Cartoon Brew and Skyler Page (and Then the Carrion Birds Flock)

Clarence, Cartoon Network, 2014

On the evening on July the second, an artist working on Adventure Time sent out some tweets about having been unwelcomely touched by the creator of Cartoon Network’s Clarence. Cartoon Network were investigating the report (Skyler Page, said creator, has now been fired), and the artist felt it was necessary to spread word. She believes in knowledge as a form of safety — if you know who a predator is, you can endeavour to avoid them.

It’s now the fourth of July, a Friday, and good morning! Yesterday, on the third, Cartoon Brew used photographs of this woman artist to illustrate an article about the workplace sexual assault which she had experienced. Did they attain her…

consent?

Nope.

Aside from compounding the problem — when do we all acknowledge that a woman’s image is something that can be used to attempt control and domination? You don’t touch it if it’s not yours — they used her words in scare quotes, wrote the article in such a way that her movements appear followed — is it relevant to printscreen her tweets about how she’s distracting herself from the shitstorm? They later updated their article to end on two separate and lengthy quotes from friends and colleagues Jeff Rowe and Emily Quinn, about how Skyler Page’s mental condition should be taken into account when his actions are considered.

This must be poor structuring, as it weights the conversation entirely towards but what about him. An embarrassing mistake.

Skyler Page is the creator of Cartoon Network’s show Clarence. I’m not naming the artist who was assaulted by him. She’s been speaking plainly about this, but insecure bullies have been attempting to make her feel small, upset, worse. I’m not directing more cowards to where they can further disempower human dignity.

Here’s a comment from the Cartoon Brew article. It sure was worth creating a space for stuff like this! “Well what if something worse had happened? What if mental illness is a code for mind control? What if women are just treacle poppets raised by warlocks, powered by lies?”

Screen Shot 2014-07-04 at 11.57.35

Twitter, of course, is devil and angel. It allows us to spread word of predators and protect our own (there are a LOT of people using twitter to thank the artist for her bravery). It allows, and I do mean allows, parasites and scrap-collectors to subsequently harass our own, and it doesn’t let us properly report them.

twitter's harassment policy, 2014

I’m going to share some of the tweets I’ve seen directed at the artist, and I’m including the URLs: if these tweets are deleted, if they’ve been reported but not yet looked into, here’s where they were found, and here’s what they said.

I’ve removed the Twitter handles of those affected by this concentrated attack of piss. If you want to search them out, you can, but if your motive is to call them names and make the world a little worse? Just be aware of how much effort you’re putting in.

Trigger warning: misogyny in action

Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014 Screen Shot of Tweets regarding Skyler Page, Jul 2014

Cartoon Brew is not the only place that rape culture’s foot soldiers have made camp. In fact, it almost seems like Cartoon Brew didn’t need to allow the anti-reporting comments to remain under their article. Wouldn’t that have got them even more page-views on their “exclusive”? Angry MRA refreshing and refreshing again, because where is my tirade?

Some of the above accounts are newly created, especially for this attack. Some have <25 tweets in the bank. Few of them seem to realise that rape was not the accusation made. Maybe they’re all sockpuppet accounts. Maybe they don’t “mean” what they’re saying. Does it matter?

Shut them down.

This is not acceptable.

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Claire Napier

Claire Napier

Critic, ex-Editor in Chief at WWAC, independent comics editor; the rock that drops on your head. Find me at clairenapierclairenapier@gmail.com and give me lots of money

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