The tweet that stung with the cold hatred of antisemitism

JANE CARO has received all manner of insults for her outspoken feminist views but a tweet that said she ‘is a Jew and behaves like one’ has cut deeper than the rest.

As an out-and-proud feminist, I am used to getting abused and insulted on social media. As they say, the comments on any article dealing with feminism prove the need for feminism. After more than a decade, I thought I had become immune, thanks to a bit of luck and good timing.

My age, even though it is also used as a form of abuse, helps me recognise that people who spew bile at a person they have never met reveal much more about themselves than anyone else. And, as you age, you run out of fucks to give, especially about what other people might think of you.

I also spent 35 years in advertising agency creative departments so I have been bullied by some of the wittiest men in Australia. Your average troll is piss-weak compared to them. Those witty bullies in ad agencies – and its highly competitive, so bullying is rife – also taught me how to give as good as I got. I had to learn that in order to survive.

But my sense of immunity is also because of my background. I am a white, straight, middle class, well-educated woman. This gives me a buffer of safety that many people don’t have.

Being old and battle-hardened has enabled me to brush off being called crazy, a drunk, a bitch, a misogynist, a misandrist, a man-hater, old and senile, bitter and twisted, stupid, irrational, ugly, double-, triple- and quadruple-chinned, a clown, a dupe, a liar, a hypocrite, bound for hell, a baby killer, a snowflake, a leftard, even a paedophile (everyone is now a paedophile to the right). Trolls have openly wished for me to be hurt, humiliated or killed. Of course, many more people have been kind, supportive, complimentary, encouraging and gone into battle on my behalf. That helps too.