Language is important. On the September 30 episode of The View, Candace Cameron Bure (a.k.a. DJ Tanner) talked about her experience with internet trolls. Cyberbullying is terrible, and it's important to talk about it. But the words Bure used to describe her ordeal have left many viewers shifting in their seats.
The conversation starts with a discussion of Lena Dunham, who had admitted she doesn't manage her own Twitter account after a photo she posted in her BF's underwear inspired particularly nasty comments. Bure jumps in to explain, "I've never been more verbally abused in my life than on Twitter. And specifically in the last few months, having come on this show, a lot of people don't agree with me, that's fine. But you don't have to verbally abuse me and rape me. That's what they do to me on Twitter."
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Women in general, and of course women in the spotlight, do receive a frighting amount of abuse online, and that is something that needs to be discussed and changed. But no one raped Bure on Twitter. In a culture when rape victims are often dismissed or distrusted, it's not a word that can ever be used lightly. And this may just have been one unthoughtful moment, but sadly for Bure, she's probably going to receive a pretty harsh Twitter backlash for it.