Hate comments

When it rains, it pours.

Hate comes in waves on social media. One second, you're living a normal life with your normal commenters and supporters that feel like friends, and then you are washed away by death threats and comments about insecurities you didn’t even know you had.

At least that’s what it feels like when you get put onto the wrong side of the internet without knowing it.

Recently, I have become a target of some incredibly misogynistic male hate groups, and while I can’t relate to being so bitterly mad at the world to put others down, I can relate to how low they must feel to do this.

The response to all of this has been my typical- stories with rants, my fight or flight response has become that when dealing with online hate, mediation, prayer and journaling. But even with all of that, does it remove the cuts their words leave?

Does it bother me? Of course, does it determine my day, my life or how I see myself, absolutely not.

Being in a place of privilege to have a social media audience willing to spend their time ingesting your content, trusting your voice with their time and abusing others with it - from my perspective - is the most shameful thing a person can do. To act as if this is not because of the trust others have in us, and to spread hate in a very hateful world, is nothing short of egregious.

But here we are speaking about it- because why shouldn’t I?

I want to show all of you that bullies will be exactly that, bullies and as much as we can ignore and pretend they don’t exist, I don’t believe that course of action does anything except force us, the victims of this, to pretend like it didn’t happen, and in turn, that means it’s okay to some regard, when its not.

So let's talk about it, let's address it, let's not let it slide anymore because too much has been pushed under that rug in our lives, and frankly, we deserve better. I deserve better- YOU. DESERVE. BETTER.

I love you all, stand up for yourself today because your life really does depend on it

xo- Ash