Actress Ashley Judd, Divergent series star and a well-known University of Kentucky basketball fan and alumnus of the Division 1 school, is striking back at Twitter users who launched a tirade of sexually violent tweets aimed at her while she attended a Wildcats game over the weekend.
Speaking with Today on NBC, Judd explained she has had enough.
“The amount of gender violence I experience is absolutely extraordinary, and a significant part of my day today will be spent filing police reports at home about gender violence that’s directed at me on social media”, she told NBC.
“That many people?” asked the Today interviewer Craig Melvin.
“That many people, that explicit, that overt,” replied Judd.
Reacting to her own tweets about the March Madness college basketball tournament, Judd apologized for the content.
“What the hell do you even do you stuck up c*nt. What are you famous for again,” read one, with another reading: “Go suck on Cal’s two inch dick ye Bitch whore.”
Judd tweeted: “When I express a stout opinion during #MarchMadness I am called a whore, c—, threatened with sexual violence. Not okay.”
Ashley Judd responds to Twitter Trolls on Today:
In another session of her interview, Judd added: “Everyone needs to take personal responsibility for what they write, and not allow this misinterpretation and shaming culture on social media to persist. And by the way, I’m pressing charges.”
Other stars took a different approach to dealing with unwanted, abusive trolls.
Rapper Iggy Azalea wrote that social media “is too negative and draining” and handed her Twitter account to her management, unless updates are signed by her. Lena Dunham was done with Twitter as well saying, “I deleted Twitter because I’m trying to create a safer space for myself emotionally.”
Former Major League pitcher Curt Schilling recently used a more aggressive strategy to teach his daughter’s trolls on Twitter a hard lesson. He tracked down their identities and outed them. At least one man lost his job as a result; others were suspended from their college sports teams.
