A woman went to the police this week after receiving violent threats from fans of online lad's mag "Unilad". Like many, I was shocked and disturbed by the vitriolic attacks on women by the website and its supporters. Little did I expect that a few days later I would also be on the phone to the police, reporting online threats and harassment.

Back in 2010, self-styled "breastaurant" Hooters applied for a licence to open in Bristol. The Bristol Feminist Network and Bristol Fawcett launched a campaign objecting to the licence. We believe that Hooters contributes to the normalisation of the sexual objectification of women – a normalisation that negatively impacts on women's self-esteem and leads to an increased tolerance of sexual harassment and violence. Our campaign was unsuccessful. We were told by the licensing committee that a business whose USP is scantily clad women serving hot wings offered "something really different to Bristol". However, just over a year later, Hooters announced that it had closed.

Let's be clear. Hooters closed not because of pressure from feminists (if that was the case, it would never have opened) but because the managing company went into administration. It wasn't making the profit it needed and was involved in a dispute with another business. Bristol residents chose not to go there and it didn't make money.

I am sorry that people lost their jobs and sincerely hope that they find new work soon, but I believe that the closure of Hooters is fundamentally a positive step. It shows that a retro-sexist establishment is not welcome in our city. After a strip club was refused a licence earlier in the month, the closure of Hooters represents one less business on the high street that seeks to make money by objectifying women.

Hooters supporters started to leave comments yesterday morning on the Bristol Feminist Network Facebook page, blaming us for its closure. This quickly escalated, until men started posting sexist insults directed at me (BFN's spokesperson) on their walls. Next, they threatened me with violence. They wrote that they were going to come find me and make me "pay". They started to encourage their friends to harass me too. One man said he wanted to "kick me in the vagina" and his friends liked the comment. The men declared they were going to find out my details, share them on 4chan and come after me.

I'm a feminist blogger; I get a lot of online abuse. But these threats of violence were a different matter. I called the police.

Last year, feminists started speaking out about online abuse. Threats such as these are a tactic to try and silence women who speak out against sexism and misogyny. It's a way to try to make us stop, by threatening us into silence. In my case, and the case of many women I know, it doesn't work. However, it doesn't stop it being distressing when they try. In one short week, we had two incidents of women being intimidated and threatened by two representatives of lad culture. Hooters and Unilad form part of a culture that degrades, insults and threatens women. In many ways, I wasn't shocked with the physical threats and ugly language. After all, in this culture "jokes" about harming, raping or beating women are par the course. They are part of the "lad" conversation. In that world, it's normal.

I believe that establishments like Hooters and communities like Unilad are contributing to the normalisation of this degradation, this violent language, this view of women as objects. The dehumanisation of women by Hooters and Unilad makes it easy for its supporters to threaten us with violence, because they help normalise the view that women are disposable objects. And that all too easily leads to a day where a woman is forced to call the police because men have threatened to find her and make her pay for having a voice, and using it.

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