Content Warning: Sexual Harassment
During my time as an undergraduate Journalism major, I have had to make three public Twitter accounts for my degree.
It always seems like a harmless request–so much so that multiple majors have started employing it. Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, and several other majors are trying to expose students to their career fields by engaging them in social media while they are still students. And there’s no question social media skills are necessary to work in our modern era, so the idea of introducing students to these platforms while they are still in school makes sense. It even seems advantageous.
I thought so too, until the first message came.
I remember reading the username, Jerry with a series of random numbers tacked onto the end, and mentally skimming through the individuals I knew to see if I could identify the person. No one came to mind. It also seemed odd to have a reply from an anonymous egg account on a tweet for a class that was simply “Check out BU Late Night” with a series of hashtags relevant to the organization I was working with.
So I opened the tweet. “i wouldn’t mind seeing u later tonight” followed by a blue heart and winking emoji.
In the realm of women’s harassment–and my own experience with men online–the response wasn’t enough to shake me. I ignored it. And the next one asking me where “a hottie like me studies.” And the next one commenting on a photo of myself at a school banquet with “damn u have to be a D right?”
When “Jerry” finally commented on a tweet I made about a class assignment with “smart and sexy, i bet u like anal” I blocked him and informed my teacher. My account became private after the incident and I deleted it after finishing the class.
The harassment ended, but I couldn’t shake the ridiculousness of it: why would someone be commenting on a school affiliated Twitter account? My posts were solely relevant to other students, my activity was minimal, and the pictures I used for my profile were professional albeit generic. Yes, trolls are an unfortunate side effect of being a woman and having an opinion–but a college student’s class account? Why?
Naturally, these thoughts carried over when I took another class that requested I make a public Twitter account. I was hesitant, but I assumed the previous incident was a one-off. This account required far less maintenance and only asked for me to interact with other Twitter accounts, usually verified ones.
The week after midterms, I received a direct message–well, there wasn’t really a message. Just a picture of some stranger’s genitals.
Again, my immediate reaction was simple: Why?
Both of my accounts (and the current one I maintain for class) explicitly state I am a student, the account is specifically for class purposes, and I’ve never maintained more than about 11 followers. Why? Why? Why?
There is a level of expectation for this behavior, though even that notion highlights a seriously embedded social injustice. I also am well aware that this is a reality for women in my career field across the world, especially to journalists of color and queer women on Twitter. But it still baffles me that harassers would target accounts with so little of a social footprint (though I believe the harassers likely knew me outside of Twitter and just chose my school account to get my attention).
And it also presents a frustrating reality when so many classes force students to create public Twitter accounts for a grade. As educational institutions continue using social media as an educational tool–and rightfully so–students, particularly marginalized students, are forced to face the grim realities of the world.
Is there a solution? Not one that fixes everything, I’m afraid. There is a need to use social media websites, like Twitter, in the classroom. But it is naive to think students won’t be targets of harassment simply because they are students.
Hopefully, some professors may actually see these incidents as a chance to bring discussions of online harassment targeting certain groups into their curriculum. Others may choose to monitor things on a case by case basis. There is no right answer.
The only wrong answer is ignoring the reality that Twitter is not an even playing field for all people–and forgetting that students are not exempt from that reality.
Brenna Fuhr 