So over the weekend some enterprising 4channer decided to try to create some mayhem and make a few quick bucks by concocting a fake feminist conference, and selling tickets to it.
He — I’m pretty sure it was a he — headed to /b/ to round up some accomplices.
The co-conspirators assembled in a TinyChat to work out the details of this brilliant scheme.
BE SURE TO SPELL FEMINIST CORRECTLY OR NOBODY WILL BELIEVE YOU.
Alas! Someone must have spelled feminist incorrectly, because as it turns out, no one did believe them, and word quickly spread on Twitter that FEMCON2015 was indeed a CON.
It didn’t exactly help that, their entire knowledge of feminism seemingly derived from antifeminist memess, none of the FEMCON2015 promoters had any idea what real feminists sound like, and the fake feminist Twitter accounts they set up were about as believable as Steve Buscemi’s undercover teenager on 30 Rock.
Here are some of the highlights from the would-be FEMCON artists’ brief careers on Twitter.
“Veronica” tweeted “her” first TOTALLY REAL HUGE FEMINIST comment at 2:12 (my time) Sunday afternoon.
Hey girls, I'm a huge feminist, and I can't believe I didn't have a twitter! I'm assisting in the creation of FemCon2015 in NY atm
— Veronica Hanson (@FeminsitVeronic) July 26, 2015
Literally one minute later, “Jessica” here tweeted HER first TOTALLY REAL feminist comment.
Just to let you know: You don't need to do whatever your boyfriend tells you to. You're independent! #bestrong #feminism #feminist @femfreq
— Jessica Alice (@Jessikacie) July 26, 2015
Two minutes later, she tweeted about the TOTALLY REAL conference.
ANYONE ELSE AS EXCITED FOR #FemCon2015 AS I AM?! Just bought my tickets today! Flying down in a few!! @Femcon2015 #feminism
— Jessica Alice (@Jessikacie) July 26, 2015
This TOTALLY REAL liberal showed how liberal “she” was with TOTALLY REAL liberal tweets like these:
https://twitter.com/ProgFembo/status/624684086720897024
https://twitter.com/ProgFembo/status/625034891491545088
Then followed up with a plug for FEMCON2015.
https://twitter.com/ProgFembo/status/625487206090715136
The OFFICIAL fake account of the fake conference — which has now apparently been banned — tried to whip up fake enthusiasm for the fake conference:
Looking at @Femcon2015’s tweets last night, before the account vanished, I noticed “she” had 85 followers, pretty good for a brand-new non-celebrity account. Let’s see what some of these followers had to say!
@Femcon2015 Emma Watson
— Joe Cockx (@Generic_nam3) July 26, 2015
This was Mr. Cockx’s only Tweet.
But some of @Femcon2015’s other followers tweet a bit more regularly. Like Claudia here:
This seems to be a popular topic amongst @Femcon2015’s followers.
I crossed out the info, BTW.
There are more like this, but I think you get the idea.
SPECTACULAR SUCCESS, FELLAS!
H/T — r/GamerGhazi, Sari’s Whimsy, and @srhbutts
They aren’t that smart. I’m surprised only one of them spelt feminist wrong.
On the chatlogs, most of them did. It is glorious.
Oh, and the guy who made the FeminsitVeronic account is on the chatlogs. He spends the entire chat unable to figure out how to make a Tumblr account.
So how do you think the 4channers behind this are reacting? Mortified/angry (I imagine to these guys, they’re the same thing), or basking in the attention?
Or maybe blaming the guy who spelled “feminist” wrong.
Oh, I’m so glad I read through the log. It is amazing. http://imgur.com/a/2e0kU
My favorite was the guy who blamed his inability to make a tumblr post not on his own incompetence, but tumblr “being homosexual.”
Wut??
Aww. They wanted to contact Anita Sarkeesian and trick into endorsing the conference and giving it a signal boost. Adorable!
It’s like reading about a train wreck on Darwin Awards…
Ineffectual criminals are the best kind. ;D
The depressing thing out of this is that these are the same idiots who pretty much incited #GamerGate. Kind of depressing so many MRAs and anti-feminists are even dumber than this.
