It's nearly as if that loss, the loss by the first woman candidate of a major party for president, was a leave pass for new and soaring heights of online trolling and violence. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of leave pass, it's a permission slip for otherwise unusual behaviour. But I really wish it was unusual.

These men are validated, vindicated and oh so very vindictive.

So, aside from the tedious and somewhat lacking in imagination attacks on the appearance of women who have the hide to air their views on the internet, the use of violent language is out of control. And, as usual, if you report anything to Twitter, very little changes, despite its fake attempts at building safety on their platform with its faux campaign, Position of Strength.

The rise in abuse confirms my deeply held view that men, some men, cannot control their behaviour. That they need policing and surveillance. Their particular behaviour illustrates that age-old adage – or at least since 1977, when Marilyn French wrote this in her novel The Women's Room: "All men are rapists, and that's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes."

The collective unconscious of men, some men, is now unleashed, just as it was when former prime minister Julia Gillard was in power and then later unseated. I wish I understood why some men hate women so much, especially powerful women. It can't just be because they fear disenfranchisement, can it? Is it fear of castration? Now, I guess their fears board the Trump Train, where the President-elect articulates that "putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing", in a world where women work.

Anyhow, the latest iteration is not only on social media, it's in my email inbox. It ranges from the seriously strange, one Tim Peach, who gives a Melbourne address, who claims the women in his life are Winners, to the discombobulated, one Howard Sattler (could it be the Howard Sattler who asked our former PM about the gender preference of her partner?) whose email reveals to me (FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME) the infidelities of Bill Clinton, to those men who send me links to videos about grabbing my pussy.

Instead, I'm taking the advice of both Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. When they go low, go high.

In other words, turn the other cheek. I'm taking the Go High doctrine to mean, don't get into boiling rages with idiots on the internet. It's time-wasting. It's draining. And so far, has not achieved a single change to behaviour. Men are sexist and misogynist and the internet is where they come to express that because their sainted mothers don't have time for any of that nonsense. When you retweet idiots, they love it. They love the attention they get.

It interests me to see this early analysis on which US presidential candidate scored more attention and engagement. We are what we click. We are what we retweet. And that removes our attention from the real problems we face.

So instead of using your energy to fight them or retweet them, use your energy to go to your social media platform, to get the companies themselves to take responsibility, and ask them what they are doing to combat this kind of behaviour. Ask them how they are responding to this abuse?

Facebook has made considerable – considerable – progress. After all, it used to allow rape jokes and the unfettered circulation of images portraying violence against women. That doesn't happen any more.

And report to your local police station. Yes, I know it doesn't always work. But you need to recognise that the police's response to this kind of abuse and harassment is evolving in exactly the same way as the response to domestic violence. Police used to deal with that pretty poorly – and now there is a dramatic improvement.

Carlene Mahoney works in social media governance for NSW Police and she, with a big team, has done an enormous amount in this area.

Her advice is definitely to go to the local police station.

"We want people to report so we can act on it."

And it's not just the criminal aspects of this behaviour where the police can take action because of the number of offences which include those who use devices to threaten or harass.

It's also the process. Police are now trained to deal with harassment and threats but also with providing information on how to manage social media channels. If you think that trivialises what police should be doing, you are not interested in having a social compact which includes decent behaviour. You might not enjoy women speaking up for women's rights but I'm not sure that the appropriate response is a photograph of a headless body. Or threats thereof.

"We can provide access to support services and it gives us a greater understanding of the crimes that are being committed online," says Mahoney.

Believe me, I've behaved badly. I've used bad language and I've even used it on social media. But I can't recall ever threatening to rape someone or to grab them by the pussy.

And beware of grabbing pussies. They have sharp teeth and claws.

Twitter: @jennaprice

facebook.com/jennapricejournalist