The chilling effect
I’ve learned that my sharing about the trolling and harassment I’m targeted for online is having a chilling effect, and I’m having to come to grips with that.
Within the span of a few days, a friend told me that she’s been hesitant to start the selfie Tiktok account she wants to run due to hearing about my trolls, and a client told me she’s worried about posting regularly about Health at Every Size® and fat activism on her Instagram for the same reason.
When I started my work, I knew that trolls existed, but thought they really only affected higher-profile folks like Ragen Chastain or Lindy West. And it’s true that when I only had a few hundred followers, I was relatively safe.
I had around 5,000 Instagram followers when a troll shared one of my posts on a website full of other trolls, and I was doxxed. (Doxxing is when someone’s personal information and/or location is shared online as a terrorist tactic.) I was probably unlucky that it happened that soon.
(It’s also true that the more privilege you hold, the more support you will receive if you’re harassed. The lukewarm reactions I get when I talk about being doxxed are very different from the reactions and support I saw recently awarded to someone in a thinner body who’d been doxxed.)
The very last thing I want to do is discourage other fat folks from living their best lives online, but at the same time, it’s so important that we speak out about harassment. I don’t know how to reconcile these things.
Hi there! I'm Lindley. I create artwork that celebrates the unique beauty of bodies that fall outside conventional "beauty" standards at Body Liberation Photography. I'm also the creator of Body Liberation Stock and the Body Love Shop, a curated central resource for body-friendly artwork and products. Find all my work here at bodyliberationphotos.com.
