Feminist Media Studies

ISSN: 1468-0777 (Print) 1471-5902 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfms20

#YesAllWomen as Feminist Meme Event

Samantha C. Thrift

To cite this article: Samantha C. Thrift (2014) #YesAllWomen as Feminist Meme Event, Feminist
Media Studies, 14:6, 1090-1092, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2014.975421

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.975421

Published online: 05 Nov 2014.

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Feminist Media Studies, 2014
Vol. 14, No. 6, 1090–1115

COMMENTARY AND CRITICISM

INTRODUCTION
The Year in Feminist Hashtags

Laura Portwood-Stacer and Susan Berridge

Hashtags, shared terms used to make social media posts searchable and collectible (and
denoted by the # symbol that precedes them), have made an indelible mark on the popular
vernacular and mainstream discourse. Hashtags specifically related to feminist causes, like
#YesAllWomen, #BringBackOurGirls, and #Direnkahkaha, are invoked by social media users
worldwide in response to contemporary events and discussions. At their most visible, these
terms and their spread are taken up by newspapers, television, and other media outlets as
stories of collective public opinion and, sometimes, further action.
The thirteen brief essays collected here catalog a diverse swath of feminist hashtags
from the past year. The collection also offers commentary about the potential and
limitations associated with feminist hashtags in general. The essays are by turns hopeful
and cautionary; as readers we are reminded that the visibility, community, and access that
are often touted as the boons of social media are by no means uniform nor do they hold the
same meaning or value for everyone. We intend for this edition of Commentary and
Criticism to look both back over the year to date and toward the future of feminist hashtag
activism. We think the insights offered by the writers here will help readers bring their
critical attention to the feminist hashtags that will rise to prominence after this issue goes to
print.
We received many more responses to our call for papers than we were able to include in
this issue, and so this will not be the last Commentary and Criticism to address hashtags. In the
upcoming months we will be pleased to present work specifically focusing on how media
consumers use hashtags to negotiate media convergence and how hashtags have been
particularly central to activism around violence against women. For now, #happyreading

#YESALLWOMEN AS FEMINIST MEME EVENT

Samantha C. Thrift, University of Calgary

The Isla Vista, California shooting spree, in which a killer cited his hatred of women as the
prime motivation for his deadly actions on May 23, 2014, catalyzed the feminist meme

q 2014 Taylor & Francis

 COMMENTARY AND CRITICISM 1091

event #YesAllWomen. Twitter users @AnnieCard and @Gildedspine introduced the

hashtag in response to news that the shooter, who killed six and wounded thirteen, had
sought revenge against women for rejecting his sexual advances (Molly Horan 2014).
The hashtag also pushed back against the #NotAllMen meme, which articulates a
defensive rebuttal against feminist critiques of sexism and misogyny (Erin Gloria Ryan
2014). Mobilized by #YesAllWomen, people shared stories of women-targeted violence,
harassment, and threat, creating a digital archive of more than 1.5 million personal
testimonials in its first four days alone (Kia Makarechi 2014).
@presuttikatie: #YesAllWomen because rape was deemed an “occupational hazard” for
women in the military. (May 26, 2014, 8:23pm)

@shes_reTARAded: Because I’ve never heard a group of guys make each other swear to
text each other when they get home that they’re safe. #YesAllWomen. (May 28, 2014,
5:58pm)

@julie_theis: Because “cool story babe, now make me a sandwich” shirt doesn’t break the
school dress code but a girl’s bra strap does . . . #YesAllWomen. (May 31, 2014, 12:41pm)

@nanglish: Because a lot of you are reading these and thinking “ugh yeah, we get it. Calm
down.” #YesAllWomen. (May 24, 2014, 10:25pm)

