A woman came up with this clever US politics meme, then men quickly pretended it was their idea

In the midst of Hillary Clinton’s victory speech on Tuesday night, the writer and Democratic strategist Laura Olin tweeted a brilliant piece of “tiny emoji art” to celebrate the historic nature of Clinton’s presumptive nomination.

It was retweeted and liked a combined 8,000 times.

And then - predictably! - it was stolen.

Not by just anyone, mind you: In the hours after Olin’s tweet celebrating a great moment for women went viral, it was apparently lifted, without credit, by a series of men. Many of them were themselves journalists or political operatives; several have since deleted their tweets after followers objected.

An exasperated Olin told the Washington Post'sIntersect blog:

They apparently had zero appreciation of the irony. Honestly I think it’s a wider anthropological sign of what the internet is like now and I’m resigned to that — but the white men appropriating it last night of all nights was a bit too much for me.

Washington Post ©

Update: An earlier version of this article showed a similar tweet posted by Judd Legum. Olin has made clear that she does not believe Legum stole her idea. Apologies to Legum for the confusion.

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