There's a new person on the internet I loathe and that's journalist Jo Bartosch.
Days before Trans Awareness Week, she wrote an article about trans woman Brían Nguyen and her historic win as the new Miss Greater Derry.
At just 19 years old, Brían is the FIRST transgender woman to be a Miss America local titleholder.
Despite this incredible achievement and heartwarming story, Jo Bartosch decided to use her platform to fat shame and misgender Brían.
She labelled Brían as a "bloke," and continued to use the incorrect pronouns throughout her article.
"You cannot help but notice that the winner of this particular contest bears a striking resemblance to an undercooked, lumpy sausage, with his fleshy moobs squashed into a gown," writes Bartosch, "the spectacle served as a powerful reminder that, in today’s America, failing to show due deference to the trans overlords (or trans overladies?) is potentially career-ending."
Bartosch claims "trans ideology" threatens "women's spaces and opportunities."
"From sports to politics to science, wherever schemes are established to increase female participation, entitled men in stilettos are marching in to mark them as their territory," she writes, "and if proof were ever needed that transwomen are men, it can be witnessed in the fawning, gushing behaviour of the wider world towards them."
Some may ask: why are you giving this person a platform?
Why are you wasting your breath speaking her name?
It's because people like this are no longer hidden figures.
They don't lurk in the shadows.
They're not embarrassed or ashamed to share their hateful thoughts.
They're instead given platforms and paid to be outrageous and unkind to others.
They're praised for "speaking the truth."
We may think we're becoming a more progressive and accepting society, but we cannot pretend people like this are spreading like wildfire.
So what do we do when we encounter people like this on the internet?
Do we ignore them and pretend sexist, transphobic, fatphobic, arrogant people like Jo Bartosch don't exist?
Do we call them out for their idiotic toxic behaviour, despite knowing they'll likely never listen to us?
How do we stop such hateful people spreading such hateful words?
That I do not know.
All I know is arrogant people like Jo Bartosch are spreading hatred on the internet and getting away with it.
And no matter what I do, and don't do, she'll somehow continue to be a bully.
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