Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge, has a popular blog in the UK Times Literary Supplement called ‘A Don’s Life’.
She writes about ancient Romans and draws comparisons to our contemporary world. She has published books and hosted a BBC television series.
As her reputation grew, Beard became the online target of internet trolls. She received threats that she would be raped and that her head would be cut off. She was hurtfully described as sexually unattractive. An image of her head in the shape of a vagina circulated on the internet. And so it went on.
She recognised a deeply ingrained attitude towards outspoken women who step into the public sphere, pressuring them into silence. She even traced its lineage back to the ancient world. Beard became the victim of a type of venomous criticism reserved for women.
Fortunately, she has a very good head on her shoulders and she rose to the occasion. She started confronting people posting vile sexist comments online, and was described in the New Yorker as a ‘troll-slayer’.
Why does she do it? One reason is that young, intelligent women in Western society today are sometimes complacently unaware that such prejudices still exist. She wanted to show that they do exist, and are widespread.
She is right. Women who have achieved a certain level of education or independence can slip into thinking that all is well and equal.
Beard calls these prejudices the ‘underbelly’ of society. They are not openly accepted but persist in the shadows. They resemble the cultural myths about women described by literary critics, such as Nina Auerbach and Marina Warner, ideas which lie under the surface in literature and art and must be prised out.
When women refuse to be quiet in the public sphere, they are labelled as sexually unattractive, as hags or witches. If this label doesn’t fit then they are sluts, sleeping around or neglecting their husbands.
It is not only men who peddle the view that women must not be outspoken. Independent MP Marlene Farrugia was recently verbally threatened with violence by MP Joe Debono Grech in Parliament. Three women MPs presented the government’s view that Farrugia had provoked him by shouting back in a debate. Incredible but true.
Comments on Farrugia’s Facebook page routinely urge her to shut up, or to consider the effect of her strong views on her partner. You would not find this on the page of a male politician.
Attempts to silence women actually target strength, not weakness. The sexual, emotional and intellectual power of women is feared, and must be locked up or controlled.
This attitude is also directed at women who write, especially about politics. An example is the awful blog of the Prime Minister’s aide, Glenn Bedingfield.
This OPM member of staff is denigrating women on the internet, with a steady stream of vulgar sexual and sexist comments
He seems infatuated with the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and obsesses about her appearance to a ridiculous extent. He constantly uploads comments revealing an unhealthy fixation with her sexuality.
For Bedingfield, she is several female stereotypes rolled into one – hag, witch, slut and adulteress. How terrifying. This week, his blog repeatedly analysed the shape of her buttocks. How much lower can a Prime Minister’s aide sink?
I recently had lunch with the object of his fixation. Bedingfield found it unnerving that she was meeting a woman in a restaurant, especially with me being an academic as well as a weekly columnist. The news knocked him sideways.
Once he recovered his breath, he was excited to discover that I am an old friend of hers, with a wide circle of friends in common (yes, in little Malta, where everyone knows everyone, this is breaking news). We are almost the same age, no surprises there.
This was too much sexual, social and intellectual female power, at one lunch table, for Bedingfield to calmly handle alone. Who knows what State secrets we were exchanging over fettuccine and wine.
His friends managed to snap some photos and Bedingfield rushed over to his computer to upload them on his blog while the news was still piping hot. He rallied his cyber-mob and together they instantly conducted a summary analysis of my physical appearance. I am a woman, after all, so that is par for the course.
They evidently felt, in my case, that hag or witch would not work immediately. I was therefore cast into the slut or adulteress category. My dear Glenn, what cheap thrills.
Seriously now, it is very worrying that this filth emerges directly from the Office of the Prime Minister. This OPM member of staff is denigrating women on the internet, with a steady stream of vulgar sexual and sexist comments.
The Prime Minister can easily stop this tacky OPM side-show, but instead he allows it. It is most alarming that he does not understand it is wrong. His moral authority was seriously damaged by weeks of inaction on the Panama Papers, and now by a tragic Cabinet reshuffle. It is being dented further by him condoning the nasty, sexist behaviour of his hand-picked staff.
Beard has actively exposed sexist attitudes lying under the surface in online comments, which can quickly degenerate into a free-for-all. Outspoken women in the public sphere are regularly subjected to sexist insults and harassment on the internet, in order to intimidate and silence them.
This trend also exists in Malta, with a main offender sitting right beside the Prime Minister at the Auberge de Castille.
petracdingli@gmail.com