Splicetoday

Politics & Media
Jan 13, 2017, 10:50AM

Martin Shkreli Is a Creepy Stalker

Chris Beck got it wrong about Lauren Duca.

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Fellow Splice Today contributor Chris Beck recently wrote that Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca is “skilled at playing the victim card” and that her response to the harassment by Martin Shkreli was to “turn to the patriarchy” to “fight her battles for her.”

I don’t follow Duca on Twitter, but her Tweet of Shkreli’s harassment went viral; it contained screenshots of Shkreli’s photo collage and a doctored photo, with his face posted over Duca’s husband, which he was using as his profile picture. The caption included a plea for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to help her out. I decided to take a look Shkreli’s page to see it for myself, and also to see if he’d offered any kind of response to her. It turns out that I’d blocked him, but could still see that he was indeed using the doctored photo in his profile picture, and that the collage was the header art on his main page. My own personal use of the block feature on social media is usually because someone was abusive to me or I saw someone being abusive to a person I enjoy chatting with, and was so repulsed that I’d do a pre-emptive block. Since I have no memory of ever chatting with Shkreli, and scrolling back through a year’s worth of old tweets told me I didn’t, I concluded that I must’ve observed him being abusive to someone else. Also, unlike Beck, I didn’t see the collage and the doctored photo as a “juvenile prank” or “harmless fun,” I saw it as the creepy stuff that stalkers do to assert dominance over their victims. Also, Beck’s assertion that Duca could’ve simply blocked Shkreli doesn’t hold any weight with me, especially when, if I’d already blocked him and could still see the photos, I don’t understand what it would’ve accomplished. Shkreli’s use of the pictures was a power trip. In addition to the pictures, there were a number of other creepy tweets.

Since I already had Shkreli blocked, I started hunting for other evidence that he’d harassed people on Twitter prior to Duca. I didn’t have to go very far, since another Splice Today contributor, Noah Berlatsky, shared a tweet from writer Dana Schwartz containing a screenshot of Shkreli describing himself as her boyfriend in his Twitter profile, in addition to pictures of her in his profile picture and header art. I saw this as perhaps establishing a pattern of behavior for Shkreli. But as I looked around for more information on the incident with Schwartz, I stumbled upon something I didn’t expect.

Beck, and a few others, have cited a picture that Duca tweeted out of Shkreli, captioned, “Martin Shkreli is literally at Guy Fieri’s Flavor Town right now. I don’t even know,” followed by subsequent tweets: “I left right away. I feel sick,” and “I felt so gross. I still feel gross.” The argument is that this picture is Duca firing the first shot. On the surface, it would appear that Duca happened to see one of the most despised men in the country and tweeted out a picture, while telling the world how gross she thinks he is. At least, that’s how I interpreted the incident; Beck saw it as “A feminist warrior in New York City is so sensitive she has to leave a restaurant because she can’t share the same air with someone she hates, and over three hours later still feels ‘gross?’” Beck also asked, “Isn’t it targeted harassment to use Twitter to single out someone who’s minding his own business in a restaurant and making him even more of an object of scorn?”

Here’s what happened: In August 2016, someone pretended to be Shkreli in an email chain scam that reached 400 members of the press, and that led to Shkreli arguing with some of those reporters. Someone suggested that the only way to resolve this was an afternoon of drinking at Guy Fieri’s Flavor Town. Shkreli actually followed through, inviting the press to happy hour and footing the bill. According to both Grub Street and Complex, the event was set for three p.m. on August 12, 2016. Duca’s photo is timestamped 2:37pm on that day. Shkreli also livestreamed the event for two hours on Periscope, with the video saved to Twitter—video that seems to have disappeared due to his banishment from the service. In Complex’s detailed article about the event, they said Shkreli was already at Flavor Town when they arrived; presumably Duca was already gone. Also, the turnout was very small, comprised only of the two people from Complex writing the article, plus a few others from Mashable and Adweek. While there’s nothing on either website about this incident, I did find that Mashable’s Kerry Flynn still has a 48-minute Facebook live video posted to her account. Complex describes the event as going on for almost three hours, but much of what’s in their article can be easily corroborated by Flynn’s video. I’d say that Shkreli is a surprisingly good sport over the email incident, even if his personality remained consistently arrogant, even when he manages to be engaging.

