West is currently in Australia to promote her book, Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman (she appeared at the All About Women festival in Sydney and is a panellist on Q&A).īut though the book has bolstered her profile as an online commentator on feminism, fat activism and as ' the ultimate internet troll slayer', it has also opened the door to more criticism. 'We pretend that behaviour is normal, and for those of us on the receiving end, we're supposed to just put up with it and smile, and get a thicker skin? If a fraction of what happened to me on Twitter happened to me in real life, people would be in prison.'
'I'm definitely resentful and frustrated. ' was important to me, but I did find myself getting sucked into it - I would spend hours a day arguing with people who wished me ill,' she tells ABC News.
Twitter, West said of her decision, was a place where 'men enjoy unfettered access to my brain so they can inform me, for the thousandth time, they would rape me if I wasn't so fat'.
The past two months have been quieter than usual for Seattle-based feminist writer Lindy West.Īfter a lot of deliberation, the 34-year-old long-time target for online abuse quit Twitter in early January.
