Ford is known for calling-out the men who abuse her online. Now one of them is facing serious repercussions. Not that he seems to care. Max Chalmers reports.
A man has been dismissed from his job at Meriton Apartments after calling popular feminist writer and Fairfax columnist Clementine Ford a “slut”, and sharing racist jokes from his personal Facebook page.
Michael Nolan, who had listed himself as a “supervisor” for the business, wrote the offending comment under a post shared by Ford on her public Facebook page, which has close to 80,000 followers.
Ironically, it was a post in which Ford had called-out another online abuser.
“This was a comment left on the thread of a screenshot of a man publicly saying I would jibber less with a cock in my mouth,” Ford posted. “Calling me ‘slut’ in response to that is baffling, unless this man genuinely believes that women who speak out against abuse need to be taken down. Why should I put up with that?”
This is Gary White from Toowoomba. Gary didn’t like something I said. Why do men like Gary always have children? pic.twitter.com/mXY1jTePcc
— Clementine Ford (@clementine_ford) November 24, 2015
On top of the insult, Nolan had shared a number of racist posts from his own page, which Ford captured and shared.
In a further irony, the jokes had targeted Romanian, Pakistani, and African immigrants for not having jobs.
In an update today, Ford told followers Meriton Group had contacted her to confirm it had investigated the matter.
“Meriton Group does not condone this type of behaviour. Michael Nolan was removed from the Meriton site on Saturday 28th November pending an investigation, and as of 2:30pm today 30th November 2015, he no longer works for the Meriton Group,” correspondence from the group, shared by Ford, said.
Nolan confirmed the incident to a friend on Facebook though did not appear to express that he was either upset or remorseful.
Asked if he had lost his job he responded: “Yea brah”.
He then suggested this would be a good time to “drop my mix tape”.
In further posts, Ford outlined her reasons for taking action against Nolan.
“I did think about it before I did it, and then I decided that no. These men don’t get to just go around leaving these kinds of comments and attempting to degrade women just for the hell of it. Why should they get away with it? Why should there be no consequences at all for them?”
She thanked Meriton Apartments and said she did not accept responsibility for Nolan’s newfound unemployment.
“He is responsible for the things he writes and the attitudes he holds. It is not my responsibility to hold his hand and coddle him when he behaves in an abusive manner just because it might have consequences for him.
“Women are often told to stay silent about harassment because it’s not fair to ‘ruin a man’s career’. Why is their behaviour our responsibility? Enough. If you enjoy exercising misogyny online, you only have yourself to blame if the people with power over your life – your bosses, friends, family etc – decide that they don’t want to be associated with you anymore. The targets of your abuse are in no way, shape or form responsible for making sure your actions have no recriminations for you.”
Ford’s criticism of sexism and writing on women and gender have seen her inundated with abuse from men, leading her to regularly name and shame abusers. The tactic has led some to apologise after their anonymous insults and threats went public.
In October, a lawyer for a man who allegedly sent violent rape threats to young women on Facebook told the Newtown Local Court he was likely to plead guilty to charges involving the use of a carriage service to harass.
The case blew-up after being shared by Ford.
In a final post, Ford said there had always been consequences for online behaviour.
“Typically though, it’s girls and women who are expected to ‘know better’ when it comes to posting things online,” she wrote.
“Tables are turning, boys.”
Meriton Group and Michael Nolan have been contacted for comment.
Donate To New Matilda
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
