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Nita Strauss on online trolls: “They’ll never come to your face and say, ‘You suck’”
The guitarist reveals the toll that online hate can have.
Image: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
Sadly, it’s commonplace for female guitarists to receive comments from online trolls, and Nita Strauss is no different.
In an interview with Jorge Botas for Portugal’s Metal Global, the Demi Lovato and Alice Cooper guitarist speaks about how she deals with online hate, which comes in the form of criticising her appearance and her career moves.
According to Strauss, she is dealing with the topic in a new song on her upcoming record The Call Of The Void, called Digital Bullets.
“[The song] really talks about these trolls online firing the ‘digital bullets’. They’ll never come to you to your face and say, ‘You suck,’ ‘You whore,’ ‘You money-grubbing whore,’ or whatever. No one has ever said that to my face, but you go on social media and it’s, like, ‘I hope you die in a fire.’ It’s just people being tough on the Internet. It’s not new. It’s not going away.”
“My boyfriend said it to me personally one time… And it was hurtful,” she continued. “I can’t lie and say that it was not hurtful. Of course it was hurtful. But he said, ‘You know, no one’s coming and spitting on your face in the street. People aren’t coming to you, being rude to you. It’s just fake. It’s just online”.”
Strauss has previously spoken about the online hate she receives, especially after being judged for her appearance on stage.
“I wanted to be known as a guitar player and that was it,” said Strauss in conversation with Knotfest’s podcast She’s With The Band. “I started really dressing down. I dyed my hair darker… to stand out less. I’d wear a men’s large t-shirt onstage and baggy cargo shorts and started touring with heavier bands. I was like, ‘I don’t want to be the hot chick. I just wanted to be the guitar player.’ But that’s not who I am either, you know?”