Taxonomy of Online Trolls: An Attempt to Bolster Women’s Resistance

Since when did a creature from Norse mythology become the plague of our online lives? ‘Trolls’,
dwellers of caves, isolated rocks or deep forests in these ancient tales lived far away from human beings
and led their own trollish lives. It is quite unfair that the internet has usurped the name of these
somewhat harmless beings to use as a slur for those rather loathsome humans who encroach on our
virtual social spaces stalling and disrupting conversations, discussions or debates that may have
relevance to our lives. A quick research points to the 1980s when the word ‘troll’ first appeared as an
internet slang, to be added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 1992. While almost anyone may be bait
for trolls for what they post on social media, women seem to specifically attract their attention. While
generally the targets happen to be women who are independent, fearless in expressing their viewpoints
and speak up against discriminations and injustices in society, they also do not leave out any other
woman, including those from their own ilk if such a woman were to say or do anything that they feel are
not playing by their rules. Majoritarianism thrives on such trolls and their bullying online, and brings out
the most regressive tendencies of society to the surface through their persistent attacks on women. So I
have attempted to put together a basic 101 sort of taxonomy of online trolls that women can be aware
of and take necessary action against. While trolls attack everywhere from emails to youtube videos to
blogs, I am focussed on social media sites. This is my earnest contribution to bolster women’s resistance.
If not immediately useful, I hope this is at least entertaining.

They are classified here below – not any order of importance but that of how I experienced them over
the past few years on my page and those of my friends:

Mantroll

Affliction: These are trolls in the garb of men. Or the other way round. Their ambit of engagement is very
wide including raising objections to women who say dreadful feminist things like demanding equality
and justice, to women who say....just about anything. They are shocked and offended at the terrible
reality of women having brains or the ability to speak their mind. They jump in so much into
conversations which are none of their business, or in which they can offer nothing, that many online
interest groups now mention ‘no men allowed’. Their posts can range from the ridiculously silly to darn
nasty depending on their craving for misogyny. Their tactics include shaming, humiliating, demeaning
and threatening women.

Action: Memes or feminist posters that show the middle finger in various aesthetic styles and genres can
throw them off. Especially surrealist techniques. But if you have a lazy Wednesday afternoon (never
waste any weekends on these) when your boss is being particularly boorish, take the time to punch
holes in their non arguments. Only if you do not have some other important things to do like filing your
nails.

Fantroll

Affliction: These are unique creatures to be found on pages of famous talented people - mostly artists or
writers. They first abuse the host for their political or social points of view and then add at the end lines
like ‘but I love to listen to your music – you the best’ or ‘but you are my favourite poet and I cannot
spend a day without reading your writing.’ They have absolutely no sense of the irony of such
statements juxtaposed right next to those that berate the host for opinions like same sex marriages
should be legalised. They are also incapable of understanding why their deep submission as a fan is not
enough for the famous person to also abide by their regressive socio-political ideas. And this offends
them further. The injustice then eggs them on to further malign the host. Of course ‘dil pe patthar rakh
ke’.

Action: Only those of us who are super talented will face these creatures so I have been saved from
them. But I have seen some of my friends respond. The best that works is ‘thank you for your kind
gesture’. They might respond with a smiley and move on to greyer pastures.

Gyantoll

Affliction: These trolls are very boring. They know philosophy, card tricks, politics, spiritualism, stock
market, medicine, horse trading and other such allied areas of study. Basically they ‘know-it-all’. And
they cannot contain the knowledge in themselves which comes pouring out on the pages of women.
These jewels of thought are mostly not related to the topic of discussion but then how can one question
such profundity! And who knows, perhaps the apparent lines of wisdom from the Upanishads may have
a relevance to the chronic peptic ulcer that is in discussion. Also, a quick internet search generally
proves that the knowledge that they spout are often erroneous. They have skipped going to the school
where they teach how to quote and reference texts. It is quite enough for them to know that they know
and then it must be known that they know. Again, very boring.

Action: This can be fun. Search the internet for absurd quotations from the 17 th or 18th century. Pick two
lines. Add a few sentences with computer codes to it. Paste under their comments with a line that reads,
‘But you could also consider....’. The further away in relevance it is to their post, the better.

Controll

Affliction: This troll is the most entertaining of trolls. Sort of ‘consters’ of the troll world. They cook up
and scavenge all sorts of fake news and hoax materials to establish their non-existent points. Some of
the tales are quite fantastic belonging to the museum of the absurd. They are geniuses at creativity. At a
moment’s notice they can shape-shift countries, time lines, histories and even people. They are pretty
good at all sorts of computer programmes that enable masking and morphing. Their only problem is that
by lying all the time and overtime they tend to start believing in some of their own creations and get
their tails in a twist.

Action: If you are feeling generous you could use the hoax slayers available online to burst their bubble.
But if you do not have the time then a simple superlative like ‘Wow’ would do. That generally makes
them send more fun stuff your way.

Saintroll
Affliction: These are serious trolls. Totally morally righteous. Will show each woman her place low down
on that moral register your mother never introduced you to. These trolls often go back to unidentified
‘ancient’ times when women were ‘good’, if not ‘people’. They lament the glorious past profusely while
establishing moral and ethical superiority over the host. They are also experts in all kinds of adverse
effects for women of short skirts, deep red lipsticks, eating chowmein and driving cars. Their specific
anguish is often directed at working mothers and single women – the two ends of the ‘responsibility’
spectrum of the burdens that women must bear - or the lack of it.

Action: You can either self declare yourself a ‘chhilam chhap mataji’ or ignore. You cannot get through
the stringent rigour of their uptight righteousness any other way.

Bantroll

Affliction: These trolls want to shut you up no matter what you are saying. Shut you up, put you away,
pull the shutters in front of you so that you are not heard or seen ever again. They are vitriolic at several
levels and no engagement of any kind is possible with them since they are pretty militant about you
being silent and invisible. They might give several reasons as to why they think that’s best for humanity
but soon it will be evident that their intrinsic problem is that you happen to be a woman. And that too
one who thinks.

Action: Feed them their medicine. Ban them from your page by agreeing to their logic of wanting to ban
you.

And finally there is the Terrotroll.

Affliction: This is where the rape threats, acid attacks, and picture of the door of your house with a ‘I
know where you live’ comes in. These are violent and malicious trolls who feel they have a right to scare
women with the most obvious insinuations. Cowards that they are, they feed on the fear they try to
perpetuate and are atrocious bullies. But like all bullies and cowards they wither and disappear when
faced with strong and formidable opponents.

Action: Name them, shame them, report them. And if they persist, lodge an FIR, seek solidarity and
make their living hell.

In the Chinese language trolling is referred to as ‘bai mu’ which literally means ‘white eye’. It refers to
eyes without pupils. While pupils allow us to see the white around it does not. So basically this means
blindly speaking utter garbage online. Trust the Chinese of the ancient wisdom for finding such a term
for trolls. As far as I am concerned there was a time I actually liked those mythological creatures in
Scandinavian tales, otherworldly beings who lived far away from human habitation and had nothing to
do with the human world.