'Keyboard bravado' behind vicious online attacks, says FFAW women's advocate

The type ofonlinebullying Newfoundland and Labrador Finance Minister Cathy Bennett revealed to the public this week is all too familiar to the women's advocate for the Fish Food and Allied Workers Union.

Dwan Street says Bennett's story resonated with her because of some of the online feedback she receivedafter an ugly altercation with a harvester at a union meeting in Fortune in November.

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Street and a male colleague were confronted by a man in an incident she described as, "a vulgar attack, with physical violence and death threats."

She said the incident drew a lot of reaction on social media, with comments mostly from men, but also from women, which surprised her.

"The old 'if you can't take the heat you should probably get out of the kitchen,'" reminded her of the backlash directed at Cathy Bennett.

"A lot of the backlash coming at Minister Bennett when she spoke out was, 'that's part of her job, she should be able to take thatkind of abuse.' That was a lot of what I heard as well."

'Keyboard bravado'

Street told the St. John's Morning Show that social media provides "a soap box" for bad behavior.

"I always say men used to write iton bathroom stalls to try to shame women and try to put us back in our place when we step out of the little box [we're] put in with the traditional roles they figure we should be in," said Street.

I can't recall the last time I heard someone tell a man he only got his job because of his looks.- Dwan Street

"Now they send anemail, they create an anonymous Twitter account, they put it onFacebookto attempt to do the same thing."

Street said while men do experience online harassment and criticism, the type of attack usually directed toward women is different, with more focus on sexual violence or appearance something she saw inTweets about herself.

"It all comes back to the underlying misogyny, and the fact that women shouldn't be in these roles, and if they are there's another reason, other than the fact that you ... earned your way there and you worked hard to get there," said Street.

"I can't recall the last time I heard someone tell a man he only got his job because of his looks."