Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 11:57:24 -0500
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [WSFA] =?windows-1252?Q?ROTFL=3AThe_gaming_journalist_who_tells? =?windows-1252?Q?_on_her_internet_trolls_=96_to_their_mo? =?windows-1252?Q?thers?=
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Excerpt:
Those who wonder if women gaming journalists are still subject to sexist
name-calling and threats of physical and sexual violence need only talk to
21-year old media and communications student Alanah Pearce.

When she\222s not studying, Pearce is a video games journalist, reviewing for
Australian radio stations (4ZZZ, Triple J) and television. She also has her
own YouTube channel, which she believes may have been the prompt for a recent
flurry of online abuse.

\223A while ago, I realised that a lot of the people who send disgusting or
overly sexual comments to me over the internet aren\222t adult males,\224 said
Pearce from her company\222s Brisbane base.

The journalist had assumed her abusers were middle-aged men. \223It turns out
that mostly they\222re young boys and the problem is they don\222t know any better,
so responding to them rationally didn\222t resolve the situation. And it got to
the point where their comments were starting to make me feel really
uncomfortable.\224

When Pearce sat down to figure out the best way to resolve the situation, she
concluded she was best off contacting the boys\222 mothers directly, \223especially
as most of them write to me through their personal Facebook pages. It\222s
shockingly easy to find out who their families are.\224

She wrote to four women and told them what their sons were up to. Eventually,
one of them got back to her.

\223She responded in almost exactly the way I wanted her to,\224 says Pearce with a
laugh. \223The fact she called him a little shit I found funny as well because I
thought that but I wasn\222t going to say anything.\224
--- end excerpt ---

<http://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2014/nov/28/alanah-pearce-tells-on-her-internet-trolls-to-their-mothers>

mark