April Reimer starts anti-cyberbullying campaign after online harassment
April Reimer has seen the best of hockey fans and the absolute worst of them.
She’s heard them cheer and exalt her husband, Toronto Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer, when he succeeds. But when he doesn’t, and his team doesn’t, then she sees the other side of fanaticism.
Like telling a wife to prepare to live on a minor league salary. That her husband is garbage. That his penis smells. That she should withhold sex from him because he lost a hockey game.
Her “sin,” other than being the spouse of a professional athlete, is having a social media presence, with over 19,000 followers on Twitter. But there’s an undercurrent to that vileness that’s undeniable: It’s the kind of stuff that makes social media a toxic place for women.
And it doesn't matter if women have 19,000 followers or 19 followers; Twitter, in particular, has become a place where harrassment has made many feel unwelcome.
So she’s decided to affect change, any way she can. Her campaign, #TweetSweet, kicked off this week. It’s an effort to educate young social media users that there’s a human being at the other end of their attacks.
From James Mirtle at the Globe & Mail:
The story that resonates most with Reimer, however, is that of Amanda Todd, the 15-year-old from near her hometown of Maple Ridge, B.C., who committed suicide three years ago after relentless online bullying.
When Reimer became the subject of attacks by Leafs fans, she felt there was an uglier undercurrent to it all beyond a few harmless messages from strangers.
“I knew her story,” Reimer said of Todd. “I saw how the online community can be very destructive.”
Rather than approach Twitter about changing its policies, Reimer views a grassroots campaign through schools as the best way to speak directly to a generation that’s coming of age with these issues at the forefront.
Read more about the campaign here.
It’s a noble effort to be sure. The last year on “Hockey Twitter” was evidence enough that change is needed, with high-profile writers being outed for harassment of women and some fans being bullied off social media altogether.
Will tweeting positive things with a hashtag to win Leafs tickets turn around decades of vile behavior on the Internet? Of course not. It takes more than a hashtag to change decades of learned behavior or convince bullies that they're the problem. (And lord knows #TweetSweet could ... OK, will be repurposed in a cynical way by some.)
But maybe it can reach a kid to prevent them from becoming that bully.
Is there a “price of fame” argument to be made about Reimer’s interaction with fans? Sure. The glare of stardom can shine on the ones you love, rightly or wrongly, and that means the benefits and drawbacks of a high profile are also shared. April Reimer can start an Internet anti-bullying campaign because she has that fame. The drawback is that she's also made a target.
That said, it’s really, really simple, fans: If your team loses, and you’re angry at a player’s performance, and your first inkling is to harass his wife, perhaps you don’t have the mental capacity and emotional maturity for this sports thing.
