This is a genuine question.
So I just read about how the lady who ran Save a Fox and who passed away from suic*de this past month has a snark page made about her and I was totally shocked.
This was just a woman saving foxes for god sake. And I am unsure whether a woman made that snark page, however that DID take me down a rabbit hole of looking into snark pages in general, and I’m still browsing through and I’m shocked. Genuinely shocked. And when I click on the names of the commenters and posters, they are women. Almost always women.
Now, I’m not trying make a blanket statement about all women being x, y or z. But this is two X chromosomes and I think as women this is always a very important discussion on what’s going on there?
Of course, women can be just as toxic and nasty as anyone else. Just because someone is a woman doesn’t mean they can’t be, I know that, so I’m not trying to imply that women don’t also have access to the full range of humanity.
But this shit is really f*cking shocking. Like the shit I’m reading is some of the most malignant, nasty, cruel, obviously blatantly seethingly jealous and resentful, coarse, hateful shit I have ever seen. Like genuinely shocking stuff.
I know not all women are like this. We all know this. Just like how the men say not all men. We know.
But I do think as women there are things we need to be able to discuss. The shit I’m reading is appalling, and the sheer NUMBERS of primarily women posters in these subs is why I want to know how other (psychologically well adjusted) women process this shit.
I think for me, my takeaway is that male or female, anybody can be seriously unwell, narcissistic or cruel.
Comments
It’s crazy. I mean, these snark subs, you’d think we’d have better things to do as women. But hey, it’s like that old saying goes: keep your friends close, and your enemies closer… or something like that.
Poorly disguised misogynistic hate campaigns, there’s a reason most of these snark subs are about women.
I’m guessing a lot, if not all, of those women have a good amount of internalized misogyny. They don’t want to direct the hate at themselves so they have to find an outlet with someone else.
In my honest opinion, snark subreddits need to be taken down. There is nothing remotely good to be gained from a subreddit who’s sole purpose is to spread hate and negativity.
I think they are pathetic. These women need to get a hobby or some career direction.
I hate the snark subreddits – there is too much organized harassment coming out of them.
Who are they snarking on?
Especially with the poor woman saving foxes, I’m going to guess psychologically this gets into patriarchy enforcement. She was definitely outside the norm of “performing woman” if you will, so I’m wondering if their behavior is wrapped up in trying to enforce the patriarchy. This is not my wheelhouse, so I can’t really speak intelligently in it, but that’s where my mind went.
There’s an extreme hostility towards women celebrities that far exceeds that towards actual predators in Hollywood. It’s definitely misogyny. I’m perfectly fine with casual critiques of the ethics or lack thereof of a celebrity’s behavior, like their excessive carbon footprint or whatever. But most of this is fueled by misogyny. And sometimes misogynoir.
It’s concerning how some women make it their personality to hate on some random woman they do not know, all based on unsubstantiated rumors.
Women can be agents of the patriarchy.
Depends on the situation imo. I believe people who use and exploit their children for content deserve all the snark.
They’re gross, should be removed.
How are we sure that they were created by women? Most of the female subs are moderated by men, including this one.
This is not me commenting as a woman or anything, especially because I’m a guy, but can we take a beat to acknowledge that there are online communities dedicated to blinding hatred of private or minimally public individuals?
Like, there’s no /r/WeHateEricAdams (unless you count the nyc subs) but there’s a subreddit to hate and harass someone that is maybe personally known to less than 100 people? Imagine hundreds of thousands of people observing your life from afar, with disgust and deep hatred. For YOU personally.
That is so scary.
Just a reminder that clicks are currency. It’s wild how many people don’t realize this behavior is enabling the content creator they “hate” to make money off of them.
I think any subreddit that is dedicated to hating on someone leads to unhealthy outcomes for both the target of the hate and the people participating in the hate. This is true even when the target is a generally bad person or even if there are valid reasons to dislike the target (which is certainly not the case for all snark subreddits).
It becomes obsessive, and people who participate avidly are always on the hunt for more “terrible” things the target does so they can continue to fuel the snark. Even with the worst people, that eventually leads to Bitch Eating Crackers Syndrome, and people feel like they’re on some moral crusade by nitpicking a person’s (or group’s) life. There’s no way that’s a healthy outlet. I won’t say that all people who participate in snark subreddits are mentally unwell, but I do think participation in snark subreddits facilitates or exacerbates negative mental health outcomes.
