It all started when someone decided that men who are feminists should have another, more butch label, like meninists. Not sure why this was necessary. Do men feel a bit girlie supporting equal rights? Anyway, it happened.
Soon, on Twitter, Ti Balogun created #MeninistTwitter for the purposes of spurring ‘meaningful dialogue’ on how ‘the way feminists express themselves is such a turn-off’. Sub text: Revolt all you want, ladies, but keep it sexy, okay? Much to his dismay, this hashtag started attracting offensive jokes. You know, the kind of tedious humour based on such solid insight as ‘women are gold-diggers’, ‘women are dumb’, ‘women are irrational’ etc.
At the same time, #MeninistTwitter was used to air grievances against the feminist movement. Some were concerned about how many custody battles are decided in favour of the mother, others were mobilising to end the evil of ladies’ nights. In the time-honoured tradition of men’s rights activists everywhere, these meninists believe that anything pro-women has to be anti-men.
And, in the time-honoured tradition of the intertubes, this has all devolved into a timeline curated by trolls, as evidenced by this extremely popular Twitter account that says sexist shit for lulz. To recap: meninism started as a well-intentioned movement with a dodgy name, briefly tried and failed to critique feminism, got hijacked by the men’s rights movement and now tells jokes about throwing pregnant women down the stairs.
Told you it’s a waste of your time.
