“Twitter, I love you. But this isn’t working anymore.”
It’s safe to say that Twitter’s anti-harassment policies are flimsy at best. But the unfortunate fact of the matter is that the platform remains crucial to the media industry — leaving journalists from underrepresented backgrounds to face much of the brunt of online harassment with no real support. For people of color, women, queer people, and other marginalized writers, abuse is just a part of being a journalist online nowadays.
Wouldn’t it be easier if those trolls just weren’t around at all? That’s the question posed in Ivo van Aart’s The Columnist, which tackles the relationship between a journalist and her internet trolls with tact and macabre humor.
The Columnist follows Femke Boot (Katja Herbers), a notable author and newspaper columnist in the Netherlands who, like many journalists online, has received criticism on social media throughout her career. But it isn’t until she publishes a piece calling for the end of “Black Peter,” a Dutch Christmas tradition in which white people adorn Blackface, that sends her feed into a frenzy.
Femke becomes so overwhelmed by abuse it seeps into her personal life, from messages distracting her at the grocery store to calls of her being “cancelled” interfering with her upcoming book deal. Even though the messages are violent and cruel — she can’t look away. The Columnist perfectly encapsulates the toxic, all-consuming nature of Twitter: the constant notifications, the endless doomscrolling, the hopelessness of refreshing to see something better.
Things start to go off the rails when Femke discovers one of her trolls lives right next door. At first, she blows off steam by taking an axe to their garage door — petty but overall harmless. But the comments keep coming and she finds she isn’t satisfied with being passive. The next day, she pushes him off the roof, effectively killing him.
This inspires a new, morally questionable but unapologetically cathartic, chapter for Femke. She develops a new obsession, not just for internet stalking her trolls, but finding them in real life, confronting them, and getting rid of them. She’s no longer afraid of writing controversial stories that may upset people, because now she knows how to take care of them for good.
The Columnist does not spend as much time on Femke’s psyche as it warrants. She seemingly turns into a cold-blooded killer overnight and rarely reconciles with why until it’s too late. It does, however, delve a bit into the lives of the people who abuse her online. Femke’s partner Steven (Bram van der Kelen) — with an all black ensemble and a twisted handlebar moustache — says that she just has to ignore the comments and tries to justify the most vile ones as letting off steam. But in reality, Femke finds that they’re just sad and pathetic reply-guys who spend their free time harassing women — and she finds power in making them squirm and eat their words.
In the film’s opening scene, Femke declares on a televised debate that the culture needs to change and that social media is an unnecessary breeding ground for harassment. But nobody takes her seriously, and Femke discovers why when she finds her new, more aggressive, form of damage control. She tried calling for civility, but it’s clear that being nice to people who hate you is nothing but a futile gesture. The Columnist makes it clear that being quiet and permissible won’t protect you from harm — and it entertains the idea that maybe violence will help soothe the pain, at least for a little while.
The Columnist is not interested in compromise of civil discussions — that’s far too tepid. Rather, it’s interested in getting even, in coming out on top no matter the cost. Is it the most ethical solution? Certainly not. But it doesn’t need to be. It’s a thought experiment in the depths of one’s most absurd, violent, and cathartic fantasies. More importantly, it parallels the even more sinister repercussions of being a vocal woman online.
