NotAllMen

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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] it is a satirical parody of arguments used to deflect attention away from men[5] in discussions of sexual assault, the gender pay gap,[6] and other feminist issues.

Origin and usage

Hashtag

The hashtag "#NotAllMen" originated with a satirical tweet by Shafiqah Hudson in 2013, which subsequently went viral:

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][7]

The phrase (and hashtag) quickly came to be used 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]

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.[5] 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.[5][8] 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.[5]

Other #NotAllMen-related memes include references to Aquaman, Adventure Time, and Magic: The Gathering.[2]

Origin usage of the phrase

According to McKinney,[4] the phrase "Not All Men" had begun 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, and says that the phrase "not all men are like that" has been in use online since the mid-2000s as a general defense of men.

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".[5] However, Zimmerman also highlights a use of the phrase dating to 1980, from author Joanna Russ, where a character muses:[9]

"That not all men are piggy, only some; that not all men belittle me, only some; that not all men get mad if you won't let them play Chivalry, only some; that not all men write books in which women are idiots, only most... that not all men control Congress, the Presidency, the police, the army, industry, agriculture, law, science, medicine, architecture, and local government, only some."

Earlier use of the phrase have been cited back to Dickens in 1836.[10] Herman lists additional historical usages of the phrase.[11]

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,[12] (although only two of the six casualties were women). In response to the hashtag #NotAllMen, an anonymous Twitter user created the hashtag #YesAllWomen[13] 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.[14][2][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.[16][17][18]

Bengaluru incident

After reports of a mass molestation occurring at India's Bengaluru New Year's Eve celebration in 2017, #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

References

  1. ^ Ferdy, Tom (July 2, 2014). "Is there a misogynist inside every man?". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Ryan, Erin Gloria (April 28, 2014). "Your Guide to 'Not All Men,' the Best Meme on the Internet". Jezebel. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  3. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d e Zimmerman, Jess (April 28, 2014). "Not All Men: A Brief History of Every Dude's Favorite Argument". Time. New York. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  6. ^ Denton, Michelle (2020). Feminism and Gender Equality. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-5026-5746-6.
  7. ^ Shafiquah Hudson [@sassycrass] (February 21, 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.
  8. ^ Lubchansky, Matt (April 10, 2014). "Save Me". Please Listen to Me.
  9. ^ Russ, Joanna (January 1, 1980). On Strike Against God. Out & Out Books. ISBN 978-0918314130. (Quote on Googlebooks here)
  10. ^ 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." Dickens, Charles (1837). The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club. London: Chapman and Hall. p. 74. OCLC 28228280.
  11. ^ Herrman, John "The Adventures of Not All Men", The Awl, April 29, 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  12. ^ Carmon, Irin (May 24, 2014). "Elliot Rodger's war on women". MSNBC. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  13. ^ Dvorak, Petula (May 26, 2014). "#YesAllWomen: Elliot Rodger's misogynistic ravings inspire a powerful response on Twitter". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  14. ^ Sources:
  15. ^ Valenti, Jessica (May 28, 2014). "#YesAllWomen reveals the constant barrage of sexism that women face". The Guardian. London. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
  16. ^ a b Plait, Phil (May 27, 2014). "#YesAllWomen". Slate.com. New York. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
  17. ^ a b Grinberg, Emmanuel (May 27, 2014). "Why #YesAllWomen took off on Twitter". CNN. Atlanta, Ga. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
  18. ^ a b Dempsey, Amy (May 26, 2014). "#YesAllWomen hashtag sparks revelations, anger, debate in wake of California killing spree". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 12, 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

External links