WWTH, thanks for posting the link to that log. These people seem to have a great deal of free time to fritter away on strange projects. If only they could have used their power* for good.
*To use the term very loosely.
Since I’m up early, Robjec, I’ll answer your question (or at least give you one answer).
‘I didn’t get the while shirt gate thing, he apologized and deemed to be deeply upset that he had hurt anyone. So I don’t really get why it still comes up ever.’
Those of us who were upset that his thoughtless choice of what to wear while representing his organisation and STEM in general was just one more example of how we’re told we’re not welcome in STEM environments appreciated his sincere apology, were glad people are now a little more aware of the subtle ways sexism affects us, and are prepared to move on. As with Tim Hunt’s crass comments to women in STEM in Korea, it’s not the people who pointed out the behaviour who are continuing to obsess about it, it’s the people who are really, really not happy about being criticised. Really, really not happy. It’s not supposed to work that way–‘inferiors’ aren’t supposed to criticise the behaviour of ‘superiors’.
Brilliant.
I just had to quote this so it wouldn’t get lost upthread.
In the chatlog, one of the guys is just like ‘feminists are retarded’ as a sort of non-sequitur.
I mean aside from using a slur for the mentally handicapped… he says this while he and his buddies are plotting to defraud women in a chatroom that anyone can read. And the fraud itself is ludicrously inept.
Glass house, stones, dude.
How exciting! FEMCON2015! Panels on addressing bylaws! Organizational structure! NOW’s agenda! Even though we have said nowhere else that this is affiliated with NOW! AWESOME GOOD TIME! TONS OF FUN! Totally something to pay $50 on!
They seriously just copied and pasted a random paragraph from the webpage for NOW’s most recent convention, not even bothering to change “NOW” to “FemCon.” The NOW convention has a lot of dry organizational meetings because it’s a meeting of the leaders of a major political group, not… I dunno, a feminism-themed version of Comic-Con or whatever the 4channers thought they were making up.
I’m almost sorry this got nipped in the bud. I wish it could go on forever, like the Sarkeesian Effect.
In case anyone was worried, Sellfy has reported that the account made no sales before it was banned.
That must be a huge disappointment to them, given that they were sharing out the expected proceeds in those chat logs.
Still, I daresay it beats being arrested for fraud. Although presumably conspiracy to commit fraud is also a criminal offence?
I’d have prefered it stayed up for several months while they earn no money whatsoever.
A good parody/satire of something has knowledge about its target. The doofs behind this dumbassery clearly don’t understand this.
I recently watched Despicable Me 2, and I read this in Gru’s voice for some reason. Though ironically enough:
http://www.rellimzone.com/images/movies/despicable-me-2-2013-02.jpg
How hard would it have been to pm each other while setting up a fake web page? I wouldn’t be surprised if this was masterminded by a bunch of 13 year olds.
Re that photo of the Tea Party member, maybe he was telling someone he knew called Moran to grow a brain?
I have the odd feeling that Typical Liberal was making fun of them, I know I would have (except even more lazy).
Even used a Velma avatar.
@Paradoxical Intention
It’s like a reverse of the Spotlight Effect. Believing the eyes are not on them when they very much are. A common phenomenon amongst 4chaners and gaters XD
Omg the chatlogs are too much. It’s just so entertaining to hear them describe the various straw, patches and yarn that make up a “feminist” in their mind.
“we need even teh mild mildly sane one to give up their money”
Well geez with a total of $0 before the ban, what does that say?
Katz, they sold no tickets? I distinctly remember reading several tweets from real feminists saying that they had just bought tickets …. oh wait, never mind.
At least they know who to blame for the failure.
If Veronica had only spelled “feminist” correctly, everyone would have totally fallen for it. They would have made tons of money and all the feminists would have been outraged or embarrassed or something* when they realized they had been sent to a gay bar. It’s not like posting the plan in a public forum gave them away or anything…
*Honestly, I’m not sure what response they were going for with that. Is ending up at a gay bar supposed to be horribly upsetting for some reason?
(Hey, David, I’ve started getting auto-redirect ads on the mobile version, specifically the one talked about here. Might want to look into that.)