A new experience

I was fighting with someone on the internet the other day when something interesting happened. The details of the fight are unimportant, suffice it to say I was right and he was an idiot, as the discussion progressed the man became increasingly unhinged, telling me I should have been aborted, that I should die now, and the like, this isn't unexpected of course, and when my opponents resort to that I usually feel like I am winning, that day was no exception, however I was kind of shocked about how vociferous he was, then he told me that (paraphrasing as he has since deleted his comments) "No one would want to put their seed in you", this was in relation to I don't know what but it made me realize something.

He thought I was a woman this whole time!

Now I am not upset by this, I know what gender I am and don't particularly care if some random asshole on the internet gets it wrong, but after I pointed out that I was in fact a male, the insults swiftly dried up, and when revisiting the comment chain the next day, he even responded to a couple things I wrote sort of politely.

It was a unique experience for me, like I know intellectually that women tend to get a lot more shit than men for a lot less of a reason on the internet, and I am sure my female readers find pretty much nothing surprising in my story here. But it was striking to see that vitriol, and then the turnaround after it, now it wasn't like we were gonna be friends or anything, but he stopped telling me I should be dead, so, sort of a reversal.

I don't know what point I have in writing this down, there is no grand lesson to take from it, I mean, "men can be pretty terrible" isn't a surprise to anyone at this point right? I guess it's what is on my mind tonight.