Anyone with an old-school, conservative aunt on their social media list was likely treated to a shocking story this week of an angry, awful feminist that is such a monster she decided to have an abortion because — wait for it — the fetus was a boy!
Calm down. The story is completely fake, and your outrage is only serving to generate clicks for a bogus, click-bait news website, Injustice Stories. The site has been overloaded thanks to the abortion story, so here’s a cached version.
It’s worth noting the site was launched on Jan. 17, not coincidentally the same day that terrible feminist “Lana” decided to come forward with her story that’s so completely absurd it’s almost laughable. Almost.
Let’s not waste time debating all the reasons the story is completely preposterous — Snopes has already covered that territory for us.
But that didn’t stop the article from going viral. Probably didn’t hurt that to read the article in its entirety, the reader had to share it on social media.
https://twitter.com/KBurtonBrown/status/565541950930296832
But what’s really incredible — and disheartening — is that resentment against feminists is so pervasive that an entire website’s traffic can be generated by a tale that compiles all the worst stereotypes about feminists. Even sadder is that the most anger and hostility often comes from other women.
Reverse gendercide: Feminist boasts, ‘I aborted my baby because it was a boy’ | News | LifeSite http://t.co/BSLDsoKNqB
— Thalia (@thalianm) February 10, 2015
Here are a couple of choice quotes from the story titled “I Aborted My Baby — Because It Was a Boy”:
First she described an incident on an airplane on the way to a San Francisco “Occupy Wall Street” protest. Could she be a bigger liberal whacko?
“The man literally scoffed when I spoke those words and leaned in and quietly said to me ‘B****** like you need to learn their place.’ Stunned, I screamed ‘ASSAULT!’ while other passengers looked at us, the woman across the aisle from him immediately told him to get away from me, but not 5 seconds passed before a flight attendant had rushed over to intervene…”
Then Lana the “feminist blogger” drops the bombshell: “I couldn’t bring another monster into the world,” she writes. “We already have enough enemies as it is. It didn’t matter that I would be raising a son, he would still come into contact with boys, men, perhaps even the suit jockey who would inevitably twist his carefully constructed upbringing with their kindness. He would think ‘These men aren’t so bad, why would mom say that they are holding me down?'”
Let’s get one very basic point out of the way before we proceed: Feminists believe women are equal to men. That’s it. Nothing scary here, folks. Which is why it’s so amazing how quickly the level of vitriol amps up as soon as the word “feminism” enters into the discussion.
Feminists don’t hate men. Feminists are married to men and even raise boys who consider themselves feminists. It’s actually possible to love and respect and want to elevate women in the world without hating men. More people should try it.
Regardless of your religion or politics, every woman in the world needs to embrace the word “feminist.” It’s not a pejorative, honest. So why are we letting other people define what the word means? Can’t we take it back? Shouldn’t we be proud to be women? Shouldn’t we show our daughters and sons that standing up for yourself and your place in society is noble?
So next time your old-school aunt shares this story or one like it, let’s take the time to explain the feminist point of view. It’s the only thing we can do to keep them from turning us into evil, cartoonish monsters.
More on feminism
Feminist Ian Somerhalder explains how the world is failing women
Being a feminist is not making other women feel bad for their choices
Broad City: Feminism 101, according to Abbi and Ilana
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