NotAllMen

The hashtag #NotAllMen is a feminist Internet meme.[1][2] A shortening of the phrase "not all men are like that", sometimes abbreviated "NAMALT",[3][4] the meme is a satire of men's responses to discussions of sexual assault, the gender pay gap,[5] and other feminist issues where the phrase "not all men" is used to deflect attention away from these topics.[6]

Origin and usage

The hashtag #NotAllMen began as a catchphrase among men's rights activists (MRAs) used in response to discussions which they saw as portraying all men as misogynists or sexual abusers.[3] The phrase "not all men are like that" has been in use online since the mid-2000s as a general defense of men.[4][lower-alpha 1] Jess Zimmerman writes that before 2013, "not all men" was absent from discussions of popular derailment tactics used in response to feminist discourse; in its place were phrases such as "'what about the men?' and 'patriarchy hurts men too'—pleas for inclusion, not for exemption".[6]

The phrase later came to be used mainly as a satire of defensive reactions by men.[3] McKinney writes that the phrase "has been reappropriated by feminists and turned into a meme meant to parody its pervasiveness and bad faith."[4] The phrase went viral in 2013 with a satirical tweet by Shafiqah Hudson:

ME: Men and boys are socially instructed to not listen to us. They are taught to interrupt us when we– RANDOM MAN: Excuse me. Not ALL men."[4][8]

In 2014, a Tumblr page featured images in which a speech bubble with the phrase "not all men" was added to the shark from Jaws, the chestburster from Alien, and several other movie scenes; on Twitter, the catchphrase was added to an image of the Kool-Aid man crashing through a wall.[6] The same year, artist Matt Lubchansky created a webcomic with the character "Not-All-Man", in which the "defender of the defended" and "voice for the voiceful" breaks through a glass window to interrupt a pink-haired woman complaining about men.[6][9] The comic was retweeted and reblogged "tens of thousands of times" according to Zimmerman, and shared by celebrities including Wil Wheaton, Paul F. Tompkins, Matt Fraction, and John Scalzi.[6] Other #NotAllMen-related memes include references to Aquaman, Adventure Time, and Magic: The Gathering.[2]

2014 Isla Vista killings

#NotAllMen was already a Twitter hashtag created by the Twitter user Sassycrass before the 2014 Isla Vista killings, but it gained additional traction after the event, because of the hatred against women expressed by the murderer, Elliot Rodger (although only two of the six casualties were women). In response to the hashtag #NotAllMen, an anonymous Twitter user created the hashtag #YesAllWomen, to express that all women are affected by sexism and misogyny, even though not all men are sexist. This newly created hashtag quickly became used by women throughout social media to share their experiences of sexual discrimination and attacks.[10][2][11][12][13][14] Following the killing spree, the attacker's Internet activity was described as misogynistic, and hatred of women was cited as a factor in the killing spree.[15][16][17][18] In the wake of the killings, some Twitter users pointed out the fact that "not all men" are like this, or would commit such crimes.[12][13][14]

Bengaluru incident

After reports of a mass molestation occurring at India's Bengaluru New Year's Eve celebration, #NotAllMen began trending on Twitter. This drew an angry reaction from women, with many Indian feminists and women strongly criticizing the hashtag while responding with their own hashtag #YesAllWomen.[19][20][21]

See also

Notes

  1. In Charles Dickens's 1836 novel The Pickwick Papers, Miss Wardle says, "Men are such deceivers", to which Mr. Tupman replies, "They are, they are [...] but not all men."[7]

References

  1. Ferdy, Tom (July 2, 2014). "Is there a misogynist inside every man?". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  2. Ryan, Erin Gloria (April 28, 2014). "Your Guide to 'Not All Men,' the Best Meme on the Internet". Jezebel. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  3. Zimmer, Benjamin; Solomon, Jane; Carson, Charles E. (2015). "Among the New Words" (PDF). American Speech. 90 (2): 214, 218–220. doi:10.1215/00031283-3130335 via Academia.edu.
  4. McKinney, Kelsey (May 15, 2014). "Here's why women have turned the "not all men" objection into a meme". Vox. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  5. Denton, Michelle (2020). Feminism and Gender Equality. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-5026-5746-6.
  6. Zimmerman, Jess (April 28, 2014). "Not All Men: A Brief History of Every Dude's Favorite Argument". Time. New York. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  7. Dickens, Charles (1837). The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club. London: Chapman and Hall. p. 74. OCLC 28228280.
  8. Shafiquah Hudson [@sassycrass] (February 20, 2013). "ME: Men and boys are socially instructed to not listen to us. They are taught to interrupt us when we- RANDOM MAN: Excuse me. Not ALL men" (Tweet). Retrieved January 18, 2015 via Twitter.
  9. Lubchansky, Matt (April 10, 2014). "Save Me". Please Listen to Me.
  10. Sources:
  11. Valenti, Jessica (May 28, 2014). "#YesAllWomen reveals the constant barrage of sexism that women face". The Guardian. London. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
  12. Plait, Phil (May 27, 2014). "#YesAllWomen". Slate.com. New York. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
  13. Grinberg, Emmanuel (May 27, 2014). "Why #YesAllWomen took off on Twitter". CNN. Atlanta, Ga. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
  14. Dempsey, Amy (May 26, 2014). "#YesAllWomen hashtag sparks revelations, anger, debate in wake of California killing spree". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
  15. "A Killer's Manifesto Reveals Wide Reach Of Misogyny Online". NPR. May 27, 2014. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  16. Carmon, Irin (May 24, 2014). "Elliot Rodger's war on women". MSNBC. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  17. Dvorak, Petula (May 26, 2014). "#YesAllWomen: Elliot Rodger's misogynistic ravings inspire a powerful response on Twitter". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  18. Buxton, Ryan (May 29, 2014). "Elliot Rodger's Misogynist Manifesto Is 'Familiar' To All Women, Professor Says". Huffington Post. New York. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  19. De Bono, Arielle (January 8, 2017). "#YesAllWomen resurfaces in India in the wake of mass molestation". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  20. Bhattacharya, Annanya (January 8, 2017). "#NotAllMen is not an appropriate response to a mob molesting scores of women in India's Silicon Valley". Quartz India. New York.
  21. Borges, Andre (January 8, 2017). "People Are Furious at the "Not All Men" Response to the Mass Molestation in Bengaluru on NYE". BuzzFeed.

Further reading

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