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Ashley Judd recalls traumatic past rape, incest in hitting back against abusive Twitter users

This article is more than 12 months old

Women's rights is her cause and she means business.

Ashley Judd recently penned a powerful piece for website Mic.com, addressing her traumatic past with rape and incest in hitting back at Twitter users who were verbally abusing her. 

On Sunday (March 15), the Hollywood actress had tweeted her disappointment at players of the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team, whom she felt were "playing dirty". 

Her passionate tweet was because she is an alumna of the University Of Kentucky, and is a fan of the college's basketball team, the Wildcats.

The response she got - abusive messages that threatened rape - enraged her. 

She wrote: 

"During a conference championship game on Sunday, I posted a comment to Twitter that some found unsportsmanlike. I didn't much care for three players bleeding on the court, and I tweeted that the opponent was 'playing dirty & can kiss my team's free throw making a—.' The volume of hatred that exploded at me in response was staggering.

"I routinely cope with tweets that sexualize, objectify, insult, degrade and even physically threaten me...... But this particular tsunami of gender-based violence and misogyny flooding my Twitter feed was overwhelming.

"......My intellect was insulted: I was called stupid, an idiot. My age, appearance and body were attacked."

Judd, 46, then attached some of these abusive tweets in her post.

New York Daily News reported that Judd said that she is looking into taking legal action against these Internet trolls.

She implored people to stand up for "what is right" and continue to talk about the social injustice that occurs on social media platforms - perhaps best described by one of her Twitter supporters in the simple question: "How many guys tweet things like that during game, with no blow back?" (sic)

Having been sexually abused before, being vilified online had triggered painful emotions.

In her no-holds-barred essay, she gave shocking details of her traumatic past.

"I am a survivor of sexual assault, rape and incest. I am greatly blessed that in 2006, other thriving survivors introduced me to recovery. I seized it... 

"The summer of 1984 was tough for me. I experienced two rapes by an adult and systematic molestation from another adult, who also had another man in the room watching (I now understand this was to ensure he had a witness, in order to undermine me in the event I tried to report the incident). I have done purgative, cathartic work on those particular acts of violence. The nature of recovering from trauma is that it can be ongoing, with deeper levels of healing and freedom coming with indefatigable persistence to keep chipping away at it."

Sources: Identities.Mic.com, New York Daily News

Ashley Juddunited statesCOURT & CRIMEUncategorisedabuseinternet