Open Letter To Nicky Clark

Posted on the 18 August 2013 by Weekwoman @WeekWoman

Back off.

As you know, all I ever did a year ago, was believe people when I was new to twitter, that you had the power to get people suspended – and when I asked for a friend to be reinstated, to give you as the reason she had been suspended to TWO people. (long version here: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rlthgo) Given the timing of the suspension, it made sense. I have apologised for the assumption.

This is not good enough for you though. You have written blogs on the subject, which you tweet out every couple of days. Why Nicky? You claim to loathe all forms of bullying and abuse. Why so little compassion for someone who has suffered weeks of the most violent and graphic rape and death threats imaginable? Why so little compassion for someone who is now having to deal with the psychological fall-out from that – and let me assure you Nicky, it’s not pretty. In fact, it’s pretty bloody awful. I don’t sleep, I cry regularly, random parts of my body wake me up in the night in acute pain. I try to work; I can’t focus. Exhaustion creeps in, as do violent images and a sick feeling in my stomach.

It takes so little to push me over the edge these days – and what you’re doing is not little Nicky. It’s over a week of twisting the truth and tweeting about me when you can no longer tweet at me – because I’ve had to block you for my own mental health. I can see you feel you are the wronged party. But Nicky, I stand by my interpretation that tweeting a disabled woman setting up a list to celebrate people with disabilities with “hah ha despite being a disability rights campaigner I’m excluded from your #criplist hahahahahaha oh well…” and following it up with “Of course you’re allowed to have a bit of fun just for yourselves we carers are just here when you need us…. *yawn*” was wrong. It came, yes, from a position of privilege, that refused to see why it might be important for people with disabilities to have a list that was just about them. It came across as, and I believe was, selfish.

Perhaps you’ve apologised for these comments Nicky. I hope so. And I don’t like to bring them up, because to me, it seems petty. In fact the whole thing seems petty and I don’t want to be talking about it. I don’t want to be tweeting about it or writing about it. But you keep making it necessary.

You say you keep tweeting because I have some huge platform and my “version” spreads further. But Nicky, I never tweet about this. I never begin these episodes. You do when you tweet about me untruthfully – with enough truth to make it plausible. You are the one who is stalking my timeline and tweeting about what others tweet at me – which is, to say the lest, disturbing behavior. I don’t know why you’re doing this Nicky. I don’t know why the focus on me. All I can ask, is that you stop. Please.