Australia Next Top Model Judge Attempts Suicide
Charlotte Dawson is a judge on the Australian version of Next Top Model. On Wednesday night she was the victim of a coordinated cyber bullying campaign and she apparently attempted suicide. Charlotte was on television to speak about bullying and right after it ended, a bunch of people on Twitter decided to bully her. It went on for hours and then she told them they won and the next thing you know she is being rushed to the hospital after attempting suicide. In a strange set of circumstances, Dawson is scheduled to appear on Australian television tonight which has already happened I suppose because of the time difference to talk about bullying.
79 comments:
People have gotten so nasty because of the Internet. It makes it so easy to say mean things and sit behind a computer screen.
I would say to her. Cancel your google notice for yourself and articles about you, cancel you twitter, cancel your Facebook. You don't have to put yourself in this type of situation once you remove yourself. You can still be famous, make money, get modeling or hosting jobs without having social media you run yourself. Pay someone to handle those pages if you MUST have them.
She is so beautiful it is beyond me how anyone could say anything mean or rude to her.
She must hv had problems, or mb trying to graphically show what happens when u bully. Wish her well!
There just *has* to be more to this story. Can't research it now because I'm on my way to work, but I hope to have time to later today.
I feel bad for her but why didn't she stay off of Twitter, etc. You can't be harassed if you don't check the site.
I also think it's ironic that she spoke out about bullying but she didn't know how to use the appropriate 'coping skills' or know how to use available outlets to not be affected so badly.
This is heartbreaking! Why are people so mean?!?
Another reminder that we should be more kind to each other and be respectful with our comments. Right on Smash!
If you wouldn't say it too my face, why put it in writing? Words are just as hurtful as a knife in the belly. Sometimes worse. Let's be kind people!
Best wishes to you Charlotte on your recovery!
And speaking of bullying, has anyone else noticed that LeAnn Rimes has been awfully quiet this weekend (they said she would be out on weekends). Maybe she's starting to realize that she needs to stay away from Twitter.
I never watched her on ANTM, but I wonder how nasty she was to contestants. I say that because I find it hard to take anti-bullying commentary when the judges on some of these shows can be quite nasty. Yes, I know it's not bullying, but sometimes there's an element of hypocrisy.
Also, I wonder how much of this has been related to some pretty bad comments she made about her home country, NZ.
In any event, I hope she recovers and stops listening to bs on Twitter and the like.
Social media has become a haven for the little people to spew venom 'for fun'. It's like a game, for shits and giggles. Saturday Night Live had a skit about these losers who go on websites and post things like 'you're fat/ugly/old/stupid/gay' cause they have no consequences. The skit shows how these fools are spineless when confronted. If only it could really happen.
http://lockerz.com/u/celebrity.chatta3762/decalz/12343301/snl_with_melissa_mccarthy_internet_comm
She should be enjoying her life instead of having to deal with this crap. And I agree the internet allows every mean jealous unhappy shit to torture others...it needs to stop.
it was more than bullying, she was getting death threats - that might put any one of us over the edge.
A 46 year old attempted suicide because people were mean to her on Twitter?
God, you guys are all fat, ugly, jealous and pathetic.
Damnit, wrong website. I was trying to troll Celebitchy.
That's sad and all but for the love of God, why stay on Twitter? I just read a longer news article about this and it wrote: "After spending hours fending off the insults, Dawson signed off with the disturbing message "you win x'' along with a picture of a hand holding pills at 2.07am."
Sigh. Hours fending off the insults? They only exist on Twitter. Log off. There's no law stating you must be on Twitter and answer to every tweet about you.
I'm sorry, I know this isn't very sensitive of me but good God, get a grip.
This reeks to me. I think it's a stunt.
@patty - I remember that sketch. I'm gonna start writing "mad gay, yo" in all my comments :/
@surfer - I assumed her lawyers told her to STFU (?)
Weird, I can't imagine caring that much about what strangers think of me. I might be bothered by harassment but I'd just check out of the situation.
Twitter had a block button.
