The Pushback Women Still Face Online

This episode of Kris Talks About the Wisdom of Women features a sharp, funny, and deeply honest conversation with queer fantasy romance author Claire E. Jones, whose work has reached readers in six countries and climbed into Ingram’s Top 100. Claire reveals a surprising truth: she receives far more pushback for being a woman than for being queer — a realization that surfaced during a Worldcon panel in Seattle.Across the episode, Claire breaks down the emotional labor of being a woman online: misogynistic comments, negging disguised as engagement, hate DMs, sugar‑baby solicitations, bot arguments, and algorithm‑driven harassment. She and Kris compare experiences across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Red Note, Substack, LinkedIn, and Stage32 — each platform with its own quirks, pitfalls, and cultural dynamics.Claire shares strategies for navigating trolls: when to ignore, when to joke, when to intellectualize, and when to report. She explains how pattern recognition becomes a survival skill, and how creators must protect their emotional equilibrium to keep producing work.The conversation also dives into the chaos of modern digital networking — spoofed emails, PR assistants who don’t read podcast descriptions, AI‑generated outreach full of unedited placeholders, and marketers who chase creators across multiple platforms. Claire even schedules a call with a competitor out of curiosity, turning the nonsense into an opportunity to learn.The episode closes with Claire’s refreshingly grounded take on criticism: she celebrates her first 2.5‑star review as a sign of legitimacy. No author gets only glowing reviews, and she refuses to engage with negativity. Instead, she adds it to her growing collection of stories.Claire shares where listeners can find her books (wide distribution, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and indie stores) and her ambitious plan to publish three books this year — including Marketing in the Age of Aquarius and a re‑imagined, less intimidating version of her self‑published author planner.It’s a warm, witty, and wise conversation about resilience, boundaries, and the strange digital ecosystems women creators must navigate.