A SELF PROCLAIMED feminist has managed to turn a vicious Twitter troll attack into a successful fundraising campaign for Women’s Aid.
Rosie Fletcher sent out an innocuous tweet about her breakfast on Wednesday and ended up getting a barage of abuse from an unknown Twitter follower.
The 28-year-old podcast host tweeted: “I was going to put porridge on to soak but I got into bed and it was the warmest cosiest most welcoming thing so I guess it’s corn flakes tomorrow.”
Bizarrely, an account user decided to respond to the post calling her a “fat feminist c**t” before accusing her of ruining the Star Wars franchise.
Using the profile name Lmaoletsgo1 they said: “Stupid fat feminist c***. B*****s like you ruin Star Wars with your bulls*** feminist ideologies.
“It wasn’t women who grew up with Star Wars, it was men.
The vile tweet continued: “And you c***s want to take that away from us too? Be ready, cause we are f***ing sick of your s**t.”
Rosie’s original post has since been retweeted over 30,000 times and attracted 127,000 likes.
However, for account user Lmaoletsgo1 the bizarre outburst has resulted in the account being suspended.
Instead of being brought down by the negative tweet, Rosie managed to expertly use the publicity to help raise money for charity.
She sent out another tweet, writing: “: “Putting my stupid fat feminist c***iness to good use and donated £25 to Women’s Aid in this individual’s honour. God bless his feminist works.”
Women’s Aid noticed the gesture and tweeted out: “Huge thanks to @rosieatlarge for donating to us after being trolled by a misogynist online yesterday and inspiring lots of others to do the same.
“If someone trolls you today, do something positive to help women in need.”
Rosie then posted a short video of her “getting out her Star Wars dvd”. After turning the dvd box upside down a bunch of corn flakes fall out.
Rosie can be heard exclaiming “corn flakes?” You can then see Rosie shaking her fist bemoaning “feminists”.
The video has since been viewed over 360,000 times.
When Women’s Aid got involved Rosie was “so glad”, she said: “It was a very spur of the moment thing to donate to them but I was so baffled and annoyed that I thought I’d make that into something good.”
“And when other people started donating as well – I was chuffed.
“They’re such an important organisation and I am very happy to divert attention from men being weird online towards supporting them.”
Her decision to donate to Women’s Aid “was a real snap decision”. Rosie said: “You can say if it’s for a specific person or cause.
“I just said that I’d received some abuse on Twitter and I wanted to put it to good use. I think some people put their donation in the name of General Leia Organa, which I am fully supportive of.”
She continued: “Those are my DVDs – and I would like to emphasise that I own that edition because it’s the got the closest versions to the original, un-CGIed releases.
“It did make me laugh because obviously this account just wanted to troll people but rather than just messaging me, he replied to a cosy tweet about breakfast cereal, so it was extra weird.
“And I’ve loved Leia before I even knew what feminism was so you can’t tell me girls don’t grow up with Star Wars.
“The number of women sending me stories about themselves seeing and loving Star Wars as little girls was really heart warming and definitely disproved his point.
“I have the word feminist in my Twitter bio and I do not hold my opinionated light under a bushel and some men cannot deal with that.
“Usually I just block and report but this one made me laugh so much – what a weird segue! – that I couldn’t resist sharing.”
Rosie added: “Although this account got suspended, Twitter is not consistent in doing so.
“Unfortunately, trolls beget trolls and another one found my address to threaten me – his account is still up and he’s tweeted that he’s just moving to a new account.
“The best thing I can do is show that calling me names or threatening me doesn’t work.
“In fact, thanks to that first misogynist message, lots of people are now talking about online abuse, their long-term love of Star Wars, and supporting Women’s Aid in their vital work. Bad luck trolls”
Katie Ghose, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, said: “Rosie Fletcher is one of many brave women who has refused to let misogynist trolls silence her.
“Instead, she turned what was a horrible experience into something positive: she chose to donate to Women’s Aid to help women escape domestic abuse.
“We are incredibly grateful to Rosie for her support and for others who were inspired by her generosity to donate to Women’s Aid as well.
“If someone trolls you online, turn that negative into something positive by helping women in need today.”
Rosie regularly appears on BBC Radio 4 and in the New Statesman as well as hosting the podcast Rosie and Jessica’s Day of Fun with her sister Jessica Fletcher.
