I commend Jagmeet Singh for calling out bullying. “Hey Amanda, is it true you do online sex shows? How do I sign up? /Replying to at KikiFolle: “Amanda Earl - you are the biggest hater and bully in vispo.”
When Judith: Women Making Poetry was published and it provided evidence of the ongoing erasure, exclusion and tokenism of women in visual poetry, I received several scolding messages and e-mails from men. When I withdrew work from an all-male small press, I was told by the main editor that he would never publish my work again. And when I was involved in a panel on small press, the men sent e-mails behind the moderators back, ridiculing her and making a plan of how they would handle certain topics. A well-meaning friend bcc’d me. When a UK publisher denied his white privilege and i called him out on it, he called me a bully, and I said that yes, I’m an anti-racist bully. I now include that term on various social media profiles.
During the making of Judith, I had several conversations with women about their experiences with bullying, harassments and erasure. Their words, their stories made me more determined than ever to support and champion women and non-binary creators and to call out misogyny, racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and anti-trans rhetoric.
I continue to speak up against erasure of women, particularly in visual poetry. In my curatorial and creative practices I affirm and support women and non-binary creators, especially D/deaf and disabled artists, BIPOC and queer artists.
When I see examples of lack of inclusion, I point it out. Recently when a male visual poet wrote an article that had a pile of the usual men and only two women, I pointed it out. In response to a tweet of mine today in which I commended New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh for standing up to a bully who yelled out at him on Parliament Hill, I received the above responses from this visual poet.
Note that he talks about sex. This is a common form of shaming and intimidation by men who want to shut women up or make women feel bad. I have been openly and consensually kinky for years, so this doesn’t phase me. I think he’s right in some ways, I am a bully in that I call out those who continue to exclude and erase marginialized groups.