Even the Internet is Mocking #HimToo

Earlier this week, this tweet went viral where a mother talks about her sons accomplishments and than states that in the #MeToo era, her son finds it difficult to date. In her tweet she used #HimToo, which originally started as a movement for men who were victims of sexual assault, but was turned as an anti-feminist hashtag by the alt-right. This tweet caused a series of memes to pop up making fun of the claim this mother was making that men should be more afraid of accusations than women are of actually being assaulted. However, her son found out about the reaction from his mothers tweet, made a twitter account, and stating that he does NOT agree with his mother. He said that he believes and respects women and is not scared to date just because of the #MeToo movement.

This connects to what we have been discussing in class about heteropatriarchy and digital activism. Heteropatriarchy is the social organization that simultaneously privileges men and masculinity while denigrating women and femininity. Patriarchy often justifies women’s subordination (in the heterosexual family and elsewhere) by emphasizing women’s seemingly natural biological differences. This is relevant to this media product because in our society we privilege men above women. We make it difficult for equality because it is ingrained in society that men deserve more than women, in every sense. So, even though the person who posted this tweet is a woman, she has been taught by society to hold men in a higher regard than herself and other women. This related to digital activism because the #MeToo movement started online and has proven to be increasing awareness about sexual assault. Digital activism is the use of electronic communication technologies, such as social media, for various forms of activism.