Georgetown University Responds Amid Backlash to Prof’s ‘White Men’ Tweet, Twitter Suspends Account

Twitter suspended and removed verification from Georgetown University Distinguished Associate Professor Christine Fair’s account on Tuesday, following a string of tweets in which she suggested that white Republican senators “deserved miserable deaths while feminists laugh” and that people should “castrate their corpses and feed them to swine.”

A Twitter spokesperson told Campus Reform that the professor’s account was suspended in error the first time. The account was restored hours later and the professor wasted no time in further expressing her views on the platform.

“Fox News Failed to silence me. Thank you all for sending @Twitter messages of support. I do NOT and NEVER have condoned violence. My tweet, as I have explained, was an attempt to make YOU as UNCOMFORTABLE as I am using the language of the abuse I receive[d] by the hundreds,” Fair tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.

“And let’s be very clear: Fox News says it cares about ‘campus safety’ while DELIBERATELY stoking angry herds to threaten the very safety of the same. Fox News and its minions is a mouthpiece of this anti-woman, racist, xphobic, bigoted regime,” Fair added.

Not long after Fair’s account was restored, however, it was once again suspended. {snip}

Fair’s Twitter suspension followed a tweet she sent over the weekend in which she suggested that Republican senators “deserve miserable deaths.”

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Campus Reform contacted Fair following both tweets. She responded by personally attacking both reporters on her blog site, the “Tenacious Hellpussy.” She describes the page as “A NASTY WOMAN POSTING FROM THE FRONTLINES OF FUCKERY.”

In her post, “When ‘Aunt Lydia’ of Campus Reform Tried to Launch Another Harassment Campaign: This is what she got,” Fair compared a female Campus Reform correspondent to Aunt Lydia from the Handmaid’s Tale. Aunt Lydia is a female character in the novel and show who works for the men to help them abuse other women.

“And you, Aunt Lydia, are a potential victim of this war as well even though you shill for those persons and institutions who sustain it and seek to perpetuate it,” Fair said in the post. “Do you think your potential assailant will care that you enable the patriarchal structures that devalue our lives and the work we do and construct legal structures that privilege the attacker? Do you think complicit women and lousy men will be less likely to slut shame you because you are one of their paid-keyboards? No, Aunt Lydia.”

{snip} Fair accused another Campus Reform correspondent of “bullying” her in response to an email asking for clarification and comment regarding one of the professor’s tweets.

“You know what you’ll never see? A room full of man-hating female (cis or trans) legislators sitting around a table discussing coverage for your Viagra, your Cialis, your prostate preventative care, your prostate cancer, your gynecomastia (moobs if you will) if it becomes cancerous, etc.” she wrote in response to a request for comment from Campus Reform.

Amelia Irvine, a senior at Georgetown University, responded to Fair’s conduct in a statement to Campus Reform.

{snip} “Why won’t Georgetown clearly tell professors and students that calling for violence against others is unacceptable?”

“Georgetown urges members of our community to engage in robust, but respectful dialogue,” a Georgetown spokesman told Campus Reform. “While we protect speech and expression, we condemn uncivil and disrespectful discourse that is inconsistent with our values.”

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In a separate statement, Georgetown University President John DeGioia added “we can and do strongly condemn the use of violent imagery, profanity, and insensitive labeling of individuals based on gender, ethnicity or political affiliation in any form of discourse. Such expressions go against our values.”

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