Bullying is cowardly. There's bullying on here too. Smh
@djphob - was thinking the same thing at first. An elaborate demonstration of how internet bullying goes down. It all seems a bit too perfect in the set up and timing.
However, I just don't want to believe that she would purposely go to those lengths. So I'll give her the benefit of the doubt until we know more. We're all human and fragile and have breaking points.
I agree with Anita. That's so melodramatic. Photo of pills in the hand, 'you win.' She wasn't playing gin rummy. This whole story makes no sense and from face value of this post by Enty, it sounds like a ploy. It reeks. No respect here. I want to read the whole story. But no grown woman is a victim of twitter and I just can't see someone her age taking pills as if people were requesting that she die and she'd entered a contest with that prize on the table. Im dusgusted by this whole thing. It seems to be a slap in the face mockery of people who actually have no escape from this sort of thing.
This post is just tailor-made for a particular commenter to come in & start losing his shit again. I'm subscribing.
I think the word "bullying" is thrown around a little too casually these days.
Does anyone know how much creative control Tyra has over the international editions of ANTM? Given her re-hauling the U.S. version to incorporate more "social media" voices into the evaluations, I wonder if interracting with "fans" via Twitter was a requirement for this judge (making it difficult if not impossible to just ignore Twitter entirely).
Charlotte Dawson has always sort of encouraged her haters. She retweets all of them. So one particular woman told her to go hang herself, which CD retweeted, and then one of her fans told the woman she should be ashamed of herself because the fan's husband hung himself and it's not something you should wish on anyone. The hater then told the fan something along the lines of, she must be a horrible human and if she were her husband she'd hang herself too.
At this point CD got pretty mad that this hater was now attacking an innocent fan she didn't even know simply because she tried to defend Charlotte, so CD tracked down the fan's real name and job (she works at a university) and went public to the media about all the cyber-bullying and how it crossed the line to attack her fans and started with the whole anti-bullying stuff. I think she thought there would be outrage at the bullies but no one really seemed to care. And it kicked off a barrage of not just insults, but hundreds of people tweeting death threats and suggesting ways she should kill herself.
So, I doubt she really tried to kill herself, but, her involvement in this started from a good place and trying to help, and I find it fairly shocking that not only did no one in Australia care that people on twitter were attacking her and her fans in this matter, but everyone on this board seems to be condemning her. Where is the outrage over the people that go on Twitter and threaten other's lives?
My heart goes out to her.
For those of you saying "why didn't she just...?" Try to remember that clinical depression isn't rational. It doesn't leave room for "this is silly, it shouldn't matter" when you are deep inside it.
Clearly, she's got some challenges to deal with. When you are mentally healthy, a bunch of losers on the Internet are just that. When you are close to suicidally depressed? They can be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back.
I'm just glad the word "attempted" is next to "suicide" there. All too many people many to succeed.
I hope this gets her the help she needs.
(edit/repost for stupid autocorrect)
Char- thanks for that back story.
I just hate the fact that people can say these horrible things and hide under a cloak of anonymity. If you hate someone enough to tell them to kill themselves, post it using your own name and deal with the consequences.
This is terrible of me to say on some level, I think this is a publicity stunt. A suicide attempt due to Twitter sounds like something a 13-year old would do (and has done, sadly). But it seems pretty far-fetched that an adult in the public eye would be a) that directly connected to their public marketing and b) that personally affected by it.
Maybe it's because I've been online forever, but I learned a long time ago if the heat gets to be too much, leave the kitchen. If the argument has gotten vicious and ridiculous and you're being compared unfavorably to Hitler, step away from the keyboard. Turn off your devices and unplug for a few days. Those people can't actually get you. Are people losing the ability to even realize they aren't required to be accessible 24/7, or ever?
If you want to clean all the crud out of a pond, you've got to build a resistance to getting dirty yourself.
In a utopian society, everyone would understand the extent of how what they do/say affects others, and interact with each other accordingly. But we don't live in a utopian society. We can't control what others say about us but we can control every part of how we react to it. Sometimes just ignoring everything doesn't work all that well and ends up feeling like you're just being slowly chipped away at.
