#FeministsAreUgly is confusing a lot of people, misogynists included. The Twitter hashtag – which took off yesterday and is still going strong, if not quite so strong, today – was originally started not by misogynistic trolls but by two feminists, @LilyBolorian and @Cheuya, who intended the hashtag to be a way for feminist women to celebrate their own beauty, whether it conformed to conventional (and generally white-centric) standards or not. As Bolorian put it,
https://twitter.com/LilyBolourian/status/497453684440444928
https://twitter.com/LilyBolourian/status/497398674054725634
Women responded at once by doing just that, and the hashtag was quickly flooded by feminist selfies. This being the internet, it was also flooded with comments from misogynists and trolls. Given how many of the latter were posted, many feminists on Twitter initially assumed it was just another outburst of internet misogyny; it took a little while before the feminist origins of the hashtag became widely known.
So how did the devoted antifeminists of the manosphere and the Men’s Rights movement react to the hashtag? Some responded with unabashed glee. The regulars on Roosh V’s forum reposted the selfies of some in women posting in the #FeministsAreUgly hashtage, mocking them as fat, lazy “cunts.”
One commenter offered this helpful observation:
A lot of fat crazy feminists are also obviously on heavy psych meds. One of the tell tale signs is volatile temperment and grandiose delusions. The weight gain is often a side effect of some of the drugs. So next time you run into some fat cunt spouting feminist rhetoric just keep in mind she could literally be crazy (bipolar) too.
Another waxed conspiratorial:
Feminist women are trying to turn themselves Idols to be worshiped.
It all ties into the writings of Alice Bailey and Madame Helena Blavatsky.
But elsewhere in the misogynistic online subculture sometimes called the manosphere the responses were a tad more complicated and conflicted.
On the Red Pill subreddit, the hashtag seemed mainly to make the regulars angry. A fellow calling himself MajorStyles won himself some upvotes for a comment complaining that
these bitches have gained control of the media for the past 40 years. Enough is enough. They have desecrated the moral landscape of this country to a barely recognizable wasteland. Fat tattooed harpies who shit on men of value.
Time to call them on their shit.
Over in the Men’s Rights subreddit, the regulars were wary, many of them afraid that the hashtag was some sort of sneaky feminist trap to make them look bad … I guess by luring them into posting what they really thought?
![SleepingSheeple 18 points 20 hours ago Probably started by feminists trying to manufacture victimhood. permalink save report give gold reply [–]ArchangelOKC 4 points 11 hours ago A false flag attack, basically](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/falseflag.png?resize=458%2C173&ssl=1)
Among the assorted antifeminists I follow or otherwise encounter on Twitter, there were two basic responses. Some flatly declared that yes, feminists are ugly:
https://twitter.com/aaron_clarey/status/497801834548199424
https://twitter.com/FemsHaveBallz/status/497601470527983616
Others, a bit more circumspect, suggested that the real problem is that feminists are ugly on the inside.
Pretty selfies will not cover up your rotten soul. #feministsareugly
— Redd Fields (@ReddFields) August 8, 2014
The truth is, if a feminist screams that they aren't physically ugly in #FeministsAreUgly, that is probably the ONLY part that is not ugly
— Nephanor (@Nephanor) August 8, 2014
I'm very disappointed in the #FeministsAreUgly hashtag, because it ignores the reality that even the attractive ones are unpleasant.
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) August 8, 2014
A Voice for Men “Honey Badger” Hanna Wallen tried to have it both ways, posting a Dworkin joke aimed at a feminist who, like Dworkin, has dark curly hair, followed by a series of earnest and often incomprehensible tweets trying to prove that feminists (including me, specifically) have ugly souls.
Hey, #FeministsAreUgly, how are those selfies Dworkin for ya? http://t.co/d4RRgGXmT7 #WomenAgainstFeminism #feminismisawful
— Hannah Wallen | Professional Smartass (@Oneiorosgrip) August 8, 2014
The way their rhetoric inflicts stupidity on women is one reason why #FeministsAreUgly https://t.co/Ruz8kh8IPK
— Hannah Wallen | Professional Smartass (@Oneiorosgrip) August 8, 2014
I can only imagine how tough it’s been for MRAs to read through this hashtag. MRAs constantly attack feminists as fat and ugly; feminist women who aren’t fat are accused of having “manjaws” or other allegedly unflattering features. But many MRAs are also vaguely aware that constantly attacking their opponents as a bunch of uggos doesn’t exactly seem very statesmanlike. And so, many MRAs bite their tongues.
