TRIGGER WARNING
Anyone taking a glance through the trending topics on Twitter today could be forgiven for thinking that maybe the Daily Mail is actually right for once, maybe Twitter and other social networking sites really do rot your brain.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually an avid fan of Twitter, and most of the time I really enjoy using it. I’ve found it a great tool for keeping up with other bloggers and writers; it’s enabled me to make links with some fantastic feminists and women’s organisations, and in the past six months or so that I’ve been tweeting I’ve relished the opportunity it’s given me to take part in some truly epic Internet wins.
However, I can’t be the only one who’s been on Twitter in the last couple of days and wondered why the fuck they even bothered. Who’s logged on to see what everyone’s been up to, but who’s been struck instead by the dawning realisation that yet another online platform is in the process of being hijacked by misogynists.
Wondering what on earth the humourless femnazi has got her big Marks and Sparks knickers in a twist about this time? I’m referring specifically to the “jokes” being tweeted using the hashtags #liesgirlstell and #3wordsaftersex.
Some examples – and hands up if you think these are funny:
A note to my fellow twitterers, or tweeters, or whatever the hell the current terminology is now: whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or out in the real world (irl for for the benefit of those who haven’t yet moved beyond textspeak [or even txtspk]) RAPE JOKES AREN’T FUNNY! And neither is misogyny. Mkthxbai.
But if you want funny – here’s UKIP’s desperate attempt to get in on the act:
Too Much To Say For Myself 
I think something’s made me immoral Cath. However if I may hijack your blog for a brief public service announcement. If you are logged into wordpress, and you’re invited you should be able to still read my blog. If not, I hope to be back ASAP.
I had been enjoying the #3wordsaftersex thing, but fortunately for me I have not been following the hashtag, and had only seen the tweets of people I follow – who fortunately have more sense/ taste/ decency than the people you quote.
However, if I may query one of your points, the “wake up darling” one could be a self-deprecating joke indicating that the bloke’s performance is so poor that the woman finds it difficult to stay awake…
Personally, I’d go for “Leave my supermarket!” or something like that… 🙂
I also like the UKIP’s one: particularly as if you tried those three words before, your chance of actually getting any might decline sharply…
I laughed at the UKIP one too. Unfortunately then I imagined Nigel Farage in a post coital glow, smoking a cigar, neatly pressed union jack boxers round his ankles, and I felt a bit iffy.
But c’mon, once something like Twitter reaches critical mass, it will start to reflect real life, and arseholes live in real life. As Jack suggests, though, if you only stick to your friends, you’ll only get the intelligent, witty, non-hating side of it.
Or change your friends.
Thanks for that image Tim, just what I needed first thing on a Friday morning…..
Hmmm…could always start our own hash tags:
#interpretingmisogynists
e.g. “Everything I did, I did for her.” means “She saw right through me and wouldn’t put out.”
“Nice guys finish last…” means “I never asked out and am inexplicably upset that she started dating someone else.”
“Why don’t women talk to me?” means “Why don’t women that *I* think are attractive talk to me?”
I could come up with loads.
Might even get me to sign up for Twitter that would!
*Siiiiiigh*.
And some people think there’s no need for feminism any more…
Love the interpreting misogynists idea, JenniferRuth.
Is auto-eroticism two words or one?
Gregory
“However, if I may query one of your points, the “wake up darling” one could be a self-deprecating joke indicating that the bloke’s performance is so poor that the woman finds it difficult to stay awake…”
I actually imagined that as a woman saying it, in a prim, patronising voice, to her dispassionate husband.
Same with “please stop crying” – it is actually quite funny if you picture it as intense embarrassment over an inexplicable fit of post-coital sobbing.
Though all the ‘bitch’ and ‘rohypnol’ ones are just predictable and tedious.