I like to make fun of the person directing hate at me. Hateful ppl despise embarrassment. And, wit/humor are universally recognized. Works for me anyway.
It's awful that trolls like that exist but they do and what keeps them going is attention. They can't scream angry things at you if you don't pay attention to them.
If I got on Twitter and had followers start screaming at me to kill myself, I wouldn't see that as bullying. Strangers yelling at you online are not bullying. Why? Because they are strangers and have no impact on my life. It's entirely different if we start talking about schoolmates. But strangers? No.
I love what AlexT said up above, it's not necessary to be accessible 24/7. Log off.
artemis, I like your pinata.
For a Brave Ambassador (anti-bullying), she is a bully herself.
She is another one of these people who can give it, but then cry about it when the tables are turned.
She slagged off NZ and it was a NZ'er who told her to hang herself.
She has in the past bullied plenty of people, including asking someone to please kill a reporter she didn't like.
Maybe I'm just a cold-hearted bitch, but I struggle to have an sympathy for her.
Just log out if it bothers you that much
I feel so sorry for this woman. Regardless of any comments she made, no body deserves messages sch as "go hang yourself", "why don't you go slit your wrists". The messages she was getting were appalling. I hope the culprits are charged. The attitude of people not "buying" it scares me. Online bullying is becoming an epidemic - especially for the younger generation. I hope by her speaking out, she can help some teens put there goof through the same thing.
A few people have done a little poking around on the accounts that were tweeting CD that night. Looks likely that they may all be the same person. If that's true then it all just gets weirder.
what kind of people spend energy bullying people via the web anyway???
//wake me when yellowstone erupts.
I doubt she really attempted suicide if she was up and talking about it shortly thereafter.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/technology/charlotte-dawson-reveals-how-twitter-trolls-sent-her-into-spiral-of-depression/story-fn5izo02-1226463091491
More like a tweeted pic of 2 aspirin and the Aussie version of a call to 911 with an attention whore tag.
People have been genuinely bullied on the internet. Some respect for them, please.
@ Artemis:
Now that's trolling I approve of!
@Anita:
Yep, I agree, a lot of people (specifically lame BBC presenters) claim to be bullied when faced with public criticism over performance. I think this undermines people who have genuinely suffered at the hands of bullies.
@totalfrog - that's actually not uncommon. They're called sockpuppet accounts.
I read a user-driven blog, and once there was this one crazy user who would post crazy posts full of drama. Then another user would always attack her in the comments, and they'd go back and forth. The original user would always end up looking like a victim and get a lot of sympathy from other users. People got suspicious that this person lived more drama than 3 soap operas. Finally, at one point she posted some dramatic story, then wrote an attack response to herself using her first account. BUSTED. It was pretty hilarious.
Top hobbies on the internet:
1. Being an asshole
2. Pretending you're someone else
3. Being an asshole while pretending you're someone else
Australia's Next Top Model is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine.
Charlotte's the tough bitchy judge on the panel and they've had an anti-bullying theme for a few seasons since a wild season with tons of drama and bullying.
I don't know that I buy Charlotte being suicidal, but then, how emotionally stable is anyone in the fashion industry?
Charlotte is the "honest" judge on ANTM and usually she ends up mentoring a lot of the girls after the show.
She was at war with the NZ tabloids and has always retweeted people who post offensive thing on Twitter as a defense mechanism. The woman a commenter mentioned earlier was suspended from her job at a Melbourne uni for the horrible comments she made.
The reaction is melodramatic but she did actually end up in hospital.
It's not okay to tell ANYONE to kill themselves but for some reason people seem to think Celebs don't count as people. It's so easy to say "walk away" but the bullies need to be taught a lesson.
As an Aussie, CD is not well liked here or her native NZ...she has said terrible things about her home country.
She is an attention seeking egomaniac.
I'm sorry I have no sympathy for her at all. Grow up, you are 46 woman!
I hate so much when people cry "bullying" because they got called on their shit. It's the buzz word right now, so everyone is using it because they know it will garner them sympathy. Mila Kunis just did an interview with "Glamour" magazine in which she had the nerve to say that the paparazzi is the worst form of bullying. I will never go see a Mila Kunis movie due to that quote.
