Twitter is once again the source of inspiration for my blog post. Considering that this is a space where people tend to spew their thoughts, even the somewhat ignorant ones, I have seen that it is a pretty good source for identifying how people are reacting and interacting with topical issues. Among so many other outlandishly ignorant conversations on Twitter, one that interested me is of this one account that appears to be blowing up lately that goes by the handle "@MENENIST". Apparently, it is a Twitter account devoted to standing up for men who feel victimized by feminists or the feminists movement. Besides the tweets that provide backlash of the movement, it also uses the space to do its fair share of slut shaming and good ol' fashion put downs for women. In an attempt to present their issues or questions about feminism in a humorous way, there are many problematic issues that are brushed off as a joke.
One example of a problematic trend that I have seen this account tweet is that of men's entitlement of women and their bodies or feelings. A lot of this comes in the form of poking fun of the act of being broken up with, rejected, or friend zoned. Below is an example of what @MENENIST would typically tweet about the subject.
As might be clear above, men are portrayed as being the ones with the power of decision making in a relationship while women are depicted as not having the autonomy within the relationship at all. Although it is meant to come off as a joke, placing this within the realm of anti-feminism is problematic because it attaches ideas of aggressive tendencies with the anti-feminist movement or even just the act of shutting women up. As we have seen before in articles such as Holz & Ivory's (2009) work, there are certain scripts that are constantly perpetuated in media. However, the way we talked about certain traits of male dominance including that of being "assertive, dominant, domineering, forceful," were some that we discussed in the context of Television. These same traits and scripts of male dominance and female submissiveness are some that are being perpetuated in accounts like @MENINIST but the implications are so much different than that of television because it is a social media site. Twitter in particular also lets you retweet and favorite tweets like these, meaning that men and women can actively endorse these messages and broadcast to their friends that this is something they endorse. I would argue that this, in turn, could potentially prompt their other peers to endorse these beliefs as well, considering what we know in Comm Studies research about theories such as social learning theory and social proof theory (but that's a whole other different conversation in itself).
But anyway, speaking of shutting women up, @MENINIST also jokes about very serious sexual health issues as well as sexual violence in a way that undermines critical thinking of the issues. For example, above is a screenshot of one tweet where @MENINIST tweets "Stop these feminists... Smh" (Smh meaning 'shaking my head') in a disapproving response to the discussion raised about virtual rapes. No matter what your stance might be on the issue, I would argue that these types of jokes are completely inappropriate because they completely shut down and reject the discussion of what rape does for people psychologically. It makes a mockery of both sexual violence against women and feminism in a way that dismisses the entire conversations revolving both matters out the window. However, given that this is a private account that can't be boycotted or be held in contempt in a way that can stop their harmful messages, how are media scholars to tackle the best practice for dealing with this type of media? People are still potentially learning from it and what might be taken from these type of media really might not be the best for society, in my opinion. As we know from Ward's literature on media exposure's effects on sexual attitudes, we can extract that women have shown to sometimes align their expectations and desires with what is viewed in media, among many other findings that suggest that women and men accept stereotypical attitudes about their roles with greater exposure to media (Ward, 2003). So, if people do potentially accept stereotypical attitudes about the world of sex after media exposure and this is a media type that is exacerbating problematic issues of sexual health, objectification, and so many other issues, how do we begin to understand the dynamic role of social media? It's so different and so much more dynamic than other media types (the ability to favorite, retweet, like, and respond) to where issues like these become so much more important to tackle.
I have only included a couple brief examples of the ridiculous things I saw on this account because you can seriously make an argument against almost every single one of the tweets that this person has put out. If you don't believe me, I encourage you to go and check out his or her account and see for yourself! It could be an endless case study in my opinion.
References
Holz, A., Gibson, R., & Ivory, J.D. (2009). Gendered relationships on television: Portrayals of same-sex and heterosexual couples. Mass Communication & Society, 12 (2), 170-192.
Ward, L.M. (2003). Understanding the role of entertainment media in the sexual socialization of American youth: A review of empirical research. Developmental Review, 23 (3), 347-388
Hey Alejandra!
ReplyDeleteI found your post to be so interesting that I went ahead and checked out this Twitter account just to see if it was actually possible for something so ignorant to exist and if so, how many followers do they actually have. I was shocked to find that not only did this account exist but many similar accounts are also out there. They all use the disguise of “this is just a joke, relax” to say extremely offensive things which. I definitely agree with you that this use of disparagement humor perpetuates ideas about gender roles that depict women as submissive and men as dominant. I love your point about the importance of Twitter’s user-interface as being crucial to how a twitter account like this might affect viewers. You point out that because users can favorite, retweet, and reply, it makes it makes it possible for them to actively endorse this content rather than just passively take it in.
This point you make about the interactivity of Twitter made me consider our readings on the development of the Internet as an important source for adolescents attempting to understand their sexuality. In “Sex, Sexuality, Sexting and Sexed,” Brown et al. examined the Internet as a new and powerful medium that “provides a relatively safe space for teens to explore and define themselves as sexual beings” (2009). But what if adolescent girls who are exploring their sexuality unknowingly come across a Twitter account like this? Will they see other peers retweeting and favoriting messages that endorse power inequalities among genders and take those gender roles to heart? If they are young enough, it is possible they might not fully grasp the disparaging humor behind these messages and thus start to believe that most men actually feel this way about women and women are simply supposed to passively accept that. I think that your post excellently points to the Internet, specifically social networking sites, as a complex new media form that we still have yet to fully understand.
Thanks for such an interesting post!
- Kelly
I think you misinterpreted what they are trying to say in that "Stop these feminists" post, because they are actually trying to emphasize how serious of a subject rape is, not downplay it. It is actually the article that is guilty of downplaying rape by using it in such a ridiculous context. If killing female gamers in a game could be considered rape, then my sisters would be very unhappy campers every time I beat them at chess. It doesn't make any sense. This is why the Meninist tweeted to "Stop these feminists" because it is unfathomable that someone could think that.
ReplyDeleteI actually checked out the rest of the twitter account and I agree it is pretty demeaning towards women, but some of the posts, including the video game one, are founded on reason and just what real men experience and feel.
For example, this is one tweet: Meninist: if you like her and she doesn't like you that's the "friend zone". if she likes you and you don't like her you're an "asshole". That doesn't sound degrading towards women. It really just sounds like a confession made from someone who experienced it firsthand.
Another post: The VS Angels got a group photo (the picture is a pile of tree branches stacked on top of each other). While this may have undertones of objectification, it sounds like the person tweeting this is actually against the unhealthy body image effects that the Victoria's secret Fashion show can have on young woman. Isn't this a benign cause?
I understand that this may have harmful effects towards younger maturing children if they happened to stumble onto the site, as the Internet becomes more accessible to children (Brown 2009). However, I don't think censoring this kind of viewpoint is the answer. If channels that had extreme content like Meninist did not exist, I feel the problem would only be masked, not fixed. Instead, I think it is very valuable to have people express their true feelings about this subject so that people can actually tackle the problems.