Men-Haters or Rights Activists? Views on Tumblr Feminists

Feminism is a hugely controversial issue today, especially on the web. The Twitter campaign #YesAllWomen, Emma Watson’s speech at the HeForShe Campaign, and Time Magazine’s inclusion of “feminist” in its list of words to ban in the new year are a few of the recent feminism-related topics that have gone viral this year.

The users I follow are largely pro-feminism. Just like with social justice bloggers, there are feminists who treat the issues fairly, cite their sources, and attempt to raise awareness, and there are feminists who aggressively attack opposing views and express hate toward men and anti-feminists. 

Recently, a Twitter campaign related to feminism has spread to Tumblr as well. According to this Huffington Post article, a Canadian writer named Anne Thériault was inspired to  give lines from the classic movie “The Princess Bride” a feminist twist using #feministprincessbride. Here are some examples:

"I smell nothing." "What you do not smell is called misogyny. It is among the more deadlier poisons known to mankind" #feministprincessbride

— Anne Thériault (@anne_theriault) November 12, 2014

"Never go against a feminist when equal rights are on the line!" #feministprincessbride

— Hope Cimenski (@HopeCim) November 16, 2014

Good night, misogyny. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning. #feministprincessbride

— Mary Beth Williams (@embeedub) November 13, 2014

"I always think everything is a tool of the patriarchy until proven otherwise. Which is why I'm still alive." #feministprincessbride

— Emmy Bengtson (@EmmyA2) November 12, 2014

While many Tumblr users loved this campaign and came up with their own examples of feminist Princess Bride quotes, others complained that feminists were ruining a great classic.

There are two general views regarding Tumblr feminists, and both are represented in these two videos. The first represents the negative view of Tumblr feminists, the second the positive view. Both of them contain swearing, so view at your discretion.

As is often the case on Tumblr, users create humorous posts to make a point about controversial issues. This Twitter account mocking anti-feminist views has been circulating Tumblr recently. Here are some of examples of tweets from this account.

I don’t need fimeisns there are some things i NEED men for, like lifting heavy things or making me feel uncomfortable at bus stops

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 14, 2014

I don’t need femism because there is WOMEN’S STUDIES at colleges but where is the MEN’S STUDIES besides in every history book ever written??

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 13, 2014

i don’t need fesimes i believe in TRADITIONAL VALUES like men being men, women being women, and people ignoring domestic violence

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 6, 2014

I don’t need femismm it makes sense we warn WOMEN not to get too drunk in public because men never do anything violent or bad when drunk!!!

— WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) November 5, 2014

This comic, from dorkly.com, makes a point about what often happens when women reveal their gender on Xbox Live… and the consequences of misunderstanding what the male players are trying to tell them. It still comes up on my Tumblr dashboard every once in a while. 

Check out the feminism tag on Tumblr, and you’ll start to get a sense of the opposing views people have on Tumblr feminists and what being a “feminist” is actually about. Let me know where you stand on this topic!

Raising Awareness: The Positive Side of Social Justice on Tumblr

When I first joined Tumblr, I expected to find a lot of posts related to my favorite TV shows, movies, and books, and I did. But I, like this Tumblr user, also ended up gaining awareness of extremely significant social issues as a result of “social justice bloggers.“ While this term has both positive and negative connotations on Tumblr, in this post I’m going to focus on the positive side.

Although not all Tumblr posts are 100% accurate, and not all online sources can be trusted, several social justice posts have simply made me more aware that certain issues exist when I would not have known about them otherwise. Here is a good example of one social issue those with disabilities face:

The picture leads to a post by Tumblr user neecygrace. Neecygrace’s friend has an invisible illness, or one which is not physically noticeable. This is one of around 30 handwritten notes this user’s friend has received. The writer of the note believed the friend was misusing a handicapped sign simply because the writer could not see any obvious visible handicaps when the woman left her car, such as a wheelchair or a crutch. But invisible illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are not obvious handicaps. This post was one which educated me on invisible illness, something I had never thought about before.

This somewhat humorous post was taken from the YouTube channel College Humor. Tumblr user jonsnowflakes posted a link to their video “Diet Racism:”

The video is presented in a humorous light, but it is a critical commentary on the more subtle forms of racism in our culture today. This video has over 100,000 notes on Tumblr. Jonsnowflakes’ posted the video and added that “Collegehumors’ new video is on point as always.”

The official Huffington Post Tumblr page also recognizes Tumblr’s attitude toward raising awareness of social issues. The page used GIFs from a video sponsored by FCKH8 to advocate for awareness of racism today, particularly in respect to the issues in Ferguson. Click the post to see the full version with GIFs.

This post is a good example of a news organization using Tumblr’s unique features (such as GIFs) to promote one of their stories as well as recognizing the topics Tumblr users generally care about. Posts updating users on the current situation in Ferguson continue to appear today, a few months after the events occurred.

There are several other examples of Tumblr users positively raising awareness of social issues such as cultural appropriation, feminism, and sexuality. These topics will be discussed in later posts. While social justice bloggers often go too far, as discussed in one of my earlier posts, I do know that I have learned a lot about societal issues from browsing Tumblr of which I would have remained ignorant had I never joined the site.