An
Australian woman who has received multiple online rape threats from
teenage boys has taken action against her abusers by tracking down their
mothers and showing them the offensive and often violent messages that
the youngsters sent her.
Alanah
Pearce, a gaming journalist from Brisbane, has thus far received just
one reply from the four messages that she sent and admits that the woman
responded 'in almost exactly the way' she wanted her to.
'She responded in almost exactly the way I wanted her to,' she told the Guardian. 'The fact she called him a little s**t I found funny as well because I thought that but I wasn't going to say anything.'
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Fighting back: Alanah Pearce told the
Guardian that she hopes her abusers' mothers will teach them that being
abusive or sexist towards women is wrong
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Sending a
clear message: Only one of the four mothers than Alanah contacted has
responded - and was understandably horrified to learn about the messages
her son had sent
The
21-year-old posted the full response on Twitter, where she has received
an overwhelming amount of support from both men and women, many of whom
have congratulated her on tackling the issue in such a hands-on way.
'I
wasn’t going to post it on Twitter [either] but I was just so excited,'
she added. 'And I thought some of my friends would find it amusing.'
So
far, the image, which is accompanied by the explanation, 'Sometimes
young boys on Facebook send me rape threats, so I've started telling
their mothers' has been retweeted more than 19,000 times and has been
favorited by 32,000 people.
Ms Pearce, who reviews video games for radio stations 4ZZZ and Triple J, as well as creating content for her own YouTube
channel, hopes that her actions will 'productively' teach the young
boys that there is never a valid reason to be sexist or abusive, and
that the internet should not be used as a forum for such harmful
sentiments.
Social media support: The 21-year-old has received an overwhelming amount of support on Twitter
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YouTube star: The video game reviewer has her own YouTube channel and also works for two different Australian radio stations
It is not the first time that the YouTuber has attempted to tackle online sexism.
Last year, Ms Pearce penned a piece for gaming site Kotaku,
entitled '30 Days of Sexism' in which she listed some of the most
offensive and sexist comments that were made about her videos.
'From March 7 – April 7, I documented everything blatantly sexist anyone has said to me,' she wrote.
'None
of these comments were provoked, none of them were replies to something
I said, none of them were at all out of the ordinary...
'This is a 10-picture indication of what it’s like to be a woman who endorses game culture, every single month.'
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