“Die alone, old, and let the cat eat your face”: anti-feminist backlash and academic cyber-harassment

ABSTRACT

Anti-feminist backlash has taken on a new form in the past decade with the rise of cyberattacks and the proliferation of Men’s Rights Activist groups, yet scant literature exists on the nature of cyber-harassment against feminist academics. This article uses the authors’ experience of cyber-harassment as a case study to explore the nature of online anti-feminist backlash against academic research. We identify three narrative forms of this backlash, which combines to create a “braided thread” of anti-feminist attacks. The academic setting presents a specific kind of cyber-hate that relies on the notion that progressive, critical researchers are “brainwashing” students. The attacks spread misinformation regarding methodological rigor in an effort to delegitimize and discredit feminist academics. Attackers also rely on tired claims of feminists as man-haters who seek to ruin men’s lives. Finally, anti-feminist backlash often resorts to instances of cyber-hate—ad hominem attacks that objectify women’s bodies and seek to humiliate and shame feminist scholars. These attacks are political and personal in nature, and spread misogynistic, white-supremacist, and heteronormative ideology in a vain attempt to silence feminist scholars.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-feminist backlash
• post-feminism
• social media trolling
• gender politics
• cyber-harassment

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the helpful anonymous reviewers whose feedback strengthened the analysis and clarity of the manuscript. The authors would also like to thank Jesse Donaldson, Kaitlin Schwan, Allyson Marsolais, and Marian Dej who provided significant material and social support to the authors during the cyber-attack in question.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council doctoral scholarship and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

2. For a detailed account of Dej’s methodology and adherence to personal and procedural ethics, see Dej (2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erin Dej

Erin Dej is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Jennifer Kilty

Jennifer M. Kilty is a Full Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.