What's This?
Image: Jae C. Hong
2014-05-26 17:58:42 UTC
In the wake of the Elliot Rodger shooting rampage, many women have turned to Twitter to share their experiences of harassment, fear and sexual assault under the hashtag #YesAllWomen.
Rodger's premeditated killing spree in Isla Vista, California, claimed the lives of seven people — including his own — with several more injured. He killed two women outside a sorority house, but according to Rodger himself he had planned to "slaughter" several more. Rodger's YouTube videos and 147-page "manifesto" create a portrait of a lonely misogynist who felt entitled to the attentions of women for no other reason than his own perceived intelligence and status.
"You girls have never been attracted to me," Rodger said in his final video. "I don’t know why you girls aren't attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it. It's an injustice... I don't know what you don't see in me. I'm the perfect guy and yet you throw yourselves at these obnoxious men instead of me, the supreme gentleman."
Although Rodger is obviously an extreme case, his sense of sexual entitlement resonated widely with women. The hashtag #YesAllWomen was born and became the label under which women shared their experiences with male entitlement. According to Hashtags.org, #YesAllWomen — which didn't exist before May 24 — has been attached to 1.2 million tweets, peaking at 61,500 tweets on May 25. (Topsy pegs the number of tweets at just over 1 million.)
Image: Hashtags.org
The tag originated in a Twitter conversation involving writer Annie Cardi (@anniecardi) and another woman who has changed her account to private to protect her identity, Cardi told Mashable.
Twitter created an animated heatmap of the #YesAllWomen hashtag, showing how it progressed since its genesis on May 24 and spread throughout the weekend. The hashtag had worldwide reach, with tweets from countries including Pakistan, Indonesia and Qatar.
Through the hashtag, women have shared everything from stories of inappropriate workplace behavior to reports of rape.
Many men joined in, tweeting with the hashtag in support of women and condemning their experiences of sexual inequality.
Some men responded to #YesAllWomen with another hashtag, #NotAllMen. The tag has existed for a while, and it's usually used in counterpoints to feminist arguments. However, in the wake of the shooting, tweets with #NotAllMen are more likely to be in support of #YesAllWomen than arguing against feminism.
In the wake of mass shootings, the conversation online often continues for weeks or months. After the Sandy Hook massacre, calls for gun control dominated social media, and Colorado recently revamped its mental-health laws in response the the Aurora theater shooting in 2012.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Topics: Elliot Rodger, hashtag, hashtags, Media, Politics, Social Good, Twitter, U.S., US & World, YesAllWomen
No comments:
Post a Comment