Viral

Social media campaign tries to make a point about feminism, fails spectacularly

Social media campaign tries to make a point about feminism, fails spectacularly

Someone, somewhere, actually thought it would be a good idea to start the hashtag #BlameOneNotAll, to stick up for the good guys. You know, the good guys, the ones that don't go around oppressing women all the time.

We have the Indian news website Mintified to thank for it. They wrote on Facebook:

We do agree that a woman has to go through a lot. The leering, the catcalls, the groping, the societal othering, the miasma of all this that women bear the brunt of every damn day. Every single day is a war to them. BUT generalising the other gender, is not right. Not all men are rapists. Not all men abuse their significant others. Not all men actively oppress women. And these posters say it all. ‪#‎BlameOneNotAll‬

Some of the things to praise the men in your life for include:


Talk about setting a low bar.

Although the boards the women are holding have text photoshopped on to them, Mintified provided i100.co.uk with originals with handwritten messages, and said that the women pictured consented for their photographs and messages to be used.

There was some positive reaction to the idea on Mintified's Facebook page, and the campaign was even picked up by the Huffington Post as "powerful" (the story has since been updated to reflect criticism of the campaign).

However, it took about 0.34 nanoseconds for people to point out the message's blindingly-obvious flaws. Such as:

When i100.co.uk reached out to Mintified about #BlameOneNotAll, they told us:

The campaign was initiated keeping in mind the Indian scenario. There are a lot of issues a girl/women go through on daily basis. Having said that, we can't generalise the other gender. There are certainly good men out there. And this initiative is to support this thought.

India is in the middle of a protracted crisis over the treatment of women in society. Earlier this year a documentary about the gang rape and murder of 23-year-old student Jyoti Singh Pandey in 2012 was banned in the country on the grounds that it could "create a situation of tension and fear amongst women".

More: An Indian politician actually said this about rape

More: 14 signs we live in a rape culture

The Conversation (0)
x