Reading the Comments as Feminist Activism?

I never read the comments under articles. They are almost entirely hate-filled bile spewed by MREs with serious personality disorders. The Guardian is one of the worst offenders for refusing to delete violent and misogynistic abuse. Frankly, it frightens me. So when I came across this piece by Week Woman, I was genuinely flabbergasted. It's a well known feminist truism that you never ever read the comments, yet Week Woman is not only arguing that we read the comments but that we start reclaiming them as a space for feminist activism. The male trolls on Mumsnet annoy me enough as it is, I can't imagine wanting to spend any time on the Guardian website posting comments that will inevitably result in a bunch of arsenuggets making violent, offensive and threatening responses. 

However, Week woman's blog reminded me of a story feminist writer Bidisha told at a UK Feminista Summer School several years ago. Basically, Bidisha claimed that trolls in the comment section respond more to the gender of the poster than what is in the post. It was then suggested by another journalist, whose name escapes me, that some of the women writers at the Guardian have fake comment accounts and that they take turns positing positive comments under articles written by women but using a male name. The theory being that the first comment posted sets the tone for the subsequent commentators and that using a male name to make a positive comment is more effective than using a woman's name. 

Week Woman is right that the cliche to never read the comments or write one yourself is a silencing tactic used against women. After all, no one wants to be subjected to that level of abuse. The question is can we reclaim that space? Do we want to?

I'm not sure.