Megyn Kelly faces onslaught of sexist slurs leading up to the Republican debate

Trump supporters attack Megyn Kelly.
(Image credit: Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Fortune/Time Inc)

It is not easy being a woman on the internet, but it's infinitely worse when you incur the wrath of Donald Trump's supporters. With Trump reportedly choosing to abstain from Thursday's debate due to Fox's selection of Megyn Kelly as a moderator, an onslaught of sexist rage has been directed at Kelly's official Twitter account.

Vocativ broke down the appearance of gendered slurs in the tweets directed at Kelly, finding that the word "bitch" appeared 423 times in her mentions in the past 24 hours, followed by 404 uses of "bimbo" and 128 of "blonde," usually in reference to "dumb blonde."

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Trump has been something of a ringleader of such vitriolic name-calling, retweeting a user who called Kelly a "bimbo" after Trump butted heads with her in a debate last August. Trump also criticized Kelly's no-nonsense moderation style by saying she had "blood coming out of her wherever," an apparent reference to menstruation.

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You can see Vocativ's entire breakdown of the insults here.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.