A story that needs to be told.
So as many of you know, I am a fan of Tamara Chambers, mostly known in our circles as the woman from The Nostalgia Critic. Of course she is much more than that, but that’s her highest visible role, at least to anyone reading this. She is also a stage actor as well as a stand up comic. We’ve traded emails, messages, and tweets. I’ve told her how much I love the Hyper Fan Girl character she portrayed (here is hoping for a return someday) and she has answered some of the questions I submitted to her in some of her videos (Still can’t pronounce my last name).
Recently though, Tamara became the victim of some really unnecessary comments online. Now, sadly, negative comments are nothing new, to her , to me, or to anyone with the kind of visibility that these websites bring. But this time around the comments said to her in direct response to a video she posted on Vine were way over the line. Messages about rape, her chest, and other things. Things no person should have to deal with.
Do I really have to say how terrible this is? Sure, you might not think she’s funny, or disagree with what she said in the video, but you aren’t proving anything except how utterly awful a person you are by saying someone is “to ugly to rape”. You aren’t being funny, no one is laughing, and no one is giving you points for the best “slam”. You are just showing what a miserable shit you are. You aren’t king of the internet, hell, you aren’t even anonymous as you think you are with such behavior. So when faced with such atrocious wastes of living space? She didn’t hide, she didn’t disappear.
She got even.
She not only contacted the mothers of the people making these comments, she got in touch with their local authorities and their school. Yeah, they were kids. Dumb stupid kids. Big surprise right? Not only did she not take this abuse sitting down, she took action.
When she posted the deplorable actions of these kids and what she did in response, she caught the eye of fellow Channel Awesome contributor and reporter for Touchvision, Beth Elderkin. Together they created a video report about the whole affair.
http://touchvision.com/video/100493
I felt the need to pass this along. There are many lessons to be learned from this. Be nice to people! You can disagree with them, not be a fan, or whatever, but you are not ENTITLED to treat people like shit. Also, the internet isn’t a safety screen to act like a dick. There are ways of tracking you down and hold you accountable for your actions.
But most of all the lesson I think that should be gathered from all this is that you don’t need to sit there and take abuse like this, whether it is online or off. Stand up for yourself! You have a right to exist and live and be awesome without having to deal with that kind of conduct. You are not alone and if you need help to get things to stop, then do it. You shouldn’t be a victim, no matter what.
Thanks to Tamara and Beth for their permission for this article.
RT Gomer Productions 