Why women need anonymity online

With GC Coming Out Day ahead, remember that some can't afford to come out

Our plans for GC Coming Out Day notwithstanding, many women are simply unable to come out online because of a whole host of factors. From a typically astute thread from @ascapigliata8.

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I hate that I have to say this again, but being anonymous on twitter doesn't mean we are anonymous in real life - with regards to our activism - or that what we are writing under pseudonyms is invalidated and irrelevant. I'm upset every time I see a man triumphantly declare this.

Because men should know by now how viciously women are targeted by men online and in real life - with death and rape threats as well as deplatforming and pressure on employers to fire us. Look at the names of people who have had to publicly fight against this:

Kathleen Stock, Maya Forstater, JK Rowling, Keira Bell, Sonia Appleby, Allison Bailey, Jo Phoenix, Raquel Rosario Sanches, Julie Bindel, Jess Taylor and more. The only men I can think of that have been monstered are Graham Linehan and James Esses - and no rape threats.

As for me, my work has been shared by countless people, grassroots, medical, politicians, journalists and more. I have spoken to many colleagues who said that my work helped them understand what was going on and fight this ideology. All these people know who I am in real life..

I know for a fact this is true for vast majority of women who campaign against this online. We share our work selflessly, for no reward, we work tirelessly. The only thing we deny is our would-be male persecutors an easy access to our personal details online.

This is why your insults and devaluation of our work based purely on the fact that you can't locate us in real life say more about you and your intentions than about our work. You know how much you are hurting us by implying we and years of our research and effort are worthless.

Some of us are just biding our time until we go public. Others, like me, have decided that even if we wanted to, we can't go public. I have written a memoir about misogyny in medicine which I hope to publish soon, and I cannot go public and maintain anonymity of all involved.

I bet men like you would love to either stop me from publishing my account or force me into an abusive situation under my own name, to make me pay for the sin of drawing attention to male violence against women. This is what so many of you do and women see you.

I bet men like you would love to either stop me from publishing my account or force me into an abusive situation under my own name, to make me pay for the sin of drawing attention to male violence against women. This is what so many of you do and women see you.

Women have no protection from men like you. If you don't lay a hand on us (and often even if you do) the police and law are disinterested in punishing you, while we are punished for tweeting pictures of suffragette ribbons and stating that sex is real. Don't pretend to not see it.