One of the things I really like about social media is that it gives people  the opportunity to share their opinions on different topics. This past spring, the hashtag #yesallwomen started trending on Twitter, for users to share stories about misogyny and unfair treatment that they have experienced or witnessed in their lives. Looking through my timeline, I was really interested in some of the stories, articles, and facts people all across the world shared. I took the liberty of stalking my twitter retweets from a couple months ago, so I could show you all some of the things I found interesting! Some of my hastily taken screenshots are displayed below.

However, what really made this hashtag catch my attention wasn’t the amount of support people were showing for it; it was the amount of hate it was getting, from guys and girls. Plenty of guys took the opportunity to ridicule the hashtag, as if gender inequality isn’t even a problem. One of the tweets I found easily said something along the lines of “feminists be like ‘the post office is so sexist, why do we need MAIL to communicate #YesAllWomen’ smh.” Okay first of all, this tweet was posted on October 17th, months after #YesAllWomen became a prevalent topic of discussion. The fact that someone took the time out of their day to make a poorly-crafted, unoriginal, joke out of a topic like this, clearly shows how desperate for attention they are, because they know it will rile people up. Unfortunately though, @ThoughtOverThot (the twitter handle of our witty, anti-feminist friend) is among one of the many people who don’t take feminism as seriously as they should. When this hashtag first started trending, one of my girl friends made a comment about it, remarking about how “all these #yesallwomen tweets were giving her cancer.” Now, I don’t know what prompted this friend of mine to say such a stupid thing, but chances are it was to impress her older, domineering and close minded boyfriend.

Here lies the problem. Not only do many teenage guys ridicule the topic of feminism – either because they want to maintain their positions of power, they don’t understand how terrible the double standard is, or because they’re ignorant enough to think it isn’t a big deal – but girls follow suit. Why would a girl trivialize a cause that is intended to help her, you may ask? My guess is so she can impress guys and make them like her because she “agrees” with their opinions. I was in high school not so long ago, I know the lengths to which a girl would go in order to catch the attention of her male counterparts. The truth of the matter is that feminism is a multifaceted issue and the lack of cooperation of all females to band together to support this issue is just one of them many problems associated with it.

So I’ll leave you with this, my fellow CAS 137H friends. Think back to times where someone you know has made jokes or comments like this. What did you do about the situation? Did you laugh along, say nothing, or correct the person? I’m not saying the way to solve this issue is to yell at people and spout rape statistics every time someone makes a joke about feminism. However, firmly informing people that their jokes are in poor taste and explaining why they aren’t funny may be a good way to start.