It’s tough being a men’s human rights activist. Sometimes they have to pretend that their opponents are actually human too.
I’ve read that the ‘evil witch’ imagery (nose and chin meeting, toothless, etc) dates from pre-modern Europe. People tended to lose teeth as long as they lived, but if you have a beard and mustache it’s less obvious. Also, there were fewer old women than old men, since multiple pregnancies were more dangerous than being in a war. So very old women were uncommon and unfamiliar looking. An old woman who’d outlived her husband and had no family to take her in tended to be poor. Viola! Scary witch woman.
I wonder why the misogynists haven’t figured out that feminists don’t care if they like looking at us? It’s not our job to be pretty for them or to think their estimation of us is more relevant than our estimation of ourselves. I just don’t care. Do they think we want to please them? Why would they think that? Who the fuck are they to us?
Doesn’t this conversation in person basically go:
“Hur-hur, I don’t think you’re pretty!”
And?
“That gives me sad pants-feels.”
Good.
The fire would be quite handy in winter, and think of how simple cooking would be!
damselindetech, consider my day made.
Look, I found foot stammering!
http://youtu.be/75y-fIrvkow
I don’t think this is some grand statement, hash tags are at best chatty and conversational, but I don’t have any problem women saying that they are comfortable with their appearance and don’t giving a flying fuck what random strangers think.
Every time I read one of Roosh Five’s word vomits I grow more certain that he spends his entire life either gaslighting insecure and vulnerable young women or mocking them like a high school bully to win points with his insecure and vulnerable male readers. Sewage plants have more charm and appeal than that unctuous toad.
brooked, that’s an interesting difference, isn’t it: women saying that they are comfortable with their appearance and don’t giving a flying fuck what random strangers think
isn’t the same as saying they’re beautiful/pretty or whatever. The I don’t care what you think seems more important, to my thinking, than what can come across as but I’m beautiful too! like beauty is necessary. Fucking hard to get away from the desire to be seen as beautiful, or not need anyone’s validation, so more power to those who can.
I wasn’t able to: I knew intellectually that it was pointless to give a shit about the opinions of people who either didn’t like you or (the vast majority) didn’t give it a passing thought, but that shit was internalised since high school. Curious, isn’t it, how you can utterly despise your schoolmates yet not quite shake off those years of being told you’re ugly.
It really wasn’t until Louis and I got together and he made it really clear by word and deed that he loves my physical self as well as who I am, that all that shit started to get cleared away. I still don’t think of myself as beautiful or pretty but I’m happy with what I see in the mirror (well, with a bit of foundation 😛 ) and as far as other people, especially men, go, he’s the only one whose opinion matters. Just more proof that being rational alone isn’t enough!
I question the foundation behind that second tweet: “Please tweet your sexiness under #FeministsAreUgly”
Why must I be sexy? I mean, it doesn’t even say attractive or beautiful, but “sexy.” Attractive/beautiful would be problematic, too, but I think the “sexy” standard is more so.
Nevertheless, it’s good to get a lot of pictures out there of ordinary women, of all facial and body types. Despite seeing ordinary women in real life every day, it seems like a lot of people don’t “get” that women don’t have to be ultra-thin supermodels with Caucasian or Caucasian-esque features. But if they see pictures, it somehow becomes more real than reality. Not sure how this works, but I’ve seen it happen to acquaintances of mine.
Policy of Madness, yeah, ugh, the idea that we have to be sexy, somehow, some way, even if it’s not whatever the mainstream idea is right now. Fuck that.
This seems like a rehash of #feministselfies except with a side order of objectification.
…Um…Am I weird for finding a wide range of body types attractive?
…But yeah, my worth as a human shouldn’t be measured in millihelens.
@kitteh
I found critiquing beauty standards and being honest about my insecurities rather then cowed by them personally helpful. I associate that with feminism but also with the independence of thought one gains by growing older (hopefully). I agree that patting women on the head and saying “everyone’s pretty in their own way” has a childish tinge to it, but this seems more about saying I’m not going ashamed of my appearance or hide from it.
I don’t take hashtags particularly seriously since they come and go quickly, leaving only shallow think pieces in their wake.
Personally my miserable adolescence ruined my twenties for me for the most part, I’ve been a lot happier as a SPINSTER, despite my lowered sexual market value. It took a real fucking long time to get over shit that happened before adulthood, but that’s life I guess.
@blahlistic- No you’re not weird. I also find a broad range of bodies/genders to be attractive. The most important thing for me is intelligence/personality and if we get along. And that could be anybody!
