Is E-venge Sweet?

When a relationship ends you usually give the guy his stuff back – books, CDs and maybe the odd piece of laundry he left at your place. You don’t air his laundry for the planet to see. Unless, of course, you have a little computer savvy, a sharp tongue and a scandal juicy enough to slander his name and comfort your ego. After all, nothing eases a broken heart quite like vengeance, with a little fame thrown in.

Divorce by You Tube

When UK actress and playwright Trisha Walsh-Smith was served with divorce papers last year by her husband, 74 year old Broadway bigwig Phillip Smith, the results were theatrical.

The ditched drama queen created a vitriolic video and posted it on video hosting site You Tube. The six minute online rant, Walsh-Smith says; ‘We never had sex. He said it was because he had high blood pressure. I accepted that. Then last year I found Viagra, porn movies and condoms.’

She also flips through their wedding album and points out family members as nasty, bad or evil. But the video done her more damage than good. Watching it, you realize that the actress is not only seeing red, but she is deeply, and tragically sad.

Ex Effect

Tired of being dumped by losers. US blogger Tessa Martin created a blog called ‘Ex girlfriend’s revenge with the subtitle ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’. Although she doesn’t name the men, she does post their pictures, with the eyes blacked out. Among the exes she exposes are a male model who made her feel the firmness of his butt on their first date, a part time lifesaver, who ‘moonlighted as a complete pervert’, and ‘burrito-guy’, her first boyfriend, who dumped her via his best friend. But mostly her rants concern ‘The Beast’, who she discovered was getting married to someone else.

‘I thought of going big… Calling the venue, pretending to be the bride and telling them the wedding is off. How I dream of perfect revenge,’ she blogs.

But possibly the most popular website is dontdatehimgirl, where women can anonymously post names, pics and addresses of ex-boyfriends. The site names and shames thousands of men – and one of them struck back. Todd Hollis claimed that the site allows users to post lies about him anonymously, such as that he was gay, had fathered several children, suffered from herpes and gave a girl a STD. His lawsuit was dismissed on grounds of free speech.

Then there was the STD All-stars blog. Its author, in New York explained; ‘I started this blog because I contracted herpes and I’m pissed off. If you are free of STDs, you should read this blog as a cautionary tale. If you are among the inflicted, maybe you would like to use this blog as a means of venting your frustration. Do you know someone who is knowingly spreading disease? Send me a picture, I’ll be happy to post it.’

She was eventually forced to shut down her blog after one of the male subjects of her story complained.