On the syllabus, I suggested that you might look at misogynist hashtags on social media (e.g., #Feminazis). Please use this space to share and/or comment on what you found.
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Looking up misogynistic hashtags was horrific. There were countless memes, tweets, and videos that sexualized women and depicted them as useless and idiotic. Some of the examples I saw was an Instagram post that revolved around the recognition women receive for being wealthy, however, emphasized that women only receive such wealth through inheritance or a divorce settlement. Another post that came up from the hashtag Feminazis stated that “women wearing revealing clothes make them prone to sexualization”, and therefore proceeded to suggest that skirts in sports, schools, and workplaces should be banned and pants should be worn instead. Another meme I saw stated that “feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians”. I could go on and on, as the #Feminazis has over 64K posts on Instagram. It was eye-opening to read about harassment and abuse towards women online and to see first-hand the presence it has on such mainstream social media like Instagram. The point that Poland makes regarding deindividuation was evident here. Poland made it clear how easy it is to interact with online abuse and harassment, just by creating anonymous or new accounts. And so, antifeminists around the world are adding to these misogynistic hashtags, as there is a sense of self-awareness that is lost between the people that are behind these accounts and posts. Poland states that “MRAs include women disproportionately receiving custody in divorce, domestic violence aimed at men, high rates of male suicide, and false rape accusations.” I did see a lot of these issues brought up when searching through numerous antifeminist hashtags.
I spent some time looking on Instagram at the #feminazis hashtag, and other misogynistic hashtags similar. I ended up looking through a lot of posts for the #redpill hashtag. What I took away from scrolling through these posts, was that many of the posts were obscure and outlandish news story headlines, with captions stating an anti feminist opinion that was related, often vaguely or not at all, to the topic of the news story. Basically, using the format of Instagram as a photo sharing platform to censor what parts of news they wanted to comment on without making the actual articles available for viewers to interact with and read. As a result, the person seeing these social media posts can only interact with the posters perceived notions of the post and their opinions, rather than any real facts or experience. This led to almost what Poland described as harassment mobs occurring in the comments, where those in agreement with the anti feminist statement piled on vile commentary and attacked anyone who disagreed.
One post that stood out to me specifically was a screenshot of a news headline reading “YouTube makeup artist, 32, is jailed for 40 years after covering up two back-to-back pregnancies then throwing the newborn babies in the trash.” This crime, the murder of two babies, is incredibly horrifying and would not be supported by any feminist movement in its true form. The article itself is not linked or made available. The caption then reads “Give her the death penalty!!!! Feminism is a toxic mental illness that needs to be cured” with hashtags such as #redpill #feminazis #feminismiscancer #feminismistrash and #fckfeminism. The article and headline and story are objectively not a pro feminism piece nor is there any pro feminist involvement supporting this woman’s crimes. Yet, the audience is sparked by the caption and commentary acts to support the anti feminist statement of the poster. Creating in essence a small mob of support. It is really frightening to see the ways in which social media can be used to present such misled statements such as this as fact, and in doing so create real support behind the screen of online anonymity.