“Journalist, broadcaster & feminist campaigner against male violence” Julie Bindel tweeted about a harrowing experience she had on a train today:
I am on a train, and have just diagnosed myself with Complex PTSD because a fella has just opened a packet of Cheesy Wotsits. I should be cured by the time I reach Darlington (unless some homophobe reviews this tweet & says it's crap in which case I will be on a Section by York)
— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) March 7, 2022
Apparently she was taking a shot at fellow “journalist, author, feminist” Laurie Penny, who says that they/them/she recently had “a CPTSD-related flashback”:
Last night, I wrote about a recent experience of a CPTSD-related flashback. I’m now getting a lot of harassment about it.
I want to be clear to anyone else who has been through trauma that actually, it’s okay to talk about it, and not everyone out there is a gaslighting wanker.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 7, 2022
She detailed her trauma in this thread:
Hey, I wanted to say, to everyone who reads my work, whether or not you’re a supporter on @substack: thank you for your patience lately while I’ve been getting my head back together.
I’m sorry to say that the misogynist, transphobic media monstering over my book took its toll. >— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
I’m alright now, and well on the way to being back on track, after losing a week to a minor mental health kernel panic when I was already pulling 15-hour days and could least afford to collapse.
It’s silly, but I didn’t expect such a strong reaction. It took me by surprise. >— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
Recommended
If you missed it, the TLDR is that last month, a book I poured my heart and brain into came out. Some transphobes and angry faux-liberals in the British press went on the attack in a coordinated, vicious way that took everyone by surprise and basically destroyed the release. >
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
Wildly hateful reviews and straight-up personal attacks were placed prominently in a number of major broadsheets. The focus was almost wholly on my sexuality, my gender identity and sexual history. Everyone- my agent, my publishers, me- was taken by surprise at the viciousness. >
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
I tried to stay positive. I told everyone it wasn’t a big deal, that I was fine being mocked and slut shamed and misgendered and lied about and defamed in the press by people whose work I grew up reading and who apparently personally despise me to a degree I did not anticipate. >
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
I told myself I’d no right to be upset, that would be letting them win, there were MUCH more important things happening in the world (true) and I am so lucky in so many ways (also true)
And you’re supposed to ignore bullies. You’re supposed to be tough and not let it get to you.>— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
Part of the reason I’m writing this is that after 35 years on this Earth, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that ‘just ignore them’ doesn’t actually work with bullies.
It just makes it a bit more comfortable for everyone else. >— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
Anyway. I did my best stiff upper lip for a few days, buried myself in work like I always do- but then my body inconveniently decided to keep the score.
Apparently after twelve years of relentless trolling, this was the moment my body decided to present a receipt.— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
Suddenly I was: having rolling panic attacks, bone-tired, confused and constantly cold in a way I’ve only experienced before in the immediacy of deep grief. Thought I had COVID. Nope, just CPTSD. I’m truly, honestly much better now- but it was honestly scary for a few days.>
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
I’ve always believed that the measure of resilience is not whether or not things get to you, it’s whether they *stop* you. When this sort of thing happens my usual response has been to double down. I insisted I could meet all my deadlines. In the end I managed to make about 1/2 >
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
> of the deadlines-no, actually, more like 3/4c some of it late. My editors have been sweet about it. I also somehow- I still don’t know how-managed not to miss a single day in the writers-room-I-can’t-talk-about-because-NDAs. In hindsight, I’m slightly impressed with myself. >
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
I know it’s not the done thing to talk about mental health, and the toll it can take being a target of bigotry and harassment. I know that the done thing is to pretend that the bullies don’t getting to you. Because that’s what civility requires.
But frankly, fuck the done thing.— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
Like a lot of people, I’ve never been ‘tough’ in the way that traditionally white, straight, cis, neurotypical, posh,male-dominated industries require of people who aren’t all/any of those things. And that’s okay.
There are more of us than you’d think, and we’re not going away.— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
And nor am I. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just done trying to make bullies behave better. They’re the ones who are weak, feeble and frankly staggeringly unprofessional. Vulnerability is not weakness.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll post this thread shortly. Huge love xxx— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
By the way, I’m not going to post or link to them, but if you’re curious, check out the reviews of my book ‘Sexual Revolution’ in the Observer (!!), the Times and the Critic, for a start. As you can imagine, the unofficial harassment was uglier. Some of it from the same people.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
Apparently it’s considered unprofessional to respond to reviews. But in this case, those involved in the hit-job are the ones who behaved unprofessionally. I’m done pretending otherwise. They knew exactly what they were doing, and frankly they ought to be ashamed of themselves.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
A lot of predictable, boring personal harassment washing in after this thread, I’m sorry to say. I hope they get their needs met somehow.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 6, 2022
For what it’s worth, if it was thoughts and prayers that Julie Bindel was in need of, she got them. From J.K. Rowling, no less!
Thoughts and prayers, Julie.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 7, 2022
No doubt Ms. Rowling also sent her thoughts and prayers to Laurie Penny. After all, if Bindel’s experience was traumatic, just imagine how difficult it’s been for Laurie to keep it together.
Unfortunately, Penny doesn’t seem to appreciate Rowling’s gesture to Bindel:
Hi Joanne. I’ve loved so much of your writing over the years. I’m the person whose mental health history is being mocked in this tweet, along with everyone else who has experienced CPTSD- including a lot of your readers. I hope you don’t think it’s ok to shame people like this.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 7, 2022
I know wrote about your own experience of violence and abuse, and nobody should ever shame or attack you for that. I’m sure it’s hard to feel constantly accountable to so many readers and fans- but I wanted to point out how this might come across.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) March 7, 2022
Laurie Penny is hurting, and here comes J.K. Rowling commenting on a subtweet about her like it’s some kind of joke. The nerve. Doesn’t Ms. Rowling understand the lasting emotional damage she’s inflicting on CPTSD survivors like Penny???
As it turns out, Rowling doesn’t understand it. Because she knows it’s complete BS.
And that’s what she told Penny (with receipts in tow, of course):
Laurie, you’ve been flinging terms like ‘fascist’ and ‘transphobe’ against women who disagree with you for a very long time. I don’t recall you showing the slightest empathy for other women’s trauma while you dismissed their, in my view, reasonable and rational concerns. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/YCv60ogt8x
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 7, 2022
I have the self-awareness to know that however upsetting the death and rape threats your fellow activists throw at me are, there are literally billions of people suffering more than I am. You claim to be suffering PTSD because of *bad book reviews* 2/3
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 7, 2022
Bad reviews are part and parcel of being a writer. If they cause you equivalent trauma to being bombed out of your house or witnessing the murder of loved ones, maybe find a job where dishing it out, but not being able to take it, is a key requirement. 3/3
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 7, 2022
Penny thought she had PTSD before … imagine how traumatized she after that verbal thrashing she just took.
Thank you for your thoughtful, rational, and devastating response to this nonsense.
— blackadderbob101 (@blackadderbob11) March 7, 2022
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