Nobody has to stay on Twitter. Nobody has to post on the Internet. If people are harrassing you, leave. I've had shit talked about me on the Internet which is partially my fault b/c I have Asperger's and I sometimes post things I shouldn't (which I usually don't realize until someone points it out, oops). That's not bullying. I just left those sites.
Charlotte, turn off your Twitter. Keep it off. Do not turn it back on.
@yawnathon
I'm tapping my foot over here too. Helloooo????
@Mr Wolf
Once again, you've surprised me Sir :)
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I have been reading articles and comments not in favour of Charlotte DAwson. That's what i like about Australia we don't make people famous for nothing, buy books and merchandise to keep the untalented rich. And question B.S.
Apparently some of the death threat tweets contained real images of dead human bodies. That is quite scary.
But on the other hand, why provoke the trolls by retweeting their tweets? Why not deactivate your account? All of the tweets from that night are also still up on her twitter, which I don't think is necessary.
@Sunny ;) I'm full of surprises!
Oh wow, I just looked at her Twitter feed. She was arguing with someone who accused her face of "looking retarted." Is she new to the internet? Does she not understand what trolls are and that they are to be ignored always?
And most of the trolls don't have pictures assigned to their accounts. Those people are always trolls ;)
Charlotte Dawson has a book coming out soon.
I'm Australian and had no idea who she was until this happened.
I think that Charlotte wins quite frankly.
@ AlexT , great story. I witnessed that on CDAN 2x. It's just hilarious when you see it happening .
Charolotte is using the new PR scam. Despicable.Just like the L person that is suing Celebitchy, etc. And this one has a book to promote? Yikes.
@Alex, that sounds like a certain gossip blog out of Manhattan. Man, that place has had its share of crazy, multiple identity whackadoodles, especially since it changed the comment system.
@Agent, that happened here? Who? I saw someone get accused of it but one the desktop version, it could look that way but if you read it on the mobile version, you would see it was the fact that comments show up properly there and not so on the desktop version.
Was B. Profane the guy that would often brag about himself and all the women he'd been with (and would sometimes refer to them as "honeys)? And if that didn't get any attention, he'd post again about it. I sometimes wonder if females post as males on sites like this just to get more attention.
Anyone who spends more than a second reading negativity on Twitter is a fool. I don't want anyone to commit suicide or suffer, but really folks, learn some boundaries and emotional regulation.
@anita , it was during the who is Himmmm debacle.The persony forgot to change names and said something like "Well, Ellen is right...blah blah blah " but then posted it as "Ellen" instead of her other name.It amused me.
So many regulars on THIS site bullied me in the past week, and linked to the writing of people who have threaetned me in the past. I've also gotten many death threats.
In fact I said, other peeople have attempted suicide over far less than I've endured. I was lied about and accused of horrific things. If I didn't have a $100 million lawsuit against a certain website about to be filed,k it would be worse. The site could have stopped the bullying, but chose not to.
I think you are all a bunch of hypocrites.
oo- <- world's smallest violin
Agent is that the person who thought she was outing Enty by posting a name. She thought she was fairly clever.
Yes and she/he did the same thing back in the days of Himmmm. I just didn't want to bring up the 'Enty name game' topic, lol.
I don't remember what the topic was when I saw someone accused of that. On the desktop site, it looked like they were doing that exact thing however on the mobile site, it was not the case. I wrote a comment defending the person but it was the next day and I don't think anyone ever goes back to a thread the next day so it probably went unnoticed.
That said, I hate that the comments don't appear the same on both devices. I don't like the comment feature only because it means I have to work harder to see everything, rather than just scrolling down to the bottom of the comments. My life is the worst.
Lots of clever fools on here Agent, it's funny how people forget the Internet rule. It's all out there forever once you post it. ;)
Anita, one way to check who deleted comments is if you look at the comments by clicking the heading, you can see the user names who have removed comments. When viewed the other way it's just a generic 'comment removed by the author' statement, people forget or aren't aware of that feature and trip themselves up.
