Lena Dunham has declared that she is totally done with Twitter and will stay done with it until it becomes a safe space for women.
“Many internet media platforms — social media platforms — have to be putting more barriers in place for what is ultimately the violent harassment of women,” Dunham said during a forum hosted by MORE Magazine with Michelle Obama and Julianne Moore, according to Breitbart. “And just because it’s not face to face doesn’t mean it’s not extremely dangerous emotionally, doesn’t mean it couldn’t transfer to something really kind of terrifying in the real world.”
“I think that until new codes of conduct are in place, I’m not going to be able to return to looking at that platform freely,” she said.
To be clear, Dunham is not wrong about the fact that women are being harassed online. I myself have had people threaten to rape and murder me.
Here’s where we differ: I personally have never felt damaged, emotionally or otherwise, by any of it. I’ve found that I can handle Twitter, and that’s why I still use it.
#share#If she’s found that she can’t, then that’s completely understandable. But the thing is, she’s already found the solution: Stay off of it. Demanding that an entire platform be changed — and something as important as our free speech be restricted — because you personally cannot handle it is about as offensive as it gets.
#related#To me, a “safe space” is one where I know that my inalienable right to free speech will be protected. Yes, that does mean that everyone else will have that same right, including some pretty terrible people, but it’s a small price to pay for something so important.
Breitbart reports that Dunham still has an account, but that it’s run by a professional so she doesn’t have to look at it herself.