Trolls hurl abuse at James Reimer's wife after shaky outing ... Again
Twitter is a wonderful resource for news, ephemera, .gifs, cat photos and jokes. It's also a public space where all too often base abuse is hurled, disproportionately at women, by anonymous accounts run by the worst people.
In April, a variety of mostly anonymous Twitter profiles spit abuse at James Reimer's wife, April Reimer, in the wake of a shaky outing by the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender.
Reimer played poorly again Saturday night and allowed six goals in a game against the lowly Buffalo Sabres.
The result? More of the same, sadly, as disgusting comments from barely followed, trolling accounts were directed at Reimer's wife.
"Your husband is shit please help him get a trade out of Toronto!! Much love April" tweeted one fan. The tweet was later deleted.
"We get it your husband is a loser (he) doesn't have to rub it in our face year after year" tweeted an anonymous account. "F---ING LEAVE YOU'RE UNWANTED."
While we'd love to pretend otherwise, it's not exactly baffling that this type of behavior is cropping up again.
Reimer is a divisive figure among Maple Leafs fans, and sadly the worst elements of our society seem to have an insatiable appetite for harassing high-profile women on the internet - as the gamergate phenomenon, or the recent abuse hurled at Olympic heptahalon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill, among other recent cultural travesties, have made plain.
It's brutal, it's disgusting, and depressingly it's an issue that continues to plague Twitter with no simple solution in sight.