@NoToFeminism, #FeministsAreUgly and Misandry Memes: How social media feminist humour is calling out anti-feminism

@NoToFeminism, #FeministsAreUgly and Misandry Memes: How social media feminist humour is calling out anti-feminism Emilie Lawrence and Jessica Ringrose, UCL Institute of Education, London UK Introduction Part of the postfeminist zeitgeist as defined by Angela McRobbie in her by now classic treatise The Aftermath of Feminism (2009) was the simultaneous rejection of feminism by critics who argued it was outmoded because it aggravated for a political issue that was no longer relevant (women’s equality), and the recuperation of feminism through forms of faux-feminism or a ‘postfeminist masquerade’ that appropriated feminist language, slogans, and symbols to sell products like mascara. Rosalind Gills ‘seminal’ conceptualisation of a widespread ‘postfeminist sensibility’ illustrated by the co-optation of feminism through contemporary advertising, demonstrated this dynamic of the market harnessing feminism. She and colleagues have shown how faux feminism and commodity feminism, can work in many forms including aid campaigns where Western women and girls are inculcated to save women and girls in the ‘third world’ from their less empowered forms of femininities (Koffman and Gill, 2011). Thus postfeminist popular culture has been deemed to be a space where feminism is either vehemently rejected, OR it is a form of cultural appropriation that subverts genuine feminist coalition, solidarity and politics. However, against this framework, recent scholarship is now suggesting that this postfeminist analytical lens may no longer be as useful as it once was. Catherine Driscoll (2016) for instance suggests that postfeminism is a totalizing framework that attempts to understand everything as though nothing can be genuine feminism. She also argues it invokes a temporal frame of before and after feminism that is Eurocentric, and makes it senseless to apply to varying global contexts and cultures of gender and sexuality. We ourselves have questioned where is the room for feminist activism and those who define themselves as feminists within a postfeminist analytical framework (Retallack et al. 2016). In this chapter we continue to be troubled by the postfeminist frame and wonder whether we are actually in a moment that is solely or even entirely able to be defined as postfeminist? Are we instead in a period characterised by ever more violent confrontations between feminists and anti-feminists, which indicates renewed political struggle and debate (Braidotti, 2013)? We need only look at the growth of anti-feminism evident through social media led Men’s Rights Activists or MRA’s to see the intensification of vehement anti-feminism. Yet at the same time we see enormous representation of feminist views on social media that defend feminism and reject and mock anti-feminist groups and sentiment. We do not wish to reject the idea of postfeminism, but given it was developed to analyse mainstream media and corporate appropriations of feminism, we need to be careful about how we understand the limitations of postfeminism for explaining social media feminism, that is digital contexts where everyday users who self-define as feminists are promoting feminism in multiple and complex ways. To explore these dilemmas, in this chapter we consider how social media sites have opened up new spaces for debates over feminism and what it means and how it can be defined. We consider whether or not it is possible or useful to call this a fourth wave of feminism. Irrespective of what we call it, the undeniable mass uptake of feminism via social media shows us that self-identified feminists are fighting against anti-feminism in novel ways. In particular, we explore the development of social media feminist humour and irony which are used as rhetorical and debating strategies to challenge problematic arguments against or about feminists, by re-staging anti-feminist claims as absurd, ridiculous and illogical. We argue that humorous posts play a central role in mobilising feminist connectivity (Paparachissi, 2012,) collectivity and solidarity. To think through these ideas, we look at three different manifestations of social media feminist humour that challenge rejections of feminism or anti-feminism. First we look at the hugely popular twitter account @NoToFeminism, which posts witty rejoinders to anti-feminist discourses, and was initiated specifically to parody the #womenagainstfeminism movement. Next, we examine the twitter hashtag #FeministsAreUgly, to consider how feminists have intervened into the sexist logic that women are feminists because they are sexually undesirable to men. We consider the affordances of the hashtag to stimulate discussion and debate around conventional beauty norms and also how hashtags can be co-opted in ways that mutate far outside its original aims. The hashtag was created in 2014 as a way for people of colour to speak back against beauty standards and cultural privilege and we problematize how it has now potentially become a site of enforcing, and validating the exact same beauty norms it was designed to interrogate. Finally, we explore ‘misandry’ Twitter hashtags and Tumblr posts which ironically present female superiority in an attempt to parody anti-feminist claims that feminists are man-hating. This tongue in cheek action can be considered a way of mocking wilful misunderstandings of feminism. We also, however, consider whether some of the memes celebrate violence against men in gender binary and essentialising ways. Overall we argue that social media affordances offer women opportunities to defend feminism, in novel and exciting ways that move us beyond simplistic claims that we are in any way living in a postfeminist moment without sustained feminist political dialogue and critique. Fourth wave digital ‘call out’ culture Arguments for the emergence and existence of a new wave of feminism have been presented since 2005 (see Peay, 2005; Baumgardner, 2011; Cochrane, 2013) This ‘fourth wave’ is characterised by technology: drawing on the digital tools that are allowing women to build a strong, popular, reactive movement online. Phillips & Cree suggest that ‘we are currently witnessing a resurgence of interest in feminism across the world, with their claim that we are experiencing a ‘fourth wave’ in the global North that has its birthplace primarily on the Internet.’ (2014) This fourth wave of feminist interaction, intra-action and engagement has been challenged by those who maintain that increased usage of the internet is not enough to base a new era of political activism on but what is increasingly evident is that the internet has enabled the creation of a global community of feminists who are intersectional and challenging misogyny and sexism in new and innovative ways, such as those that we outline in this chapter. It is arguably the immediacy and connectivity of the internet which has enabled this shift from ‘third-wave’ to ‘fourth-wave’ feminism – social media sites such as Twitter and Tumblr allow users to interact and create spaces for discussion and what has led to a ‘call-out’ culture, in which sexism or misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged. This culture is indicative of the continuing influence of the third wave, with its focus on micropolitics and challenging sexism and misogyny insofar as they appear in everyday rhetoric, advertising, film, television and literature and the media  (Munro, 2013; Simões & Matos, 2008–2009; Wrye, 2009). Feminists are turning to social media sites to make visible marginalised voices and bodies, which has opened up significant spaces for resistance to hegemonic notions of femininity. Indeed, social media sites are so integral to the emergence of fourth wave feminism that research has positioned them as the birthplace of the fourth wave (Leupold, 2010; Solomon, 2009). Baumgardner (2011) proposes that the fourth wave evolved to take forward the agenda of third wave feminists, noting that ‘their experience of the online universe was that it was just part of life, not something that landed in their world like an alien spaceship …’; while Riot Grrrl and reclaiming the night were innovations of the third wave, the fourth wavers introduced the use of blogs, Twitter campaigns and online media with names like Jezebel and Feministing (Baumgardner, 2011) to feminist discourse. Many of the concerns of the second wave women's movement - sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities (Crenshaw, 1994) are present in contemporary or fourth wave feminist voices but these are updated to reflect the evolution of reproductive technologies, workplace practices and what can be seen as the continually changing market-driven commodification of all that is feminine and targeted at women. It is at this intersection of popular culture and feminism that many apparent contradictions arise between claims of fourth wave feminism and where this fits within the conceptual parameters of popular media culture being primarily defined by a ‘postfeminist sensibility’ (Gill, 2016). What is important to us in this chapter is to highlight how this feminism takes shape and flight through the connective tissues of social media. As we will explore, feminist activism is alive and well and asserting itself in new ways via technology and various social media platforms that make it desirable and accessible especially for younger generations of ‘digital natives’. What we see increasing evidence of is a desire to tackle the feminist backlash construction of feminism as ‘man-hating’ or ‘bra burning’ and to seek an equality that demobilises the power of one gender over another and shames sexist and violent behaviour wherever it is found (see also Cochrane, 2012). What is is significant, however, is how this battle is being staged through the affective modalities of humour, where a shared sensibility is cultivated through irony and wit to expose inequality and ignorance as not only offensive but ridiculous. It is in the affective rendering ridiculous that the power invested within the oppressive discourse (for instance sexism) is diminished for those that are seeking to challenge it. Researching digital feminist humour Feminist humour attempts to expose and criticize ‘the bizarre value systems that have been regarded as ‘normal’ for so long that it is difficult to see how ridiculous they really are’ (Barreca 1991). Social media sites provide a platform for the production and distribution of humour and afford an opportunity to question power dynamics by disrupting traditional, well established stereotypes and therefore exposing gendered power structures. The use of humour online is relatively unexplored, despite the internet being a microcosm of society and providing a new terrain for the construction and dissemination of humour. Limor Shifman and Dafna Lemish (2010) conducted a content analysis of internet humour and argued that a great majority of internet humour is sexist. They and others suggest that gender representations are ground in well-entrenched, historical constructions of femininity and masculinity as binary as well as hierarchical oppositions (Van Zoonen 1994) and that internet humour replicates and reproduces these hegemonic norms. Gallivan (1992) suggests that feminist humour differs diametrically in that it is ‘humour which reveals and ridicules the absurdity of gender stereotypes and gender based inequalities’. What is unique to our aim in this chapter is how feminist humour is invoked to critique