Vile trolls are primed whenever women enter the ‘male domain’

THE hate is out there. in the world of social media, it does not take much for these often anonymous keyboard warriors to spring into action, driven by racism, sexism, bigotry and bile.

it really is a sorry state of affairs that just a year after the death of tV celebrity Caroline Flack and the huge swell of public support for becoming a ‘kinder’ society on social media, we are still talking about the abuse of individuals on such platforms.

the latest victim — yes, another woman — is seasoned BBC journalist Sonja Mclaughlan. She was targeted on Saturday evening over her post-match interview with England rugby captain owen Farrell following his team’s 40-24 defeat by Wales.

the triple Crown-clinching win at the Principality Stadium for Wayne Pivac’s team was not without controversy. the hosts’ first try had been scored while England were in the throes of establishing their defensive line after French referee Pascal Gauzere had told Farrell to speak to his players about their illdiscipline. Wales benefited again from a debatable decision when a try was awarded despite an apparent knock-on by wing louis rees-Zammit.

these two first-half incidents formed the thrust of Mclaughlan’s interview with Farrell and England manager Eddie Jones. to the England camp’s credit, they attempted to play down the incidents but so controversial were these decisions, Mclaughlan was right to press the points. She then moved on to questioning England’s damaging tendency to gift penalties and, in doing so, surely weakened her critics’ argument that she had focused on England being robbed rather than Wales deserving victory.

Mclaughlan’s line of questioning and her persistence, however, angered a number of rugby supporters on twitter, who vented their anger on the social media platform.

By the time she had reached her vehicle, Mclaughlan had, in her own words, been ‘inundated’ with abuse. in a tweet sent out to her followers, she described how she was sitting in her car, crying.

now, it’s important to understand that Mclaughlan would have been criticised had she not asked about the refereeing. it was a huge talking point and it is one that is still being debated among rugby circles.

Mclaughlan was a journalist simply doing her job, who now feels a little bit smaller because of the vitriol launched her way. to have people describe your interview as ‘toxic’, ‘embarrassing’, ‘disgraceful’ or ‘appalling’ would be bad enough in any normal scenario. But imagine your performance, a craft you have worked at for years, being slammed by hundreds of people so publicly? imagine the dent to your pride and the stress it causes?

Some may argue that tV interviewers are in the public eye and should learn to deal with criticism. in fact, in one tweet, she was even told to ‘man up’. But nobody signs up to hatred and abuse in such an intense, personal way.

Mclaughlan (below) has, like so many other journalists, male and female, worked hard to create an important position for herself in an extremely competitive world. By its very nature, you have to be a survivor. And she is. But that does not mean that the attacks on her work won’t be extremely painful. And they will remain with her the next time she walks on the pitch and puts herself out there for her job.

Former England international Karen Carney was another victim of online abuse. She was vilified in december last year after working as a pundit for Amazon Prime Sport at the match between leeds and West Brom. Carney was mocked by leeds for comments she made on their team’s promotion to the Premier league. Again, the vitriol she received was appalling.

Between Mclaughlan’s and Carney’s online incidents, we had the head of the tokyo olympics organising committee complaining that women talk too much. Yoshiro Mori, who eventually stepped down over the furore about his remarks, said: ‘if we increase the number of female board members, we have to make sure their speaking time is restricted somewhat. they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying.’

What do these incidents tell us about women’s role in sport? Women, whether as post-match interviewers, pundits or olympic board members, have been belittled. Mr Mori’s opinions can be described as sexist, but is the abuse of Mclaughlan and Carney inherently so? do the online trolls in the sporting world save their worst for women?

Carney was called a ‘stupid slag’ and a ‘silly bitch’, and told to ‘get back in the kitchen’ — and that wasn’t even the worst of it.

it’s hard to look at Mclaughlan’s treatment without wondering if a male interviewer, taking the same line of questioning, would be on the receiving end of similar vitriol.

How many who directed their messages at her did so fuelled in part by sexism? You can hear them now, questioning her right to challenge the England captain and manager.

if we are to accept that the messages she received were opinion and not abuse, not sexist abuse per se, surely that still does not make it okay. How many of the comments, while not specific to her gender, are based on ingrained sexist feelings that a woman should not be on the pitch asking the questions? it is hard to shake the feeling that the trolls are primed, thumbs at the ready, to denigrate and diminish professional women’s work when they are operating in what they deem to be the ‘male domain’.