
Advertisement
It seemed like a good idea at the time (though some criticism seems eerily prescient today). Newsnight picked up the story, and some even suggested that Twitter should adopt the technology itself. Which makes it all the more remarkable that Caroline Criado-Perez is on the block list. Helen Lewis, a journalist and editor, has done more than most to highlight the abuse of women online – she too is on the block list. And – as of this week – so am I. What the fuck is happening?Trying to find the reason for my block was like negotiating a sort of weird, passive-aggressive minefield. The site provides a Twitter account, “@TrollOrNot”, which you can tweet a user name at to find out if they’re a troll. I asked if I was a troll. The account responded with "lel", which a teenager told me means "lol", and a link to Carly Simon’s 1972 hit, "You’re So Vain", described by Wikipedia as a “critical profile of a self-absorbed lover”.Clearly some sort of message was being conveyed here. If only I could figure out what it was.
Eventually I was engaged on the matter by Billingham himself, @oolon to his followers, who informed me that I’d been blocked for “trivialising a serious discussion”. He also pointed me to a Storify account maintained by the bot’s handlers, in which abusive tweets resulting in blocks were recorded. Finally, I could see what all the fuss was about!@mjrobbins lel https://t.co/P8OFnNw531
— Is a Troll or Not? (@TrollOrNot) August 6, 2014
Advertisement
Now, I’m prepared to accept that this isn’t the funniest joke in the world. I was in a café in Dymchurch having some breakfast. The waitress handed me a can of coke with "sis" on it. "Sis" sounds a bit like "cis", as in cisgender. And if that’s not instantly hilarious to you, maybe a detailed explanation of the context to the joke will help. I find jokes often work best when they have to be explained at length."Cis" is an academic term describing, in the words of Zoe Robinson, “a person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth”. Trans activists have adopted it as a label for non-trans people as a framework on which to hang ideas like cis-privilege, described pretty well in Zoe’s post. Some other feminists rail against it, on the basis that gender is a cultural construct, and they reject the assumption that they’re comfortable with the gender roles assigned to them based on their biology at birth. Personally, I’m sympathetic to both positions, and if you’re interested, it’s well worth reading more.Disappointed to see Coca Cola wading into the feminism war & imposing labels on me. #cisphobia #canyourprivilege pic.twitter.com/0uR1wTLJ8E
— Martin Robbins (@mjrobbins) August 4, 2014
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement