Tyler the Creator, the feminist and the twitter abuse

@fucktyler is the blunt Twitter handle of American rapper, Tyler Okonma, who is due to perform in Australia in September. The name of his first album was Bastard, and one of his songs is called Bitch Suck Dick, which is pretty representative of the tone and content of his work. Some of his controversial lyrics feature graphic rape scenarios, for which he is consistently unapologetic.

Tyler the Creator, as he is known, may or may not perform in Australia in September: no definitive decision has yet been made about his visa by the Australian authorities. However, due to protests by Collective Shout, an organisation that campaigns against the objectification and sexualisation of women in the media and popular culture, he appears to think that he has been banned from entering the country.

Last night, Tyler tweeted to his 2.4 million followers:

Even though no decision has yet been made about his visa, his fans and supporters chose to believe he had indeed been banned. The tweet has received thousands of retweets and even more star ratings, which mark it as a “favourite” tweet. The woman identified in the tweet, feminist and activist Coralie Alison, who is the public face of Collective Shout, immediately became the target of online abuse. Alison was threatened with rape, physical abuse and death multiple times, tweets which she retweeted.

After several hours of this ongoing abuse, she tweeted that representatives of Twitter in Australia had contacted her. Some of those vile tweets have vanished, as accounts they emanate from are blocked, but more continue to sprout like weeds. Tyler himself still has an active account. He has not commented on any of the abuse directed at Alison.

The really horrible thing about all this is why should we now be even faintly surprised or shocked that a woman is being blamed, threatened, and targeted online in such a way? Whether the reason is the mistaken belief a rapper had been refused a visa due to complaints about his offensive material, or something as seemingly innocuous as proposing that a woman should be on a British banknote, we’ve seen all this before. We’ve seen horrific online bullying and abuse; abuse which so very, very often is aimed at women.

If social media has revealed anything, it is the grim truth that we now know for certain misogyny is very close to the surface in many places of the world. The outrageous, revolting and disturbing tweets such as those aimed at Coralie Alison in the last 24 hours could not show that more clearly. Is this really what is going on in the heads of so many people as a matter of course? Is this what was going on in those same heads before an opportunity came along to broadcast those thoughts in 140 characters? The answer has to be yes. People did not change just because technology did.

There is something profoundly disturbing and depressing about scrolling through Alison’s Twitter feed at the moment. It’s like poking through incessant vomit, which other people – her supporters, many of them also strangers to her – keep trying vainly to clean up. It should be cheering to know she has so many supporters around the world, and it is. But it’s the misogyny that beats the stronger message in this story.