Wow. Nearly 3000 replies because one woman voices her opinion that we shouldn’t be at a point anymore where we just accept media that normalizes patriarchy. Cool cool cool. Everyone’s having a normal one I see.

Most mass media overwhelmingly centers men, and perpetuates patriarchy. The #Mandalorian is no exception. It wastes no time in establishing a patriarchal setting: the bartender is a man, the bar patrons are men, the cab driver is a man, etc. The first “female” we meet is the ship

It may introduce a few significant female characters later on. Great. It doesn’t change the fact it perpetuates and normalizes patriarchy. We all accept patriarchy in our mass media without batting an eye. When someone calls it out, we get upset. I wonder why.

Last night I tweeted. In that tweet I a) made a typo and b) was distraught that there are no female speaking parts in the first episode of #Mandalorian . I was wrong and forgot that there was ONE scene, with ONE woman speaking (LOL). Which I clarified at the end of chain.

and yet

This morning I woke up to 2.7 thousand replies (and they are still coming in). These replies are a mish-mash of "no one cares" "you're pathetic" "leave our precious toys alone" "relax" "good! women are dumb" etc etc etc

This is nothing particularly new but...

it does offer us a moment to reflect on how online harassment is much more than sensational headlines about death and rape threats. It can also be aggressive dogpiles of thousands of voices desperately trying to silence feminist and progressive perspectives.

Now imagine this every single time you tweet or several times a month for years on end.

Now you might be thinking that the left dogpiles too and how is this different? Maybe you think I'm just mad because it's against my particular perspective.

Allowing space to voice dissenting opinions is important but there is a big difference between calling out oppressive and regressive ideologies and defending the status quo to the degree that it actively works to dehumanize the most vulnerable people in our society.

tl;dr: online harassment isn't just threats, it's never being given the benefit of the doubt because you are a woman. It's never being able to make a typo or small mistake. It's having 3000 people actively try to silence you because you have an opinion about a beloved TV show.