Although sparked by the misogyny-fuelled killings at Isla Vista, #YesAllWomen quickly

came to reference more than its originary event. The hashtag gained significance in its
own right as a memetic disruption of dominant discourses denying the prevalence of
misogynist violence in their assertions that shootings like Isla Vista and the so-called
“Montreal Massacre” of 1989 are the rare and aberrant acts of mentally ill individuals.
The hashtag #YesAllWomen asserts a counter-narrative to exceptionalist discourses
by insisting that these spectacular tragedies are logical manifestations of a system of
gender oppression which condones and facilitates male domination by normalizing
gender violence and sexual entitlement. So while the hashtag feminism of
#YesAllWomen engages in the “struggle over the meaning of one man’s killing spree,”
this is also a grassroots campaign to “name and define, to speak and be heard” (Rebecca
Solnit 2014).
I characterize #YesAllWomen as a feminist meme event because it came to signify
more than the original trauma of Isla Vista; a feminist meme event is a form of a feminist
media event that references not only an external event, but itself becomes a reference
point (Carrie A. Rentschler and Samantha C. Thrift forthcoming). #YesAllWomen asserts a
critical, feminist intervention in how we conceptualize and choose to narrate misogynist
aggression and gender violence in American culture. By virtue of participating in the
feminist meme event, #YesAllWomen contributors make everyday acts of misogyny and
sexism eventful—that is, as worthy of documentation, of remembrance, and of public
and political discussion—before they manifest as violent acts of “retribution.” And while
many commentators praise hashtag feminism for “making visible” the injustices and
abuses which “hide [] in plain sight” (Amanda Hess 2014; see also Sarah Kendzior 2014;
Susana Loza 2014; Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite 2014; Sasha Weiss 2014), I contend that a
model of eventfulness better signals the action, dynamism, and generative, creative
capacity of “doing feminism in the network” (Rentschler and Thrift forthcoming).
1092 COMMENTARY AND CRITICISM

#YesAllWomen leaves a proliferate network of feminist criticism and response in its wake,
including a massive digital archive of testimony, a @YesAllWomen Twitter account and
Facebook page, numerous articles and think pieces, a Wikipedia entry, an edited
collection of the #YesAllWomen Tweets (Ella Ceron 2014), as well as the recent Tumblr
WhenWomenRefuse, a microblog that aggregates “stories of violence inflicted on women
who reject sexual advances”. While hashtag feminism will not, on its own, eradicate
misogyny and other forms of gender violence, #YesAllWomen demonstrates the political
efficacy of the feminist meme event to mobilize new modes of feminist critique and
collectivity.

REFERENCES
CERON, ELLA. 2014. #YesAllWomen: A Collection. New York: Thought Catalogue.
HESS, AMANDA. 2014. “Why It’s So Hard For Men to See Misogyny.” Slate, May 27. Accessed August
10, 2014. http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/05/_yesallwomen_in_
the_wake_of_elliot_rodger_why_it_s_so_hard_for_men_to_recognize.html
HORAN, MOLLY. 2014. “#YesAllWomen.” KnowYourMeme. Accessed August 10, 2014. http://
knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/yesallwomen#fn1SQ2
KENDZIOR, SARAH. 2014. “Blame It On the Internet.” Aljazeera.com, February 8. Accessed August 10,
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20142453122572101.html
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Worldwide.” Vanity Fair, May 27. Accessed August 10, 2014. http://www.vanityfair.com/
online/daily/2014/05/yesallwomen-visualization-hashtag-tweets-spread
RENTSCHLER, CARRIE A., and SAMANTHA C. THRIFT. Forthcoming. “Doing Feminism in the
Network: Memes and the Feminist Vernacular of Binders Full of Women.” Unpublished
manuscript.
RYAN, ERIN GLORIA. 2014. “Your Guide to ‘Not All Men,’ the Best Meme on the Internet.” Jezebel,
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best-meme-on-the-interne-1573535818
SOLNIT, REBECCA. 2014. “Why #YesAllWomen Matters.” MotherJones, June 3. Accessed August 10,
2014. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/yesallwomen-shape-conversation-
isla-vista-massacre-violence-against-women
THISTLETHWAITE, SUSAN BROOKS. 2014. “Yes, There Is A War on Women and #YesAllWomen.”
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