Quick response to Zvan's blog post responding to my "Professional Victim Melody Hensley" video:
(her post, frozen to prevent tampering)
http://www.freezepage.com/1357603200HXDODTBIQW
The main point of my video -- much unlike what Zvan mentions -- is the problem surrounding Melody Hensley claiming people harass her online while she continues to
directly engage with the alleged harassers. Hensley, additionally, says that she blocks people and seems to assert that she wants people to leave her alone but continues to directly engage with these people. If Melody believes people are harassing her and blocks these people, why does she continue to directly engage with these people?
Zvan doesn't even bother to address this, but rather focuses on who the blocked persons are/what they do and consider them "stalkers" and "abusers" while then moving on to say that it's reasonable to distance from "abusers" ...
but doesn't address the discrepancy between Melody's complaints of harassement and seeming assertion of wanting to be left alone and directly engaging the alleged harassers.
Then she makes what seems to be an appeal to pity and continues to not address what I have to say:
It’s that “professional victim†trope again. You know, those of us who dare to say we deserve something other than abuse and say it out loud–we only do it for…money, I guess. It’s how we make our livings, of course.
I'm not saying that people shouldn't respond, but rather am posing what I see to be a contradiction between Melody's words and behavior. She can talk all she wants, but it doesn't appear to make sense for her to continue to directly engage with the people she claims to be harassing her.
Do rational people behave like this in real life? Do people who have actual stalkers or harassers continue to directly engage with them...or do they remove themselves from the situation and stop subjecting themselves to distress?
Zvan then talks about Melody's contributions to the secular community (seemingly continuing the appeal to pity) and seemingly implying that I am dismissing her contributions to the community. I'm not. That's not even something being discussed and has nothing to do with Hensley claiming people are harassing her on Twitter. Zvan, as it seems, is equivocating and ridiculously ignoring the common usage of 'professional victim' - playing word games.
Zvan then engages in personal attacks on me (nothing to do with my video or what I present) and then frames the issue as me attempting to "convince the world that a woman is overracting to sexist abuse" denying her professional contributions (a lie - I never denied her professional contributions; failure to mention something unrelated to what I am presenting is not denial).
The appeal to pity continues coupled with fantastic claims (emphasis mine): "It isn’t a game, though. Melody is being
harassed and abused, not moving a ball down a field. There are people who consider this a sport, including Michael Cortese/Mykeru, whom Vacula mentions in the video, but they’re
playing with Melody’s professional reputation and emotional health."
Oh, yes, the "harassement" and "abuse" against Melody is so bad that Melody continues to directly engage with people who are allegedly abusing her.... Again, there's a huge inconsistency here. Melody is under no influence whatsoever to respond to Mykeru. She can block him, move on, and never have to read what he has to write on Twitter again. Instead of this, Melody reads what Mykeru types and directly engages with him.
Finally, she says:
“Professional victim†my ass. Melody is one of the people making these movements get things done. Somebody who claims to be an activist could take some lessons. Instead, Vacula is making ad-supported videos dismissing all her important work, work from which he should be learning.
Someone who claims to be an activist? It seems like Zvan, to use her own words, and properly in this case, is denying my contributions. We can compare the activism of Hensley next to mine if she wants. Hensley, though, has a much larger platform and has, as it seems, been involved with activism much longer than me. Check your privilege!
Some old tactics from Zvan and another massive fail of a blog post.