anti-feminist views. Feminist humour is a weapon to fight back against the side-lining of feminism as irrelevant, outmoded, or desperate (amongst many other adjectives we could consider). In addition, we consider how feminist humour may take on many forms; satirical, parodying and irony as feminists find new ways to engage with sexism and anti-feminist narratives online. Our interest in social media feminist humour has grown out of an AHRC research project that we were both involved in called ‘documenting digital feminist activism’. That project has been primarily occupied with documenting social media feminist responses to rape culture. While we were researching how women were fighting back against the legitimation of sexual violence in rape culture we became increasingly interested in the uses of humour in this regard. We took great inspiration from Carrie Rentschar’s (2015) initial exploration of the Twitter hashtag #SafetyTipsForWomen, which analysed the humorous way that women were rejecting the victim blaming focus of most rape prevention campaigns. The #SafetyTipsForWomen hashtag worked by shifting attention from the tired trope of women simply ‘staying safe’ by tweeting nonsensical advice, such as “remove your vagina” or “consider not knowing any men”. These and many more slogans and phrases tweeted on the hashtag were widely retweeted and shared through other platforms, due to how they satirically re-butted the traditional anti rape rhetoric so commonly doled out to women. Considering the enormous affective power of humour to connect and mobilize to engage in this critique of rape culture (Nicollini, 2016) we began exploring further humorous feminist hashtags, but were particularly intrigued by hashtags that used humour and irony to deflate anti-feminism as these seemed very salient in relation to ongoing debates around postfeminism, and the intensification of violent rejections of feminism by MRA’s. We adopted a snowball method to explore hashtags that were calling out anti-feminism, and we also found evidence in these of links to other media content such as Tumblr posts as part of the multi-platform inter-textual web of social media. Snowball methods are part of ‘cyber- ethnography’ (Ashford, 2009) where content connects and leads virally to further content (Sampson, 2011). But to keep our search bounded we decided on several “exemplars” of feminist humour that tell us something about current struggles over the status of feminism. Emma Jane suggests that this type of selective mapping is part of an emerging field of internet ‘histiography’ and critical histories of the present (2016). In each case we, however, purposefully selected posts that we felt were representative of the account, hashtag or site in terms of content and structure and we also wanted to account for how the digital affordance of the platform enabled different types of interaction. Firstly, we explore some of the technological affordances of Twitter for enlivening feminist followings through the @notofeminism Twitter account. Then, we look at the opportunity for diverse women to tweet and retweet ideas about anti-feminism on the Twitter hashtag ‘#FeministsAreUgly. We consider the virality and spreadability of Twitter as an unpredictable medium that enabled wide variation in how hashtags are interpreted and used. Finally, we delve into women’s use of meme culture and Tumblr as a different medium to speak back to anti-feminism through their creation of ‘misandry memes’. Tumblr is often argued to be a safer space in that the dialogue structures differ from Twitter. On Twitter, users can follow, like, retweet, tweet back and private message each other whereas Tumblr relies mainly on users ‘reblogging’ posts to show agreement, amusement or solidarity. This lack of ability to comment on Tumblr posts potentially eliminates much of the harassment and abuse Twitter users face and as such, many feminists, sexual minorities and other groups utilise the Tumblr “platform vernacular” to communicate in a more supportive climate (Warfield, 2016). We found examples of comic misandry memes that are satirically hateful of men by exaggerating the concept of misandry to absurd proportions, but we also found examples that embrace violence against men. We consider the relative productivity and potential effects of this space for expressing female rage. Fighting Anti-Feminism @NoToFeminism Perhaps one of the biggest disappointments we ourselves have faced in researching this topic is confronting the plethora of women led, anti-feminist backlashes seen widely on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. Whilst anti-feminist rhetoric has existed long before social media sites amplified the discord, (see Goldberg, 1968; Steuter, 1992; McRobbie, 2008) the platforms give new ways for anti-feminist narratives to be heard. Often tied to a positioning of social media sites as risky for women, this anti-feminist backlash can manifest as trolling, e-bile, (Jane, 2012, 2014) doxxing (Quodling, 2015) and other forms of online harassment. The women against feminism movement embodies post-feminist articulations of individualism and argues that women have achieved equality and that feminism is an outdated concept that consists of angry women wanting special treatment. Our first example, the @NoToFeminism account on Twitter works to parody many of the #womenagainstfeminism ideas and was created in an attempt to mock the #womenagainstfeminism hashtag that circulated widely in 2014. Initially anonymous, the @NoToFeminism account uses an avatar of a white, able bodied woman to signify the lack of diversity it perceived within the #womenagainstfeminism movement. The account was recently attributed to Bec Shaw, a queer journalist and comedian, who was interviewed by I-D