I love when losers do a 180 after realising I don’t buy their anti-feminist schlock. It either goes from “Whoa, you’re so hot” to “fat, ugly cunt” or “Whoa, you’re so hot” to “Too bad you’re a stupid bitch but I’d still cum on your face”. Classy, classy guys.
I’ve never use the word “sexy” unironically because it just feels like a silly word to me and I’m way too snarky in general. That said, I read that tweet as “yes, twitter, ugly feminist are sexual too, deal with it” rather than “I’m sexy like Kin Kardasian, teehee”.
I tend to be generous in my interpretations of things that feminists do if they’re being thoughtlessly, unfairly or unmercilessly being picked apart by anti-feminists and misogynists, just on principle.
Nope!
brooked, yes, knowing one’s insecurities (and what a heap of shit they’re founded on) is very important, and growing older helps a lot! For me it was about the difference between knowing what rot it all was intellectually, and not caring anymore once, well, once validation had come along, I guess. Is it a pity that it took that for me to feel differently? I guess it could be looked at that way, as a slight disappointment I couldn’t chuck the residue of that conditioning, but tangentially, it’s evidence of something more important to me, so buggrit. 😉
Thanks for the props, all. Since work has slowed down a bit, I’m going to share my selfie wherein I attempt to consume the overwhelming cute that is my Furrinati Overload.
https://twitter.com/damselindetech/status/497538156850606080
Look how chill the cat is about it all. Doesn’t give a fuck. Love it.
[blockquote] A lot of fat crazy feminists are also obviously on heavy psych meds. One of the tell tale signs is volatile temperment and grandiose delusions. The weight gain is often a side effect of some of the drugs. So next time you run into some fat cunt spouting feminist rhetoric just keep in mind she could literally be crazy (bipolar) too. [/blockquote]
*Headdesk* Red Pill types claim to understand both abnormal psychology, psychopharmacology, and neuroscience all the frickin’ time, when they really understand none of them. Antipsychotics and mood stabilizers don’t make you volatile and delusional. Antipsychotics, especially, have a dulling effect. Weight gain is a side effect, I’ll give him that, but that’s the only thing he got right.
One guy Red Pill type claimed that people on psych medications were drug addicts. He said that prozac was the same as methamphetamine. When someone else told him that they were completely different, he said the non-Red Piller was ignoring the truth. I guess everything I learned in my psychology classes were wrong; stimulants and SSRIs are exactly the same.
It’s not someone’s fault if they have to take medication, so they can lead a normal life. Having bipolar, schizophrenia, etc., is not the fault of the individual, it’s a disease like any other disease. Twenty-five percent of Americans will suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives. Red Pillers may not realize, but they are among that 25% as well, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Psychopathy count as well. Just because the two things I listed are “alpha” traits, doesn’t mean they are healthy.
I’d rather hang out with the people who have schizophrenia and bipolar than psychopaths anyways, their illnesses usually don’t make them jerks. Stop talking about psychology like you understand it, PUAs, because you don’t. /End rant. Sorry about that, I just really hate when these guys claim to know everything about a subject, when they don’t.
Now that’s one fine typo. Or pun, whatevs. 😀
I’ll never get blockquotes right.
Nthing the “Helena Blavatsky? What?” thing.
How did they make that connection? At least it’s not Dworkin or Solanas again.
And my small frisson at recognizing a fellow nerd (a Fraal is a version of the classical grey alien from the RPG Alternity) is immediately harshed by realizing “Nephanor of Fraal” is a complete jerk. Dammit.
@Mnemosyne: You had the command right, but instead of the square brackets (which bulletin boards take) you want angle brackets ( < and > ).
…Are y’all old enough to remember the old Folger’s instant coffee commercials? I hope so…
Announcer:
“We’ve secretly replaced the fluoxetine in these people’s capsules with methamphetamine CRYSTALS. Let’s see if they notice!”
*Cue video of people hurling tables and setting fire to the drapes in a nice restaurant, shouting and screaming can be heard in the background*
@ brooked
There’s a difference, at least to me, between “sexual” and “sexy.” “Sexy” always connotes being there for another person, because we are only sexy if other people find us so, whereas “sexual” is a trait that someone has innate to themselves, independent of the opinions of others.
Nothing wrong with being sexy or wanting to be or feel sexy, but there’s something wrong with expecting that of other people. The tweet seems to imply that everyone is sexy, but not everyone is or wants to be, so it’s kind of exclusive for me in that way.