It began with a Muslim woman (who has since made her Twitter private) who said this:
Guys, I'm going to be tweeting under the #YesAllWomen hashtag. Let's discuss what "not all men" might do, but women must fear.The tweets that followed were moving and to the point:
(Do I? Yes. Several.)#YesAllWomen know women who never reported being assaulted because they didn't have overwhelming evidence to prove it.
— Chelsea Pitcher (@Chelsea_Pitcher) May 24, 2014
More below the orange streusel.
Once turned down a guy bc I wasn't interested, he replied 'You should be nice to me, I could be a rapist.' #YesAllWomen
— Christina (@Interrobanggirl) May 25, 2014
if you haven't been raped, you feel like you are "lucky" #yesallwomen
— a real erin (@eehouls) May 25, 2014
"Imagine if it was your daughter!" Because the only way a man could care about women is if he had ownership over the woman #YesAllWomen
— Amy Jennings (@Amy_Time) May 25, 2014
Before a conference, a female mentor listed out the male scholars I was not to be alone with b/c of past behavior. #YesAllWomen
— Dr. Adrienne K. (@NativeApprops) May 25, 2014
The worst part about #yesallwomen is that almost every tweet, I think "that happened to me/my friend, too". These are normalized nightmares.
— mcnarnia (@McNarnia) May 25, 2014
One time I stood up to a man who knew he could overpower me and now the vision in my left eye is blurred for life #YesAllWomen
— Paige (@PeachCoffin) May 25, 2014
Because every single woman I know has a story about a man feeling entitled to access to her body. Every. Single. One. #YesAllWomen
— Emily (@emilyhughes) May 24, 2014
Behind every statistic, there is a story. Hold space for the stories of your sisters tonight. #YesAllWomen
— Sarah Bessey (@sarahbessey) May 25, 2014
Thank you to all these brave women (and all the women on Onomastic's stellar diary) for their courage in sharing their truth.Bottom line: The threat of violence is the background noise of our lives, so constant we forget it shouldn't be there. #YesAllWomen
— Gyno-Star (@GynoStar) May 25, 2014
There's much, much more over at #yesallwomen. Be aware that this hashtag has also been used by jokers, haters, and opportunists... but it's still overwhelmingly women telling their stories.
Salon, Boston.com, Time are all covering #yesallwomen. Unfortunately, Salon and Boston.com both give the first tweet to a man (really?), and Time gives a man the last word.
Perhaps they believe that men will take the content more seriously if it is endorsed by a man. Perhaps they are right. But indulging that prejudice only reinforces it.
Arilca Mockingbird provides links to stories by NBC, CBC, Jezebel, and the Atlantic. Please feel free to share more tweets and links in comments.
All tweets © their authors. Rest © cai.