There’s no mention of Duca or Teen Vogue anywhere, so it’s safe to assume that she did in fact leave shortly after taking the picture. As a member of the press, she had a legitimate reason for being at Flavor Town that afternoon and tweeting out pictures of Shkreli. Why would she leave before the event is scheduled to start, and express her disgust for hours afterwards? As a woman, I know what kind of garbage an entitled douchebag can say or do to make a gal’s skin crawl, especially when there aren’t that many people around. I’m not a mind reader, but an ugly exchange strikes me as likely.

As for Schwartz, I have no idea why Shkreli would’ve targeted her. I do agree with Beck that some of Duca’s tweets where she calls white men trash aren’t worthy of defense; I hate that sort of thing. But I do wonder where Beck is learning about feminism, because the feminism he describes isn’t something I recognize. It’s a bit like when I hear evangelicals talk about the Bible, and realize I learned something different in Catholic school. But it probably explains how he arrived at viewing Ivanka Trump, one of nepotism’s greatest beneficiaries, as a “feminist exemplar.”

Beck’s main argument about Duca playing the victim card is something I see whenever women complain about harassment or assault, if they’re not being called desperate for attention. There’s an oft-cited Pew study that a lot of people have used to “prove” that men are harassed online more than women, but that’s not the whole story. The patterns of abuse are different, with women more likely to be stalked and sexually harassed, particularly over a sustained period of time (which Pew doesn’t specify).

Either way, online harassment is common. When Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asked users about their 2017 wish list for the service, the top three were an edit function, a better way to bookmark, and improved responses to harassment. Dorsey has asserted that addressing abuse is a priority of the company. To characterize Duca as a damsel running to the patriarchy is insulting, especially when Dorsey is volunteering himself.

Speaking of insulting, as one writer to another, I find it ridiculous that Beck is defending Tucker Carlson’s assertion that because Duca writes about fashion, she can’t write about more serious topics; Carlson once interviewed Stan Lee—does this mean he can only stick to comic books? I also think it’s as true when Duca called Carlson a partisan hack as when Jon Stewart said it.

What bothered me most about Beck’s piece is that we both saw the same evidence and came to very different conclusions. I saw Shkreli’s pictures of Duca and saw a stalker, and Beck saw a prank. I saw a woman concerned about her personal safety, and he saw a woman behaving like a whiny little girl. This breakdown is why women are afraid to report crimes perpetrated against them. Women’s truth is treated like something always open to negotiation.

Discussion
  • If you actually believe Duca's safety was in question, and that Shkreli's hasn't been for some time, then that explains everything. There's no need for me to respond in any way. That is simply ludicrous.

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  • Just blocking Shkreli doesn't work. By posting those pictures and sexualizing Duca, he signalled to all his followers that they should do the same. He painted a target on her...and sure enough, hordes of twitter assholes sent her the doctored pictures, or tweeted misogynist remarks at her.// Shkreli has attracted a huge amount of public attention and animosity because he is a very wealthy man who deliberately set out to make life harder for the ill and sick. Duca is the cause of a lot of animosity because more powerful men, like Tucker Carlson and Martin Shkreli, decided to make her a target for insults and harassment.// Beck thinks Duca is looking for attention, because he thinks all women are looking for attention. Women are always asking for it, in Beck's world. It's a common mindset, unfortunately.

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  • You sound like a fool when you pretend to know what I think and you're incapable of actually making an argument without personalizing it or distorting things. Kind of a cliché, really, and boring too.

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  • I don't believe that Duca was in immediate danger from Shkreli himself. As far as I know, he hasn't exhibited any violent tendencies, just a horrible personality. I think the real danger is in the online mob attacks. There are some really unhinged people out there who see Shkreli's behavior (or Yiannopoulos's) as a license to be terrible--doxing, threats of violence, swatting, driving people from their homes. It was necessary for Shkreli to be held accountable in a public to send the message that this behavior is unacceptable and has consequences.

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  • You mean like the justice freak crowd in the left does?

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  • I'll give you that one, to a point. So much online abuse going into violent rhetoric has become disconcertingly normal. I hate to go here (because I worry that I'm right), that the only thing left is for it to snowball into homicide.

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  • Jake Tapper on national TV: “I’m sure there are many ailing individuals out there who might like to remove Shkreli’s smile with the business end of a shovel.” That's incitement to violence from a respected source.

