Ashley Judd writes powerfully about her history of sexual abuse and incest.

Ashley Judd isn’t going to take any more shit from twitter trolls, using resilience that she has learned as a survivor of horrific abuse.

TRIGGER WARNING: This post deals with issues of online bullying, sexual and familial abuse that some readers may finds upsetting.

Ashley Judd dared to attend a basketball game last week. Then she dared to comment on it via Twitter.

Judd thought some members of the University of Arkansas team were ‘playing dirty’ against the University of Kentucky in a basketball game last week. She, like many other sports fans, voiced her opinion via Twitter.

READ MORE:“Bullying that could reach you in your own home? I wasn’t prepared for this.”

The online abuse she received came thick and fast. But they were not merely defensive comments from ticked off Arkansas fans. They were violent, and cruel and abusive.

Judd deleted her comment, but not before she received a tirade of disgusting comments.

Yesterday, Judd wrote a powerful post on Mic.com titled “Forget your team: Your online violence against women and girls is what can kiss my ass.”  In it she wrote, “I read in vivid language the various ways, humiliating and violent, in which my genitals, vaginal and anal, should be violated, shamed, exploited and dominated. Either the writer was going to do these things to me, or they were what I deserved. My intellect was insulted: I was called stupid, an idiot. My age, appearance and body were attacked.”

Judd points on that this kind of attack “is the devastating social norm experienced by millions of girls and women on the Internet. Online harassers use the slightest excuse (or no excuse at all) to dismember our personhood.”

READ MORE: Radio host John Laws has humilated a sexual assault survivor on his radio show.

In responding to the the incident, Judd has drawn on her own experience as a victim of abuse:

“I am a survivor of sexual assault, rape and incest. I am greatly blessed that in 2006, other thriving survivors introduced me to recovery. I seized it. My own willingness, partnered with a simple kit of tools, has empowered me to take the essential odyssey from undefended and vulnerable victim to empowered survivor. Today, nine years into my recovery, I can go farther and say my “story” is not “my story.” It is something a Higher Power (spirituality, for me, has been vital in this healing) uses to allow me the grace and privilege of helping others who are still hurting, and perhaps to offer a piece of education, awareness and action to our world.”

She also described her healing after recalling an attempted rape when she was 15 – and how that healing was interrupted by a particularly abusive, profane and threatening tweet.

Judd has taken her recent experience on twitter as an opportunity to engage in a wider discussion about the online abuse faced by women. Judd has also opted to treated this abuse for what it is – a crime – and has committed to get the police involved.

“I received a disturbing tweet with a close-up photograph of my face behind text that read, ‘I can’t wait to cum all over your face and in your mouth.

The timing was canny, and I knew it was a crime. It was time to call the police, and to say to the Twittersphere, no more.”

This is why Judd says she will be pressing charges against every Twitter user who sent her horrific threats.

Brava, Ashley Judd. We’re behind you all the way.

Mamamia has recently taken a stand against online bullying by asking high-profile women to read the abusive messages they receive online. The most recent video in this series is here:

If you or anyone you know is suffering from online bullying, or is struggling to deal with issues surrounding rape, incest or sexual abuse, please seek help.

You can contact:

Lifeline Australia

13 11 14

Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence National Help Line

1800 Respect (1800 737 732)

Sexual Assault Counselling Australia

1800 211 028