When Avid Reader shared Clementine Ford’s Facebook post, the Brisbane bookseller’s social media page was attacked by trolls, prompting an extraordinary counterattack by the writer’s fans and Australia’s literary community

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

On Monday morning, independent Brisbane bookstore Avid Reader shared a Facebook post from Australian feminist writer Clementine Ford, who was happily announcing that she’d signed a contract to write her second book.

Ford described the book, Boys Will Be Boys, as one that will “examine toxic masculinity” – making what happened next particularly ironic.

Avid Reader’s social media manager, Chris Currie, said he started to notice “nasty” comments appearing on the bookstore’s Facebook post that evening, attacking Ford for her feminist views, and Avid for supporting her books. The comments were accompanied by a series of one-star reviews, which climbed into the hundreds overnight.

“DISGUSTING MAN HATING BOOK STORE THAT PROMOTES MISANDRISM [sic]!”, read one review. “Since you promote misandrist Clementine Ford who hates men, I will never visit this bookshop/cafe ever again,” read another.

Clementine Ford: ‘There’s something really toxic with the way men bond in Australia’ Read more

But the internet is nothing if not an equalising force, and the trolling prompted an outpouring from the other side: Australia’s literary community and Clementine Ford’s fans showed up, flooding the page with five-star reviews and positive, heartfelt comments.

At the time of publication, the Avid Reader Facebook page’s 246 one-star reviews had been outweighed by over 2,700 five-stars, giving the store an average rating of 4.7 stars.

Lucas Miller (@legendsoflucas) Ever been so sad, so pathetic, so devoid of purpose or attention, you went to war with a bookstore and lost? pic.twitter.com/nsQxR0KShw

Currie told Guardian Australia by email that the attack of the trolls was clearly an orchestrated campaign.

“The same ‘men’s rights’ swamp monsters emerged when Clementine’s first book Fight Like a Girl was released, and especially when we announced we were hosting an event (which sold out in record time, can I add!) to celebrate its publication,” Currie said.

The goal of the most recent attack was to cripple the bookstore’s social media statistics. “It certainly backfired on the trolls when people started to respond,” he said.

Clementine Ford is no stranger to online abuse, having spoken out repeatedly about the bullying and harassment she has received online – particularly in the wake of Fight Like a Girl.

“I am very fortunate to be involved in a number of supportive communities who rally when things like this happen – but rarely do I laugh quite as hard as I did when reading Avid Reader’s responses to these potatoes and their poxy outrage,” she told Guardian Australia.

Those responses had come from Currie, who had decided to eschew diplomacy and opt for humour instead.

The online counterresponse, meanwhile, was initiated by a pair of sibling writers, and former Avid Reader employees: Benjamin Law, creator of SBS comedy The Family Law, and Michelle Law, whose play, Single Asian Female, was a sellout show for La Boite earlier this year.

“Ben in particular fearlessly waded into the reviews with the type of stinging retorts you would pay a lot of money to see,” said Currie, himself an author of several books. “Michelle encouraged people to buy books from us and write five-star reviews in response (and boy did people do that!). The best comments, really, were from regular customers, who are of course the wittiest people on the planet.”

Benjamin Law (@mrbenjaminlaw) Words cannot express how much I love my former workplace and dear friends at @avidreader4101. pic.twitter.com/DBlwV3AqzP

Ford said the support from Avid Reader reaffirmed to her how vital and enthusiastic the arts and literary communities were in Australia.

Speaking of the difficulties feminists face when trying to get their message across, Ford said: “It’s tedious and exhausting to deal with a daily onslaught of abuse and paranoia from angry men and their terrified cohorts. It’s impossible to have logical conversations with them because they don’t care about facts, only about how they feel about those facts.



“They should take their own advice and just ignore the things they don’t like.”

Clementine Ford (@clementine_ford) The best part about the @avidreader4101 trolls is the confusion over what to be mad about - my old book or my new book.

This is not the first time Avid Reader’s choice of books has inspired controversy. In 2015, the bookstore was accused of censorship for refusing to stock the former Queensland premier Campbell Newman’s biography, Can Do: Campbell Newman and the Challenge of Reform, with Newman calling the bookstore’s decision “anti-free speech” and “antidemocratic”.



Feminazi: the go-to term for trolls out to silence women Read more

Avid Reader owner Fiona Stager told ABC radio at the time they saw Newman’s cancellation of the Queensland Premier’s literary awards as “an attack” on the Queensland literary community: “It seemed ironic that the first thing he did after losing was to turn around [and] be involved in the publication of a book.”

Photograph: Facebook

“The Clem Ford backlash came because we stocked her book, the Campbell Newman saga was because we allegedly banned his book (we didn’t), which just goes to show you can’t please anyone,” said Currie.

Avid first opened in 1997, inspired by Sydney’s Gleebooks and its strong literary events program, and is proud of its bolshie outlook. “We have strong values and we stick to them,” said Currie.

Its staff members have included a number of working Australian writers – including the Law siblings, novelist Krissy Kneen and Currie himself – and the store is also known for its quirky social media presence, which Currie says is down to the store’s owner, Stager, “who has made it clear to me from day one that I can do whatever I like”.

Avid Reader Bookshop (@avidreader4101) just gotta text the boss real quick nbd pic.twitter.com/CcJBQlzVcH

“We are first and foremost a community space with a strong set of beliefs and values, with a community who shares those values. We sell books we love to people who appreciate them,” said Currie. (One of those regular customers turned up to the bookstore on Tuesday morning having baked them an “anti-troll sour cream and walnut cake”.)

“We don’t take shit from anyone, and we’re really fucking good at what we do,” said Currie. “And, according to numerous online reviews, we all smell of cabbage (which is probably the only thing they got right).”