And that’s just in regular cases of snark subreddits. At its worst, it leads to targeted harassment. People who participate will insist that their snark subreddit du jour is different than the others because they’re fighting the good fight against someone who is truly a menace. They’ll often post screeds about how terrible their target is. And some of it may not be all made up! But it’s done in the service of a sustained harassment campaign and they just don’t want to admit that.
Another very interesting phenomenon I’ve seen are warring snark subreddits where both insist that the other group is the evil snark subreddit. From the outside, both often tend to be snark subreddits with just different targets.
I am amazed, even somewhat envious, at the amount of free time one would have to have in order hate that hard. I am amazed there is evidently nothing else in their lives so important as hating on a stranger. Nothing else as pressing as hating on a stranger. Nothing else that needs to be done, but hating on a stranger. Nothing else you want to do in your free time but hate on a stranger.
Emotionally adjusted people don’t even think about hating this hard; it isn’t in them. Women like the ones you’re describing either have an illness or a deep, deep level of self-loathing.
They re full of sad bitter shitty people who gossip irl probably too
I was part of a couple of them before for ariana grande and a youtuber (i like both, not a fan but not a hater either)
I thought they were just subs were people discuss the good and the bad, updates etc and I was just a lurker but ended up leaving.
The way they were criticizing anything, even normal things and making up crazy lies and theories and meanings it was giving schizo, i couldnt watch anymore
Also a lot of the shitty comments were about the womens looks especially their weight
I used to lurk in some of the ones snarking on fundies but even those started getting weird.
Snark subreddits and also content creators that use their platform to rally their supporters to abuse others, they are horrible people.
I don’t have enough free time to waste it on dragging someone down.
If we aren’t building each other up, or at least being neutral, then I’m out. I have more important things to spend my time and energy on.
I had lots of issues with the owner of save a fox but she didnt deserve to be bullied and driven to that. I dont mind the existence of snark in some cases, but there are people who take it way too far.
Speaking of her specifically, one of the things I saw her be called out for was doing sex work and I was like really guys? Really? There’s so many valid issues with what she was doing but that wasnt one of them.
I do find it odd they tend to be centered around women as well. Even in the snark groups im in, the men that are just as problematic as the women get basically ignored.
Ask any mom about their experience on any mommy page and they’ll be the first to tell you women can be THE WORST! We can be and absolutely are the worst to each other. Can you imagine a world where we were all supportive and loving of each other? I CAN! You know who else can think of what that would look like? People who do NOT want to see a unified front of women so discord has been created… since forever!
It’s like the strategy to get each half of a country to hate each other. Not much can be done when half of the people are fighting w the other half.
People in positions of power, even if they don’t realize they are in a position of any resemblance of power, are the ones who benefit. You know… patriarchy as a root, which was probs a system created by a very small, rich and ACTUAL powerful few to ensure they stay few, rich and powerful.
It sucks. It’s horrible to know people are this vicious leading to mental health declines in their targets. And ya know… some people deserve it (Frye Fest guy, for instance) but most… don’t. But also, those who deserve it the most will actually be fed by it anyway bcs they are narcissists. Humans… suck.
They are cover for bullying and hate. They shouldn’t exist imo.
There’s an entire sub set up solely to bitch about Alec Baldwin’s wife. Who does seem to be a bit of a goofball impostor but who actually cares? It’s not hurting anyone.
The Taylor Swift one used to pop up on my feed all the time, before I finally muted it. So weird! It really makes you think about that old cliché: The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. Many of these folks seem to spend good chunks of their day watching videos about Taylor Swift and commenting on her “drunken, fat, mooncalf-face” on Reddit, what’s the point?
I 100% support the freedom of speech, but these people are letting lame celebrities live rent free in their heads, get a life!
Women profess to support other women, then turn around and judge their every choice. You either support women, or you don’t. Do you trust that women can make their own choices (yes, even for their family) or don’t you?
It depends on what the snark subreddits are exposing. Many of them were created to expose the lies and child exploitation of the individual influencers because said influencers delete comments and block those trying to expose them.
Although some may be rooted in jealousy, many are there to expose the blatant fraud committed by particular influencers. Lest we forget, these women make money off the backs of their followers, and their scams should be exposed.
not a fan of snark sub reddits at all. i think you can criticize anyone for valid reasons (like exploiting children on yt for example) with out going to a page specifically made for hating on said person. places like that just fester in negativity which is a recipe for disaster. save a fox being a sad example. these snark pages are never full of actual information about why said person is “bad” it’s always just rumors and assumptions maliciously spread with no evidence or sources to back it up.