Cyberbullied for Being a Woman In STEM: Combining the First Amendment with My Law, Math, And Physics Scholarship

 Yesterday, I posted an essay explaining how I had become a “how” person in addition to a “why” person. I posted this essay on LinkedIn, and mentioned it on the LinkedIn page for Fermat’s library, an incredible math and physics resource that informed me that yesterday was the anniversary of Hermann Minkowski’s inventing the four-dimensional spacetime matrix that allegedly helped Einstein, which seemed a lovely synchronicity.  I’m privileged to be able to think mathematically in 3D, and I’m working on thinking in 4D and 5D. 

In any event, in response to this essay, I was cyberbullied by a male engineer who mocked my math and feminism and posted an actual skull, which I took as a death threat. (Notably, he did so in direct response to my LinkedIn comment on this math and science forum.)

This essay is just to show the extent women who want to do math and science do, in fact, face a “steep conical hill,” from some men who seemingly think it should be illegal for a woman to learn, as it is in some countries where women still cannot go to school. Or in some countries women are attacked with acid, and I’ve been threatened with acid too. (Presumably my beauty is a threat.) I will note that this is not the first time I’ve been threatened with a skull, but I’ll remain silent on that for liability purposes.

What should happen to this man? I don’t know, normatively, but he scared me, and LinkedIn graciously temporarily removed his comment, but somehow it went right back up, even though James Comey was investigated by the FBI for less, and I take the contrary view to many of my First Amendment colleagues and I think the factor that makes James Comey’s investigation illegal is that Biden never took action against congresspersons who made similar actionable threats, thus Comey was singled out even though death threats are flatly illegal, and they do not receive First Amendment protection, and this should be obvious from all the restraining orders imposed by federal judges in cases where judges receive threats to themselves or their families or their clerks, even though judges cannot restrain speech that merely disagrees with them, or even speech that is humorous even if it’s in poor taste. 

Some people mock other people, including John Nash my soulmate/nemesis who had a wicked sense of humor, and while I myself have been guilty of this in the privacy of my own home, in the end I prefer existential humor, like Jerry Seinfeld, because it’s just more positive, and the aim of this blog is to provide hope amidst the darkness, and to be a rainbow DT can’t take away because there are more than enough amazing lawyers and law professors to resist DT, and it’s not my “added value” from the perspective of economics.  And my issue with this guy wasn’t his mocking, though bullying is illegal, but his death threat in the form of an actual skull. See, I’m still a First Amendment lawyer, and speech must be parsed line-by-line if it’s going to be restrained. I will also note prior restraints via a court order are per se illegal except in some extreme contexts, but deplatforming is not, nor is LinkedIn removing this guy’s speech.

Fundamentally, I believe in redemption and forgiveness for all humans, but if this guy wants redemption as opposed to forgiveness, he’ll have to a) publicly apologize to me; and b) admit he’s wrong on the merits. Forgiveness ideally should be paired with accountability, though obviously I forgive him for me, not for him. I wish him the best.

I will note that throughout my life, I’ve been pursued by scary men, and that’s why women’s worst fear is for their safety, whereas men fear humiliation. Of course, I care about egos, and try not to humiliate men, and to the extent I have, I also apologize again from the bottom of my heart, but it’s a false equivalency. 

Safety matters more than ego. Period. And the world desperately needs more women in positions of power, including lawyer/aspiring scientists like me and other amazing lawyer/scientists I’ve met. @Dorothy Roberts, have you had this happen to you? You are also amazing, and an abolitionist like me. How should we (society), mechanically, and I mean this from a legal perspective, handle these types of men? Obviously, I support Common Justice, but, in this particular instance, this one “random” guy isn’t important enough for me to care to put him through such a grueling process, even though simultaneously he matters, as all humans matter, by definition. And are literally made out of “matter” from the perspective of classical mechanics, even if from the perspective of quantum mechanics, this matter is mostly air. Both/and.

I also do support deplatforming persons who make death threats, and in my view, LinkedIn could deplatform this one guy if it so chooses because the skull portion of the threat is quite clear and unambiguous. And I could report him to the police, but I have first-hand experience in my capacity as a lawyer with police misconduct, and from the perspective of a woman who personally once went to the police about a scary man, it did literally nothing for me and only made things worse. Hence my abolitionism is practical in addition to moral. And that’s where my law and economics scholarship comes in. 

And I also know that if I’m getting death threats, I must “matter” because the only two other people I personally know who have received death threats are my Fourth Circuit Judge Roger L. Gregory and the then-Dean of Cornell Law School, another amazing man of color I worship, and both of them are “famous” in the legal world even if they are not household names and I’m just a 5’2 former clinician-future law professor with big dreams I won’t renounce ever, no “matter” what. Both/and.

Finally, @Brene Brown, in the improbable but highly desirable event you ever read me, you are a household name, have you received death threats, and if so, how do you handle them, given your scholarship also stands for love and belonging? I’d love your thoughts even though you probably don’t have “time” for me. My understanding is Brene Brown advises not to read comments, nevertheless she did so anyway, and after her Tedx talk that made her famous was cyberbullied by men who viciously attacked her appearance (Brene Brown, you are beautiful) and watched a Downton Abbey marathon all day long in response. This still doesn’t answer my death threats question. And I have way, way fewer readers to my direct knowledge than she does, i.e., by multiple orders of magnitude. 

p.s. I'm a fairly feminine woman, and admit that, yes, I like period dramas, though I've given TV up with the exception of weekends to make time for my blog. I've been called "Daisy" and I think this is a fair critique. I'm ambitious, strive for more education, and am commitmentphobic. But I also am different from Daisy in that I'm more privileged, and I have a lot of resources Daisy didn't have, so I cannot ever actually compare myself to Daisy, even though she's the character I most relate to. I also relate to Mary from upstairs in that I would never allow myself to be blackmailed for any reason, no matter what. But I do think Mary is kind of mean, and I strive to be nice. And to the extent I've been mean or harsh, it's not my preference. I am assertive for a woman, and I was much softer when I was at Cornell, but I've found that I have to be assertive to stand up for my scholarship, and if I back down, I incorrectly state I am wrong when I am not, and in my view, many women are not sufficiently assertive. In fact, I think being assertive is a crucial life skill for absolutely everyone and there's nothing wrong with asserting a need and being direct and in fact it can be a highly desirable to work with people who state directly what they need and require, and as stated indirect communication is responsible for the Challenger blowing up. But I would ask the universe to learn to be assertive while gentle at the same time. I've heard it said that to "make it" as a woman in academia, unfortunately one must be like goldilocks, not too hard, and not too soft, just right. Please universe help me get this balance, though it's blatant gender stereotyping that I object to on principle.    

-Cortelyou C. Kenney, 8/23/25 (6:45 AM, PT)