In Ashley Judd's frank and powerful TED talk that she gave in January, the actress called out online harassment and the culprits who perpetuate it. Sharing many of the degrading, violent tweets and Facebook posts that she receives every day, she calls online misogyny a global gender rights tragedy, and demands an end to it so that freedom can fill that space. On dealing with a daily onslaught of social media abuse, she says, “I’ve tried to rise above it, I’ve tried to get in the trenches, but mostly I would scroll through these social media platforms with one eye partially closed, trying not to see it, but you can’t make a cucumber out of a pickle. What is seen goes in. It’s traumatic. And I was always secretly hoping in some part of me that what was being said to me and about me wasn’t … true. Because even I, an avowed, self-declared feminist, who worships at the altar of Gloria, internalize the patriarchy. This is really critical. Patriarchy is not boys and men. It is a system in which we all participate, including me.”

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