I Hate Women…..

……..Apparently.

Yesterday, I was informed by a minor celebrity on Twitter that I was hating on women.

Yep, you read that right. I’m a woman hater.

Another week, another Twitter infused post. I’m beginning to think if it weren’t for Twitter I’d have a serious case of writers block.

Allow me to set the scene.

I’m scrolling through Twitter; my favourite ever social media platform, when I come across a blog post that had been retweeted by someone I follow.

Hmmmm, this looks interesting I thought. Might have a read of that.

And have a read I did.

The article itself was a bit of a piss take out of a hotel review someone had written.  The reason the blog post initially caught my eye, was because it referenced the late, great A A Gill.  A highly esteemed, incredibly talented restaurant critic who passed away the weekend just gone.  I’ve read many articles about Mr Gill since his death, hence this particular blog I’m describing to you now, attracting my attention.

The blogger had read the review in question and with a heavy dose of sarcasm and his tongue firmly in his cheek, written his take on the review.

It made me smile.

If a writer has a touch of humourous acerbity to their work then I’m instantly a fan. It’s clever, it’s funny and it has me drinking in every last word.

Once I’d finished reading the blog post, I tweeted back to the person who had retweeted it (are you keeping up?); which happened to also include the author of the blog post, another person who had commended the piece and the author of the actual initial hotel review too.

My tweet was concise and pertinent. I said

“That was my fave bit too. Great blog post”. 

For context, my favourite bit was the writer taking the piss out of a serious grammatical error the hotel reviewer had made, which ended up negating the point she was actually trying to make.

That was all my tweet said. I didn’t troll.  I didn’t get personal.  I was just appreciating a fellow writer’s work.  End of.

Hotel reviewer soon hits back. To me and me only.

Now, unfortunately, because said reviewer has decided to delete the tweet she sent me, I’m unable to include it in here. However, I can remember what she said.  Perhaps not word for word but part of that tweet has stuck in my brain.

Her tweet read something along the lines of “The world is a sad enough place as it is without women hating on one another”.

Um, what? I actually said out loud, despite being the only one in the room at the time.

Who’s hating on women? I had to check to see if she’d included anyone else in the tweet, but no, it was written solely to me.

My back well and truly went up.

I am many things, but I am NOT a woman hater.  I couldn’t give a flying fig who wrote that hotel review, be it male OR female.  I simply just enjoyed the blog post that satirically analysed it.

With hindsight, I wish I’d gone all David Brent on her ass and hit back with “How can I hate women? My Mum’s one” but instead sent a rather impassioned retort.

“Couple of things with your tweet.  Firstly, I don’t hate.  I have an opinion.  There is an extreme difference”.

I fully expected her to come back with a heated reply. Instead, she deleted the tweet and then decided to block me.

This infuriated me all the more. Unless you sent a few pissed up, stupid words into the Twittersphere one night, then ‘tweet and delete’ really is quite pathetic.

Have the courage of your conviction. You’ve accused me of hating on women.  I have no hate.  Just an opinion, an opinion with a small amount of substance.  I enjoyed a bit of a piss taking blog post.  That was it.

When you put something out into the public domain, you’re opening yourself up to criticism. Be it constructive or just bog standard, doesn’t really have a point; criticism.  That’s a risk you take. If someone called me an ugly bitch for something I’ve written (that’s happened before), then you’re either going to be on the receiving end of a full on expletive filled ‘Rach Rant’ or you’ll be met with the block button.  However, if you offer up debate or opinion then I’ll listen to you and likely take your points on board.

I won’t accuse you of hating on women. That is the weakest argument of all.

Interestingly, and perhaps rather ironically; I became aware of a little faux pas my newly appointed Twitter foe had made.   A follower of mine (thanks Papa Tont) brought a previous tweet of Karen Danczuk’s (yes, it’s THAT Karen Danczuk, ex-wife of Labour MP; Simon) to my attention.  And what a tweet it was.

Visual aid below.

So, Ms Danczuk, now who’s the woman hater, eh love?

On Twitter?  You can follow me (and keep up with the dramas) @ourrachblogs