I think the word "bullying" is thrown around a little too casually these days.
So fucking cosigned. And it is actually some genuinely boy-who-cried-wolf shit, where the more people point fingers and accuse others of bullying, the less seriously true bullying will taken in general. Which will, I guarantee, be very harmful in the long run.
-bullied from kindergarten until her senior year of high school, sometimes on a daily basis/knows it when she sees it
"People shouldn't hide behind the internet to spread rumors or say mean things" said all the psudonym'd posters on this gossip website...
I'm an aussie and I know CD and thunk she thought that her actions of saying 'you win x' was a way to shut it down and stop the tweeting since she'd been admitted to hospital. It seems like a pr move to turn everyone against the hater(s). I agree that she should really be above all this. Twitter serves a purpose I suppose (I don't know - I don't use it) but she is very savvy media wise and I cannot imagine that she would fold so easily - they're just silly words coming from a silly person. I think she manipulated it so the bully would be bullied.
I knew there was additional motivation for this stunt!
Sorry, I've never been a fan of hers, and not just cos she slagged off NZ (where I am from)
Originally, before all the hospital drama came out I wondered if she realized that by retweeting the comment about hanging herself and getting the person fired from their job IS BULLYING. Then it occurred to me that she's feeding the problem rather than just blocking assholes, so either she cares more about the number of followers she has, or she (again) has something to sell.
I see it's something to sell :)
@artemis XD
yeah celebitchy really is populated by a bunch of 12year old trolls
regarding this issue, im not familiar with the show or with her, but what I sadly know from a very close personal experience is that when somebody really wants to lose their lives, they don't give any signals. Versus people who cut themselves, threaten to commit suicide, etc, they are crying for help and attention.
I agree. The whole thing, at least how Enty wrote it sounded like she staged it just to go on tv after and talk about it BUT we don't know how long after her attempt and the interview was. Maybe I'm just a heartless bitch but it sounds fishy to me.
Yeah and no
Block button here yet so far no CDaN readers have..... Themselves thank god. Bullies are everywhere not just twitter. What's everywhere is the person who decides to kill himself. It's learning to attract positive energy.
Whoa. If that's true....good fact digging!
Oh my god I can't stop giggling at "looking retarted" as an insult. I can't. I mean, there are just do many wrong things with that statement and for a FORTY SIX year old taking serious offense??? Omg they deserve to eat lunch together at the same middle school lunch table.
Have to agree...she's either got deeper issues of mental stability and insecurity and/or she's a master manipulator.
I think the point was well made by some other commenters - hatred on the Internet is a game for the pathetic and a healthy person should have the perspective to see that it's usually meaningless ranting from likely losers... Of course it's unacceptable, but a good step towards ending it is not to make oneself a victim and easy mark. Sticks and stones.
Million dollar lawsuit? Snicker. I've seen some ugly/hysterical bickering but never death threats on this blog. Silly, just absolutely silly that an adult would continue to chain him or herself to a blog in which he/she felt attacked. Move on! Cope or move on. But hey at least there is supposedly some money in it for you. If you dislike the hypocrisy you are fully capable of majing a rational adult decision. If not, don't whine about others becoming your puppetmaster.
MissPoppyPants, could you possibly email me? I swear I'm not a stalker.
cdanlola@gmail.com
Thanks.
@misspoppy, trying yet again to catch up with email notifications *grimace* I'm not sure if someone here is ranting about a lawsuit, though if it is who I think it is, it would explain a video of him I came across ranting in favor of SOPA and PIPA. This guy has a definition persecution complex, and it is always someone else's fault for his failure. I ain't joking around, this guy is seriously disconnected from reality.
Video isn't that old, either, and it has a creepy, creepy vibe to it.
Dewie, could you by chance email me as well?
@Lola, absolutely.
I got a death threat here once. Ah, the good old days...
I used to be a mod on a huge site, never once held back my opinions and never once received a death threat.
Then again if I would have, I would have reported it to authorities.
The days of technology have spoiled us IMO.
Whatever happened to "If you won't say it to someone's face, don't say it all?"
And in this women's case..""Walk it off"
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