The Challenge Australia 2022’s Megan Marx has addressed the response she has received to her recent claims about ADHD being an “influencer trend”, revealing she has been inundated with “death threats” and “harassment” online.
The 32-year-old received significant backlash in late November after Abbie Chatfield called her out for making “ableist” statements about Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) being a “fad” and “stigmatising” medication.
ADHD is a common, chronic neurodevelopmental condition that can include symptoms of attention difficulty, hyperactivity, hyper-fixations, forgetfulness and impulsiveness, according to APS.
At the time, Megan responded to those “jumping on the hate train” by explaining she was also diagnosed with ADHD and retracted certain statements. The full overview of what went down can be found here.
On December 9, Megan took to her Instagram Story again to further call out the “hate” she had been receiving, explaining that she had been sent “death threats” because of the alleged “harassment campaign” against her.
Megan Marx Reveals She’s Receiving “Death Threats” and “Harassment” on Social Media
The Bachelor alum started her Instagram Story by addressing anybody who sent her harassment, asking them to unfollow her.
“Let me make myself clear,” Megan started. “If you’re following me and you’re one of the many people sending me messages saying ‘they should have kept you in a cult’ [or] sending me death threats, please just unfollow me and f*ck off.”
Megan claimed that everybody had the right to “diversity of thought” or to put it simply, different opinions.
She urged people to “part ways” with her on social media if they wanted to “cause harm”, but also encouraged them to “talk, discuss [and] disagree”.
@sodramaticonline Megan Marx has revealed she’s been receiving death threats and trolling after claiming ADHD is an “influencer trend.” #TheChallengeAU #thechallenge #meganmarx #abbiechatfield #abbiechatfieldsfyp #adhd #adhdtiktok #adhdawareness #adhdtok #thebachelor #thebachelorau #fyp #trolling ♬ original sound – So Dramatic!
Let’s preface this by pointing out the obvious. Nobody deserves their life to be threatened online.
“Death threats” and genuine “harassment” are completely counterintuitive to working towards better education on ADHD, neurodiversity and ongoing discussions regarding ableism.
Megan continued: “If you’re following me and you’re not harassing me but you’re somebody that has partaken or is partaking in the blatant harassment campaigns of specific individuals under the guise of being a ‘social justice warrior’. Please also unfollow me.”
Megan Marx Addresses Being Called “Offensive Labels” After Her Rant About ADHD Being an “Influencer Trend”
Megan also appeared to address being called “ableist”, which she described as an “offensive label”.
Megan’s statements in November were described as “ableist” by Abbie and many others because she suggested the increase of people being diagnosed with ADHD was a “fad” or “trend”.
In her recent Story, Megan claimed anybody who called her with “offensive labels” were either “too lazy or too threatened to have a nuanced discussion about what can be quite a complex issue is not just f*cking lunacy; basically, it’s the opposite of harm reduction”.
It should be pointed out that using terminology such as “lunacy” or lunatic as a descriptor is also considered ableist language, as noted in the Harvard Business Review.
Megan appeared to believe that content creators calling her out was being used as “entertainment” rather than to reduce harm to the neurodivergent community or provide further education, as Abbie had previously suggested she was doing.
She said: “[The discussion about ADHD] deserves more than a ‘f*ck you’ [and] it deserves more than an organised takedown.”
The Challenge Australia’s Megan Marx Appears To Hit Back at Media Personality Abbie Chatfield
Megan – who just finished a stint on The Challenge Australia – turned her attention to influencers who called her out, arguing that she didn’t have a “career in the media to damage”, unlike larger content creators.
She explained: “My followership is full of people who like art and philosophy and nature.” ….And reality TV.
Megan continued by explaining that she liked “nuanced discussions” with her followers and embraced her personal “ideologies” being “challenged”
However, she appeared to call out Abbie for “punching down” at her because she had the “privilege” of having a larger platform online.
Megan Marx Suggests That Influencers Speaking Out Against Her Views Are Being Hypocritical
There was a lot of confusing jargon in Megan’s statement (to us, at least), but she appeared to be arguing that influencers like Abbie were being hypocritical.
She claimed that people who were arguing against her supported “reparative justice” (which she also “believes in”) and were “abolitionists” as “a hobby”, but also used “social media as a courtroom”.
NGL, we went straight to Google after that one!
According to the International Centre for Transitional Justice, “reparative justice” focuses on repairing the harm done to victims of human rights violations. This could include working towards decolonisation or providing support for those getting out of domestic/family violence situations, just as examples.
Abolitionists were the historical supporters of the movement to abolish slavery, as defined in Britannica.
Megan Marx Appears to Call Out Abbie Chatfield’s Left-Leaning Political Views
It appears Megan was using (sorta unrelated) big words to loosely address Abbie’s previous statement that one of her “hyperfixations” is progressive or “left”-leaning “politics”.
“You believe in a reparative justice but you use a one-eyed view, you use social media as a courtroom or you’re blaming individuals for issues that have gradients and diversity of thought,” Megan said.
“I believe you’re a part of a culture that lacks what the left [leaning politics] is all about.”
She also noted that many of the influencers who spoke out against her were also diagnosed with ADHD.
“We all have different experiences even within an identity group. But trying to monitor conversations or creative dictatorship around what conversations are and aren’t allowed is just so wrong,” she said.
Want even more goss? Listen to episode 235 of the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!
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