The Pleasure of Clapping Back

On engaging with trolls and having nemeses

Illustration by Johnalynn Holland

In my essay, “Bad Feminist,” which I wrote much earlier in my career, I said I did not want to be put on a pedestal as a feminist or, really, as anything, because I understood, even then, that when you’re put on a pedestal, you’re frozen in place and time. You aren’t allowed to move, to grow, to fail. People see you as you were when they put…