Culture

Women Are Protecting A Sexual Harassment Whistleblower From Doxxing By All Claiming To Be Her

We are all Spartacus.

by Sam Langford  11 January 2018
whistleblower

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Following rumours that Harper’s magazine was planning to out the whistleblower behind a list of men in media accused of sexual harassment, multiple women including film director Lexi Alexander have come forward to claim responsibility for the list.

“You didn’t think I was going to let [Harper’s] out me before I out myself?” Alexander wrote on Twitter this morning.

“I just needed to get some personal security in place… but luckily that used to be my job as you all know. So I’m ready.”

Related
People Are Fighting To Stop The Author Of An Infamous "Shitty Media Men" List From Being Outed

News that Harper’s was planning to publish an article naming the list’s creator drew widespread online backlash yesterday, with many concerned that naming the whistleblower would expose her to death threats and doxxing. Several writers with articles scheduled to appear in future issues of Harper’s pulled them from the magazine in protest, urging the publication to reconsider.

In the wake of the backlash, The New York Times published an interview with Katie Roiphe, the writer of the upcoming Harper’s piece, who claimed she did not know the identity of the whistleblower and did not plan to name her.

However, The New York Times also obtained emails showing that an individual believed to be the whistleblower had been contacted by Harper’s fact-checkers and was identified in a draft as someone “widely believed” to be responsible for the list, casting doubt on Roiphe’s claims.

“I Am Spartacus”: Multiple Women Are Claiming Responsibility

While Alexander maintains that she is indeed the creator of the list, multiple other women have also come forward to claim responsibility. Some of those claims appear to be spurred by a tweet by filmmaker Ana Breton, who tweeted yesterday that “if we all say we wrote it, they can’t target one specific person”.

In response to news of other people claiming responsibility, Alexander maintained that she is indeed responsible, tweeting that “anybody who says otherwise is full of shit”.

While it’s hard to know for sure now who created the list, it’s worth noting that Alexander returned from a Twitter break to claim responsibility this morning, and has not engaged at all with tweets encouraging multiple women to come forward.

Either way, she’s showed great courage and strength, either by genuinely exposing herself as the list’s creator, or by taking a bullet (hopefully not literal) for whoever did.