Who are these creeps?
by digby
I don't write much about this new aggressive misogyny, especially online, because there are so many great writers already tackling it better than I could. But this story contains a quote that really clarifies what they believe and it struck me:
"Feminism is a growing cancer."
That's quite statement. What caused this particular outburst?
On September 21, actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson stood up at the UN Headquarters in New York City and delivered a powerful speech condemning the harm that gender discrimination causes to both men and women, and inviting men to become active participants in the global struggle for equality. The next day, anonymous individuals from the message board 4chan set up a website targeting Watson with sexual threats, counting down the five days until, presumably, her private nude images will be made public
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The global struggle for gender equality is what caused this outburst. Something I would have thought so anodyne and predictable by now that nobody would even notice it. Instead it incited a furious response.
And I think we can dispense with whatever convenient delusions we may have had about the release of those pictures. It's not for harmless masturbatory fun. It's not a celebration of the human form. It's not adolescent hijinxs. It's humiliation, plain and simple:
The site threatening Watson was greeted with glee on 4chan and Reddit, where commenters explicitly stated their hope that the threats would force her to abandon her feminist campaigning. "If only her nudes got leaked and she had the load on her face. Her feminism kick would be over," a commenter wrote. "If this is true her recent feminism rally is going to be shutdown hard," wrote another. "Feminism," one 4chan user opined, "is a growing cancer."
Again, who are these creeps? The piece I linked above is by Amanda Taub and it's very powerful and worth reading. She points out many examples of this worldview all over the globe. It's not an American problem, it's a global problem.
But in modern America overt misogyny does have a very important Godfather, validator and inspiration. This guy, who routinely decries the "feminization" of America and refers to feminists as "feminazis." He's feted and honored by some of the most important members of our political system. It's not as if these online woman haters have any reason to believe that their ideas are outside the mainstream. They clearly aren't.
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