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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.
Origins and usage
[edit]Response to feminist discourse
[edit]The phrase "not all men are like that" has been in use online since the mid-2000s as a general defense of men.[4] It was used as a catchphrase among men's rights activists (MRAs) in response to online discussions of misogyny or sexual abuse which they saw as blaming all men as perpetrators.[3]
Jess 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] Zimmerman also highlights a use of the phrase dating to 1985 in Joanna Russ's novel On Strike Against God,[5] where a character muses:
…that not all men make more money than all women, only most; that not all men are rapists, only some; that not all men are promiscuous killers, only some; that not all men control Congress, the Presidency, the police, the army, industry, agriculture, law, science, medicine, architecture, and local government, only some.[5][7]
Writing at The Awl, John Herrman lists additional uses of the phrase as far back as 1863.[4][8] In Charles Dickens' 1836 novel The Pickwick Papers, the character Miss Wardle says, "Men are such deceivers", to which another character replies, "They are, they are [...] but not all men."[9][non-primary source needed]
Popularization as a meme
[edit]Kelsey McKinney writes at Vox that the phrase "not all men" has been "reappropriated by feminists and turned into a meme meant to parody its pervasiveness and bad faith".[4] Both the phrase and hashtag "#NotAllMen" have been used as a satire of defensive reactions by men.[3] The first appearance of the meme in popular media was a satirical tweet by Shafiqah Hudson in 2013 that quickly went viral:[4]
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][10]
The following year, the phrase was added to an image of the Kool-Aid man crashing through a wall,[4][5] a Tumblr page featured images in which a speech bubble with the phrase "not all men" was added to images from movies such as the shark from Jaws and the chestburster from Alien,[5] and artist Mattie 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][11] The comic was retweeted and reblogged tens of thousands of times, 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]
A 2024 study published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications analyzed comments on Reddit and Twitter and found a transformative use of the hashtag #NotAllMen, finding that there were women and men supporters of both perpetrators and victims of gender-based violence. Many men in social media call out sexism, violence and discrimination, a fact that many feminist women value because their aim is to join as many people as possible in the fight to end all gender violence.[12][non-primary source needed]
2014 Isla Vista killings
[edit]#NotAllMen was already a Twitter hashtag before the 2014 Isla Vista killings, but it gained additional traction after the event, because of the hatred against women expressed by the killer.[13] In response to the "not all men" argument,[14][15][16] an anonymous Twitter user created the hashtag #YesAllWomen[17] to express that all women are affected by sexism and misogyny. This newly created hashtag was used by women to share their experiences of sexual discrimination and attacks on social media.[18][2][19]
Bengaluru incident
[edit]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.[20][21][22]
See also
[edit]- Mansplaining – Pejorative term
- Toxic masculinity – Social sciences concept
- Sealioning – Type of trolling or harassment
- All Lives Matter – Counterslogan to Black Lives Matter
References
[edit]- ^ Ferdy, Tom (July 2, 2014). "Is there a misogynist inside every man?". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ a b c d e f g McKinney, Kelsey (May 15, 2014). "Here's why women have turned the 'not all men' objection into a meme". Vox. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Zimmerman, Jess (April 28, 2014). "Not All Men: A Brief History of Every Dude's Favorite Argument". Time. New York. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
- ^ Denton, Michelle (2021). Feminism and Gender Equality. New York: Cavendish Square Publishing. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-5026-5746-6 – via Google Books.
- ^ Russ, Joanna (1985). On Strike Against God. Crossing Press. ISBN 978-0-8959-4186-2.[page needed]
- ^ Herrman, John (April 29, 2014). "The Adventures of Not All Men". The Awl.
- ^ Dickens, Charles (1837). The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club. London: Chapman and Hall. p. 74. OCLC 28228280.
- ^ Fiqah [@sassycrass] (February 20, 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). Archived from the original on June 5, 2014 – via Twitter.
- ^ Lubchansky, Matt (April 10, 2014). "Save Me". Please Listen to Me. Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
- ^ Rios-Gonzalez, Oriol; et al. (2024). "Not all men: the debates in social networks on masculinities and consent". Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 11 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1057/s41599-023-02569-y. hdl:10486/719845. ISSN 2662-9992.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
- ^ Carmon, Irin (May 24, 2014). "Elliot Rodger's war on women". MSNBC. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
- ^ Dempsey, Amy (May 26, 2014). "#YesAllWomen hashtag sparks revelations, anger, debate in wake of California killing spree". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
- ^ Grinberg, Emanuella (May 27, 2014). "Why #YesAllWomen took off on Twitter". Atlanta, Ga.: CNN. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
- ^ Valenti, Jessica (May 28, 2014). "#YesAllWomen reveals the constant barrage of sexism that women face". The Guardian. London. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
- ^ Dvorak, Petula (May 26, 2014). "#YesAllWomen: Elliot Rodger's misogynistic ravings inspire a powerful response on Twitter". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
- ^
- Bridges, Jeff (June 2, 2014). "#NotAllMen Don't Get It". Time. New York. Archived from the original on March 17, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
- Vendituoli, Monica (May 28, 2014). "#NotAllMen, but #YesAllWomen: Campus Tragedy Spurs Debate on Sexual Violence". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Washington, D.C. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
- Pachal, Pete (May 26, 2014). "How the #YesAllWomen Hashtag Began". Mashable. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
- "#YesAllWomen Puts Spotlight On Misogyny". Tell Me More (audio with transcript). NPR. May 28, 2014.
- ^ Plait, Phil (May 27, 2014). "#YesAllWomen". Slate.com. New York. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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. Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
- ^ 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
[edit]- Jaffe, Sarah (May 30, 2014). "Don't Tell Me It's 'Not All Men'". Rewire News Group.
External links
[edit]- Postings to #NotAllMen on Twitter
- Origin on "NotAllMen as gathered on Storify
- Not *all* men... on Tumblr