Or is this type of deranged, childish, asocial behavior almost exclusively a male thing?
I don't think I've ever encountered a female troll (except maybe on political topics but that's not really trolling; I am talking about the juvenile types of trolls who post topics like "Why doesn't King Kong (2005) have a penis?").
You forget some of the higher levels of trolling. For instance, dropping statements like: "... but, of course, all babies are stupid as can be" or "Everyone agrees that aliens must exist and are among us" into the middle of otherwise sane posts is definitely trolling. Whatever female trolls that exist out there are more likely of this stripe than the "proof that Batman is ghey" type.*
Trolling is the act of posting anything calculated to outrage and get replies whether or not the troll believes what they are saying or not. They feed on the replies; It gives them an endorphin squirt when they see the hive swarm.
I don't mind Trolls half of the time. Sometimes I find their success funny. The discussions that get started often evolve into quality reads. And, of course, it is always a pleasure to watch a discovered Troll get riddled with arrows from the more deft archers.
*There is another type of troll. The "Shill" troll (sort of the opposite of a shill, actually) or "false-flag" troll. Most popular in political exchanges but extant elsewhere, the troll will pretend to be someone with opposing views in order to behave in damning ways that appear to affirm their personal low view of them. For instance, pretending to be right wing and saying overtly racist things or pretending to be left wing and demonstrating profoundly low intelligence. This is where your female trolls are in higher numbers if you can include this category with trolling.
For instance, dropping statements like: "... but, of course, all babies are stupid as can be" or "Everyone agrees that aliens must exist and are among us" into the middle of otherwise sane posts is definitely trolling.
Oh trust me, there are trolls saying things exactly like that for the express purpose of pushing buttons for the joy of pushing buttons. Sure, there are some like that that are merely arrogant but it is they that the behavior is modeled after.
shareProbably. But it's probably like female serial killers. Y'know, it's far from a 50-50 split. (Or they're just mostly excellent at not being caught.)
shareUmmm, yes. They definitely do.
shareOh that’s just great. I’d never even ever considered the King Kong/penis question before until I read this. Thanks a lot.
shareWhat an innocent, sheltered life you've lived lol. This kind of post shows up on all kinds of movies, including both the OG Lion King and its 2019 remake. Basically most popular family-friendly entertainment that features "naked" animals.
shareI think it is mostly a young male thing, but remember one thing:
If a female behaves this way on a message board where nobody can see anyone else's face, everyone is going to assume they're really male.
My reason for thinking it's almost exclusively males doing the trolling is the content of the posts: an obsession with genitalia (like the recent topics about cold weather shrinkage), moaning about women being in movies, scatological "jokes," repetitive topics about "how woke is this movie" etc all sound like things an infantile guy would say. For example, a couple weeks ago a user called AckbersRevenge thought it would be amusing to bump all the films that explicitly refer to genitalia and make them trend. Maybe I'm naive but I really cannot imagine a woman doing something like that.
share[deleted]
But if a female was fool enough to dothat, you'd assume they were male, right?
It's hard to say because even if someone claims to be female on the internet, "she" could still be male, obviously.
The funniest one I ever saw was KittensFromArizona from the old IMDb Soapbox. I don't know for sure if she was really a she of course, nor do I know if she was an intentional troll or if she was just touched in the head. Here are a few quotes from her:
"When I ask him to finish, he talks me to go to make myself have sexual intercourse and then does himself of it, then continues there."
"My spouse thinks that telling him to stop the hell his video-games is too hard, but I am at the edge of having a bloody orgasm!"
"My son is coming tomorrow to give me a visit with his bitch."
"Sometimes he just angers himself, other times he will start yelling me and violating my furniture."
"I am not a Michelin Three-Star Chef, and yet he waits that I cook him filet mignon!"
Maxim, this is Gameboy from the IMDb Soapbox.
Do you remember Officer Hottie, the black cop prison guard who turned male stripper after serving years in prison for beating up a rapist?
He was outted as a white woman.
Yeah, women troll but it's usually more complicated and quite dramatic.
"Do you remember Officer Hottie, the black cop prison guard who turned male stripper after serving years in prison for beating up a rapist? He was outted as a white woman."
Yeah, I didn't know he was actually a she though. I wouldn't consider her to be strictly a troll though, her fake online persona notwithstanding. She got into a lot of arguments (usually over gun control, focusing on the role of guns in protecting women from rapists), and in those cases her arguments were legitimate.
The funniest dedicated Soapbox troll was Bluesfalcon74 IMO. His website was hilarious too.
I remember BlueFalcon only from around 2006 when I first joined.
I think we get into the definition of troll though. Smart posters troll to make a point. Yes, Hottie was legit on many issues. But he was 100% troll. He was very rapecentric. Lol.