--- title: Ashley Judd Speaks Out About Twitter Harassment, Sexual Assault description: "It was time to call the police, and to say to the Twittersphere, no more." canonical: https://time.com/3750788/ashley-judd-speaks-out-about-twitter-abuse-and-rape/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-19T15:11:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:19.188Z og:title: Ashley Judd Speaks Out About Twitter Harassment, Sexual Assault og:description: "It was time to call the police, and to say to the Twittersphere, no more." og:url: https://time.com/3750788/ashley-judd-speaks-out-about-twitter-abuse-and-rape/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60d5b1df5060995d/698784480b72e37c426de3dd/466725768.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1996 og:image:height: 1123 og:image:alt: "The Divergent Series: Insurgent" New York Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ashley Judd Speaks Out About Twitter Harassment, Sexual Assault twitter:description: "It was time to call the police, and to say to the Twittersphere, no more." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60d5b1df5060995d/698784480b72e37c426de3dd/466725768.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ashley Judd Speaks Out About Twitter Abuse and Rape ## Video: Why Marina and the Diamonds Wrote a Song About Rape Culture [Watch (HLS stream): Why Marina and the Diamonds Wrote a Song About Rape Culture](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/riFudUWG.m3u8) (1:36)  _Published 2015-03-16. The singer talks to TIME about her song_  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Mar 19, 2015 3:11 PM UTC  Actress Ashley Judd attends the "The Divergent Series: Insurgent" premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on March 16, 2015 in New York City. (Tyler Boye--Getty Images) Actress Ashley Judd attends the "The Divergent Series: Insurgent" premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater on March 16, 2015 in New York City. (Tyler Boye--Getty Images)Tyler Boye—Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Mar 19, 2015 3:11 PM UTC Actress Ashley Judd wrote an impassioned op-ed for [ Mic](http://mic.com/articles/113226/forget-your-team-your-online-violence-toward-girls-and-women-is-what-can-kiss-my-ass) Thursday about the link between online harassment and physical abuse. After she endured hateful online vitriol for a seemingly harmless tweet about basketball, she saw a connection between that Twitter harassment and the cultural misogyny that she believes fueled her experiences with rape and incest early in life. While watching a basketball game Sunday, Judd tweeted that the opposing team was “playing dirty & can kiss my team’s free throw making a—.” She later got so much hatred and so many sexually violent threats on Twitter that she had to delete the original tweet. She wrote: --- > “” --- Soon, Judd realized that the hatred she was experiencing was related to the violence and abuse she had endured as a girl. --- > “” --- Judd, who in addition to her acting career has been a vocal advocate for women’s rights and even has a degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, describes the rape and incest she experienced in her childhood, and recounts how her therapy allowed her to finally come to terms with an attempted oral rape that she also survived. But then, thanks to a single tweet about basketball, she was barraged with violent sexual threats online. --- > “” --- The full essay is worth a read, and you can check it out [here](http://mic.com/articles/113226/forget-your-team-your-online-violence-toward-girls-and-women-is-what-can-kiss-my-ass). _Read next:_ [_Colleges Need to Think Bigger To End Campus Rape_](http://time.com/3740895/college-sexual-assault-campus-safety/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3750788/ashley-judd-speaks-out-about-twitter-abuse-and-rape/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3750788/ashley-judd-speaks-out-about-twitter-abuse-and-rape/"},"headline":"Ashley Judd Speaks Out About Twitter Abuse and Rape","datePublished":"2015-03-19T15:11:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:45:19.188Z","description":"\"It was time to call the police, and to say to the Twittersphere, no more.\"","url":"https://time.com/3750788/ashley-judd-speaks-out-about-twitter-abuse-and-rape/","keywords":["Living","Rape","Sexual Assault","Crime","twitter","harassment","March Madness"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60d5b1df5060995d/698784480b72e37c426de3dd/466725768.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt60d5b1df5060995d/698784480b72e37c426de3dd/466725768.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"The Divergent Series: Insurgent\" New York Premiere","caption":"\"The Divergent Series: Insurgent\" New York Premiere","creditText":"Tyler Boye—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3750788/ashley-judd-speaks-out-about-twitter-abuse-and-rape/","name":"Ashley Judd Speaks Out About Twitter Abuse and Rape"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why Marina and the Diamonds Wrote a Song About Rape Culture","description":"The singer talks to TIME about her song","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/riFudUWG/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-03-16T14:16:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/riFudUWG.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3750788/ashley-judd-speaks-out-about-twitter-abuse-and-rape/","duration":"PT1M36S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3750788/ashley-judd-speaks-out-about-twitter-abuse-and-rape/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```