Twitter — the digital land where I spend a vast majority of my free time.
I use Twitter primarily because I’m a sports junkie and, come game time, it surrounds me with likeminded fans. It’s also great for getting breaking news, but I digress.
One thing I’ve seen male friends “re-tweet” onto my timeline is a Twitter called Men’s Humor. I gave it an eyeroll and went about checking other tweets.
However, the time came when Men’s Humor was suggested for me to follow. I finally decided to give it more than a glance to see what was up with its popularity.
Faster than the Nyan Cat as it speeds through pixelated space (by this I mean, really really fast), I shouted at my computer screen: “What is this offensive, misogynistic idiocy that is currently making my vision burn?”
I felt my inner women’s college student feminist raging.
The way this Twitter represents women is despicable. They body shame those who are not of “perfect” size — whatever that even means to society these days. They’re quick to objectify women with curves. Perfectly tanned and blonde — yeah, that’s totally how everyone looks. I apologize for being pale and brunette; I don’t know what my genes were thinking.
I had to analyze the account to make sure that I wasn’t just quick to judge, but it was as bad as I thought. Maybe even worse.
I scrolled through their Twitter feed and saw tweets that said, “Good news ladies! When a guy meets you he really doesn’t care what you’re wearing. He cares what you’re not wearing.”
Of course, there was this particular gem from Feb 15: “If women at the gym dont want me taking naked photos of them why do they get undressed in front of the camera I put in their locker room?”
I can just see a woman saying it now. “Oh, gee, I’m so sorry for going about my own business and not taking all the blame for an illegal activity. Yes, let’s totally just encourage more victim blaming behavior.”
Except, you know, someone would say that in a world where fish are allowed to drive coffee cups covered in cork on roads made of candy canes.
So, no. This is not what any woman would say and this is not something that I like to see whenever I refresh Twitter.
It frustrates me to see over a million people following the account. It made me want to throw my Intro to Women’s Studies reader at a couple of my friends’ heads. (Not that I condone violence…)
To put it simply: I ain’t havin’ it.
Men of the world, if you’re following that twitter — why? This is degrading to women and if you want to get laid within the span of your lifetime, I would suggest you don’t take these things seriously and grow a pair of ovaries.