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  • There's nothing to stop you from writing an angry letter to CNN.

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  • Why didn't all the fine progressives making Shkreli into a monster say anything about the regulatory process, supported by many Democrats, that's just as responsible for what happened as he was? Duca probably doesn't even know about it. Maybe you don't, I don't know. Much easier to shit post on him and say she feels gross. Sounds like high school.

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  • Are you referring to the FDA regulatory process? What would that have to do with him harassing people online?

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  • It has to do with him being placed in a position where people can be patted on the back for shit posting about him and then whining when he retaliates.

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  • Oh, I see. You're reverting back to the "she started it" argument. So I'll repeat that hundreds of reporters were invited to Guy Fieri's that day. Duca had a legitimate reason to be there and take pictures. Why she left early and made the comments that she did, I don't know.

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  • You don't know? I just explained it. He was made a punching bag that any progessive could take a shot at and feel like they were doing good. The guy was the son of an immigrant doorman and he gave a million dollars to a high school. How gross.

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  • Doesn't everyone learn at an early age that the best way to get people to leave you alone is to leave them alone? The more you attack, the more you get attacked. It's not complex.

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  • Did you forget that his notoriety comes from crazy price hikes on Thiola and Daraprim? It's not like he's a pundit most people find disagreeable, his actions interfered with people being able to afford their medication.

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  • Ascribing all of Ivanka's accomplishments to nepotism sounds sexist to me. Certainly not feminist. Her talent, intelligence, drive, and business acumen are undeniable. You sound like the patriarchy.

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  • Interesting that you take issue with my positve characterization of an accomplished woman, yet don't mention why I brought her into this. It's because when she was on a plane with her children some asshole verbally harassed her, no doubt scaring her kids. Right after that, poor feminist victim Lauren Duca tweeted that people shouldn't give her a break because she looks good. In other words, they should not be concerned about a woman with young children being subject to abuse in public. You asked where I'm getting my ideas about feminism, well here's an example for you.

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  • I’m willing to give Ivanka Trump the benefit of the doubt that she’s an intelligent, hard-working person. What I don’t like is the way she and her brand are marketed on the denial that her coming from a wealthy and well-connected family had any influence on her being where she is with her career at her age. She’s perpetuating the same marketing BS that is sold to women all the time, that if they would just work harder and take better care of themselves, and buy her products by women in third world sweatshops, then they would magically “have it all.” What she sells is a superficial feminism as lifestyle brand, not actual feminism. She has more in common with Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian than women I consider actual “feminist exemplars,” like Serena Williams and Kim Gordon.

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  • I went back to Lauren Duca’s tweet, and while I think it was glib (“don’t let Ivanka off the hook because she looks like she smells good”), I didn’t see any specific indication that she was condoning harassment. I took it to mean that as a public figure with access to the president-elect, Ivanka should be held accountable for her words and actions in that regard. Duca herself tried to make that case in the interview with Tucker Carlson, but, personally, I think she came off as inarticulate and immature (and I have no doubt that I would be chided as “tone policing” for that), and that argument failed to come through. And to be clear, I think harassing Invanka on the plane like that was terrible, and JetBlue made the right call in throwing the guy off the plane. That stuff does our side (which I loosely define as anti-Trump) accomplishes nothing but giving guys like Carlson ammunition to credibly argue that the left is made up of spoiled cry babies. As for my question about where you’re learning feminism, all you’ve shown me is that if you hunt for hypocrites, you’ll find them in ANY movement. To be more specific: what books are you reading? What speakers are you listening to?

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  • Let's see if I've got this straight. A man harasses a women with her young children (5, 3, 3 mos. old) so badly he's booted from the flight. Then a "feminist" comments on the situation by saying this woman shouldn't be "let off the hook" because she looks good. That's the one comment she chooses to make, when could have said something like, all women, regardless of who they are,  have the right to travel with their kids and not get harassed by a man. Then another feminist says that this comment should not be seen as condoning the harrassment of a woman by an out of control, abusive man. You asked where I'm learning about feminism and here's a good example of where I'm learning things.

  • I cannot believe you gave such a Palin-esque answer to “Who are you reading?” Do your homework. Good day.

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  • That was obviously a response to what you said about Duca, not an answer to a question.

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