You are right, LabRat, there is a huge difference between this case and any bullying of Paris Hilton. But for all of that, I'll insist that there is something about women that makes them easy and tempting targets.

This kind of collective turning on and bullying of one individual was what happened during the European witch hunts in the 16th and 17th centuries. By far most of the victims were females. I have read a few interesting books about the witch hunts in Sweden. Often the whole things started when young children, usually ten to thirteen years old, accused a particular woman of being a witch. The rumours spread like wildfire among "ordinary people", and the first people who spread the children's tales were quite often these children's parents. Suddenly "everybody" knew that the woman in question was a witch, so she was apprehended and tortured until she confessed. And because she had confessed, she was executed.

In this modern case a child's grievance against her "enemy", a thirteen-year-old girl, made her parents start a horrible (and anonymous) smear campaign on the internet against their daughter's "enemy". I have to say that this does remind me somewhat of the witch hunts. The victim's gender certainly fits the pattern.

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Ann