'It's embarrassing to witness' - Top Scottish playwright condemns trolls for 'misogynistic' comments towards Scots poet
David Greig, currently artistic director of the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, said it was “embarrassing" to find abusive comments directed at Len Pennie, aka Miss PunnyPennie, on social media.
His comments come after the 21-year-old poet published a post on Twitter revealing the various insults she received this week including “trollop”, “harlot” and “pompous little minx.”
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Hide AdAfter praising Pennie for bringing “new blood and energy" to the Scots language, Mr Greig was quick to defend the young poet.
He said: “Bloody hell folks don’t call people names for putting their passion for language out there and especially don’t use misogyny to silence young women. It’s embarrassing to witness. Honestly.”
Pennie, who has made a name for herself by posting a Scots word of the day each day, took Twitter by storm after she published a video of herself reciting her Scots poem “I'm no havin’ children’, which has been seen more than 320,000 times.
With just a few hundred followers at the beginning of the year, the poet's lexical project and video poem recitals through the various lockdowns has seen her gain almost 30,000 followers on Twitter.
The student, who is currently studying Spanish at St Andrews and living in Fife, has recently been asked by supermarket giant Lidl to write a festive poem in Scots about the 'Daft Days’ – the time between Christmas day and Hogmanay, the original 12 days of Christmas.
