With Love from Anon | Úna Farrell
Úna Farrell looks at the dangers of online anonymity with regard to the recent Balpreet Kaur fiasco on Reddit.
“Balpreet Kaur is a first-generation sophomore at the Ohio State University, where she is studying both Neuroscience and Psychology. She hopes to continue onto medical school to become a neurosurgeon, research the effect of social stigma on the progression of mental disorders in developing countries, and hopefully, open a few free clinics in Africa. At OSU, she is a part of the executive board of the Better Together team, president of the Sikh Student Association, and a Humanities Scholar. Being inspired by the tenets of universal love and service in Sikhism, she aspires to learn about the human condition and, one day, save the world - one step at a time. Her turban and her faith inspire her to be different and to initiate dialogue with others. She finds herself reading everything and anything in her spare time, meditating, baking vegan deserts, and thinking about the profundities of life.”This is what you would have found had you searched for “Balpreet Kaur” before the 21st of September. On the 21st of September an anonymous user on reddit.com by the appropriate name of European_douchebag posted a picture he took of Balpreet when he saw her on Ohio State University campus. He titled this picture “I’m not sure what to conclude from this” What European_douchebag is referring to is the fact that Balpreet wears a turban and has facial hair which confused him somewhat.Balpreet is a Sikh and in this religion the body which is given to them is meant to be honoured and not altered. Therefore they do not believe in the removal of hair from any part of their bodies. They treat their body as a gift and so respectfully keep it as it is. The turban, while not mandatory for women, is a symbol of royalty and dignity in the Sikh religion. The wearing of a turban for a woman signals the equality between men and women in the religion and is a sign, to quote Balpreet, “of inner strength and empowerment”.When European_douchebag posted this picture on reddit a thread of comments began developing. There are currently over 1500 comments on the picture. As usual the anonymity of the internet encouraged people to speak utterly truthful when expressing their opinions. Floods of hateful comments came in mocking the, still anonymous at the time, woman in the picture. More stood to defend her and her religion, slightly restoring my faith in humanity. Soon the picture was brought to the attention of the woman in question, Balpreet.In one of the most dignified, composed and courteous manners possible Balpreet responded to the comments on the picture. Her rebuttal to the picture did nothing to condemn the hurtful comments or to attack the user who posted the picture in the first place. She eloquently explains that she is a member of the Sikh religion and the values which she holds because of this. She is neither ashamed nor embarrassed by her appearance or the response is gets. “By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to become ash in the end, so why fuss about it? When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can.” She respectfully accepts the bad and good comments and not only this but she apologises. Yes she, the woman who was ridiculed by strangers on the internet, apologises to them for causing any confusion or “uttering anything that hurt anyone”. She not only took the high road, she built it with her bare hands. Her humbling approach to a situation where others would have been embarrassed, angered and hurt shows extreme tolerance and humility.After such an amazing response the users of reddit rallied and the positive comments filled the thread. People’s admiration of her handling of the situation was astounding and she inspired and gained the respect of many. So much so that the original poster then posted an apology to Balpreet, the Sikh community and anyone else he may have offended in his mindless actions. He ends this apology with an extremely true statement, “Just because you're anonymous doesn't mean you can be an asshole.”It is too easy to hide behind the mask of the internet, hidden by our usernames and fuelled by the confidence of anonymity. We can easily ridicule, comment on, harass and laugh at those we see on the internet. We don’t know them, they will never know us. We are “anon”. Bravery is synonymous with anonymity. They are dehumanised behind the computer screen and we are suddenly filled with opinions which we need to express. What Balpreet did, instead of fighting back with hurtful comments against European_douchebag, she reminded us that the picture which everyone was commenting on was of a real person. A person with good morals and values. A person who is non judgmental and wishes to create happiness. Her commenting on the thread reminded everyone that they were in fact ridiculing a person for no other reason than that they could.We all get a little braver when we sit in front of a keyboard. We say things we normally wouldn’t say. We dissociate ourselves from our actions taking on an anonymous persona. It’s easier to ignore responsibility for our actions when we will never have to face the consequences. We need to remember that just because we are hidden behind the veil of the internet we can’t loose all sense of our values. We have all felt the thrill of anonymously posting something. We all know that we can much easier say things when we know that there will be few or no repercussions. By all means anonymity can be a good thing but not when used as a weapon against others. We all have a voice to use, why hide behind a username?