In Case You Missed All of This….
Never again think that women don’t collectively have the power to change the world.
According to Think Progress, the hashtag #YesAllWomen was trending at a rate of 51,000 per hour at it’s peak following the Isla Vista mass shooting Friday evening.
courtesy of www.ekaterinawalter.com
Feminists’ Inspiring Online Response To A Misogynist Mass Murderer
by Rebecca Leber – Think Progress, May 25, 2014
Deep-rooted misogyny appeared to play some role in Elliot Rodger’s shooting rampage that left seven people dead near Santa Barbara University on Friday night. A video showed Rodger wanted to “punish” the women “who’ve ignored or rejected him over the past eight years.”
In the online reaction to the tragedy, nothing has matched the conversation that began with a simple hashtag, #YesAllWomen.
The hashtag is a response to a “Not all men” meme that’s surfaced over the past few months. “Not all men” is an objection that’s used to dismiss the issue of violence against women and misogyny in society, simply because not all men are like that. Turning that language around with #yesallwomen refocuses the conversation on the fact that all women, at some point, face objectification. This occurs on a daily basis, but stories about women who are victims of domestic violence or street harassment don’t attract national attention.
The person who created the hashtag hoped to show that even though not all men are violent, objectification is widespread:
Guys, I’m going to be tweeting under the #YesAllWomen hashtag. Let’s discuss what “not all men” might do, but women must fear.
— Kaye M. (@gildedspine) May 24, 2014
At its peak, 51,000 tweets an hour called out the harassment, threats, and abuse that women face from men who are taught to feel entitled to women’s bodies.
READ MORE OF SAMPLE TWEETS FROM #YesAllWomen HERE.
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#YesAllWomen: Elliot Rodger’s misogynistic ravings inspire a powerful response on Twitter
Yes, all women have been around men who have discounted, denied and demeaned us.
It’s true that #NotAllMen are like Elliot Rodger. But there are millions who share the same twisted view of women that he did, and we encounter them every day on our streets and campuses and military bases, in our offices and boardrooms and gyms and bars. Sometimes we encounter them in our own families.
Elliot Rodger has exposed the sick world of the Men’s Rights Activist movement, self-described “alphas” who fume about any and all the times they don’t call the shots with women, specifically the airbrushed, inflated and photo-shopped creatures they assume are there for them.
Mostly, it’s about sex. Or the lack thereof.
A group of them call themselves Pickup Artists. And some sell their wisdom — tips that include stale bar tricks, ways to insult and ignore women as part of their seduction — as online courses, apps or seminars. They call this ability to get women to sleep with them “Game.”
When desperate men who shell out cash thinking it will buy them Game fail, they lash out online. Not at the men who try to sell them Game, but at the women who didn’t buy the act.
Rodger, the son of a film director who drove a BMW and never had to work a summer job, was one of the Pickup Artist haters. On Web sites for like-minded men, he posted racist and misogynistic rants so bad, they were flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And in his manifesto, he said the killings wouldn’t have happened if just one beautiful woman had paid attention to him.
He may have been mentally ill, but he was also the product of a culture that objectifies, demeans and sexualizes women. Nearly one in five American women report being raped at some time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The raging sexual assault epidemic in our military and on our college campuses is a reflection of the entitlement too many men feel they have to women’s bodies.
Every day we hear of another military man — powerful, disciplined, bulging with Game — who sexually assaulted a woman in uniform. This month, investigations began at 55 colleges and universities over the way their officials have handled sexual assault. These are our nation’s thought leaders — privileged, educated, bursting with tweedy Game — who have rebranded rape as “non-consensual sex” so they won’t have to deal with the misogyny on display on their campuses.
Think it’s not real? Consider the texts and e-mails allegedly exchanged between members of a banished frat at American University. The young men — who also were identified as scholars, interns at prestigious nonprofits and senators’ offices — show a shuddering hatred and objectification of their female classmates.
In the five years I’ve been a columnist, I’ve been called a whore, a slut and worse when I’ve written about work-life balance, breast-feeding or child care. I’ve been told that I need to have poison poured into my “whiney-woman mouth.”
The unfiltered misogyny of Elliot Rodger is extreme, but it’s an indicator of the hatred that remains a stubborn part of our society’s fabric. No, #NotAllMen are like Elliot Rodger. But #YesAllWomen reveal the little pieces of him we encounter every single day.
Twitter:@petulad
The Original Post HERE.