On a whim, I peeled a mango for my daughter, posted it on Twitter, and jokingly mentioned that I wasn't worthy of eating it myself. Unexpectedly, it went viral, and I was blasted online.
A popular actress, Cynthia Thompson, reposted my tweet, encouraging women to bravely be themselves.
As the waves of online hatred poured in, a wealthy heir in Ignisreach posted two large boxes of mangoes on Twitter and tagged me. His tone was gentle and doting: [These are all for Amy. You're allergic to mangoes, so you can't eat them.]
——
My sweet daughter was sick and begged me to peel a mango for her.
I looked down at my freshly done 2000-dollar manicure, sighed helplessly, and complied.
I posted a photo of the peeled mangoes on Twitter.
Feeling a bit hard done by, I posted a photo on Twitter, making fun of how I couldn't eat the mango I had peeled.
After my beauty treatment, my best friend, Donna Hayes, called to tell me I had gone viral. She urged me to check the top trending topic.
Puzzled, I opened Twitter.
At the top of the trending list was a piece of news: [Popular Actress Cynthia Thompson Says Women Should Be Brave and Be Themselves!]
Confused, I wondered what that had to do with me.
Notifications of message replies kept popping up.
Feeling uneasy, I checked the comments.
To my dismay, I saw Cynthia had retweeted my post with the caption: [Women should bravely be themselves.]
I felt speechless and checked the comments.
Floods of abusive comments hit me.
[If you can't afford to have kids, don't have them!!]
[Self-pitying is just disgusting.]
[Seriously, lady? It's just a mango. Why aren't you worthy of eating it?]
[This is terrifying. If I have kids and can't even eat a mango, why bother having kids?]
[So sad. As a mother, you're not even worthy of eating a mango?]
I stared at the comments, baffled.
It wasn't that serious. I was just joking about my mango allergy.
How did it escalate to this? Were netizens today that imaginative?
Even if it's a self-indulgent post, so what?
I posted it on my social media, and no one was forced to see it.
My daughter was happy eating it, and I was happy peeling it. Why should others care?
Comments were welcome, but why the vitriol?
Nowadays, netizens were too aggressive.
Even a passing dog would get cursed.
I checked my inbox.
It was filled with abusive messages, full of vile language.
Only a few supportive messages, mostly from other moms, comforted me to withstand the online abuse, understanding my devotion to my child.
I looked at the messages, amused and annoyed, just as my husband called.
Matthew Sullivan sounded worried and asked what was going on.
I shrugged helplessly and explained, "Amy wanted me to peel a mango for her. After peeling, I joked about not being able to eat it due to my allergy, and the netizens overreacted."
After a moment of silence, Matthew listened and said a bit resentfully, "You've never peeled a mango for me."
I was both amused and exasperated by his comment. "Is that the point? The point is your wife is being cyberbullied right now!"