magazine in 2016, with the headline “@notofeminism's bec shaw is the internet’s favourite feminist troll. Meet the writer taking on the patriarchy, one ridiculous internet statement at a time.” https://i-d.vice.com/en_au/article/notofeminisms-bec-shaw-is-the-internets-favourite-feminist-troll It could be argued that the account was initially anonymous in an attempt to circumnavigate the abuse high profile feminist accounts receive but when support was overwhelming and users keen to identify the Twitter , it became easier for Shaw to reveal herself as the creator. The @notofeminism account produces content that refutes the claims that feminism is no longer needed, is irrelevant or dangerous (etc;) by humorously drawing attention to instances of sexism, racism, political infringement on women’s reproductive rights. This works to highlight how inequality is still an issue in society, and how feminism needs to be intersectional as it moves forward in order to challenge injustice yet utilises a playful manner to make the content palatable and easy for readers to digest. The women against feminism speak from positions of privilege that fail to consider intersecting forces such as race or ability on how an individual experiences and moves through society. Tweets such as ‘why didn’t she simply turn into a white man?’ following the highly abusive, racialized harassment that actress Leslie Jones faced on Twitter manages to both incorporate the need for feminism to work to tackle racial inequality whilst identifying how white men are the most privileged in society. In addition, a tweet suggesting that men who are white, rich, good at sports etc. are able to avoid punishment for sexual crimes sheds light on the very real issues within the justice system that enable and uphold rape culture. The account uses humour to introduce important topics for consideration such as racialized power dynamics, male dominance of public spaces, political policies that aim to limit access to abortion or birth control. Tweets such as ‘I don't need feminism because women are well represented on tv and in movies there is thin and white, thin and more white, thin and whitest’ and ‘I don’t need feminis i love seeing lively debate online!!!! between one woman on twitter & hundreds of men threatening to rape and kill her’ are fantastic examples of the way the site parodies anti-feminist articulations by drawing attention to injustice such as lack of diversity in media and the prevalence of online abuse levied at women. By making the tweets funny, they are immediately consumable and easy to understand – assuming you have the linguistic and semantic understanding of the humour of course – yet ensure that the issues raised become part of collective conscious as they get retweeted and liked. As a result of the popularity of the account, a book is being published of tweets demonstrating the transcendence of online/offline boundaries in interpreting and internalising this kind of humour and thinking. The success of @NoToFeminism can arguably be attributed to how the humour works to highlight areas of real concern to feminists, whilst presenting an understanding of intersectional complexities that refuse to see women as a homogenous group. In light of fourth wave feminist stirrings, with its focus on intersectionality, social media activism and call out culture, @notofeminism refutes antifeminist mutterings in a range of humorous ways that seek to reveal the very oppressive structural conditions at work. In addition, the very specific form of writing the tweets employ can have an allegorical understanding. The internet has produced new ways of communicating (Crystal, 2001,) from emojis, to shorthand styles which are often employed by specific communities to demonstrate collective thinking, identity and an othering to ensure both inclusion of specific members and exclusion of those not considered part of the group (McLeese, 2015, Danesi, 2016) The tweets deliberately use misspelt words in an attempt to parody the anger and haste with which trolls may type online, so incensed and enraged that there is no time to spellcheck. A further interpretation could be one of classism; suggesting that those who spout these anti-feminist views are uneducated, unable to spell correctly for example. A further reading of the tweets could be as mobilising humour as a form of self-care (McReaddie & Wiggans, 2008; Overholser, 1992.) They draw attention to real instances of systematic inequality and injustice; by making light of these or utilising humour as a tool through which to consider them, the tweets offer readers a way of engaging with, and understanding these issues in novel ways that use humour rather than anger or frustration. Debating dominant beauty ideals: #FeministsAreUgly The #FeministsAreUgly hashtag was initially started in 2014 by two female feminists of colour, @cheuya and @LilyBoulourian who wanted to create a space where people of colour could speak back to cultural privilege and dominant beauty norms and challenge perceptions of what counted as attractive. As two feminists of colour, Yang and Boulourian started #feministsareguly as a way to trouble those “absolutely silly and completely unattainable” standards, under which “every single woman is [considered] ugly, especially if you’re a woman of colour,” Boulourian told online news site, Daily Dot via e-mail. http://www.dailydot.com/irl/feminists-are-ugly-hashtag/ “I wanted to find a way to change the narrative on that and thought I could help inspire others to reclaim that narrative and define for ourselves what ‘beautiful’ or ‘ugly’ mean.” The hashtag, initially designed to satirise the notion that feminists are unattractive AND to provide a space for people of colour to trouble dominant beauty norms resurfaced a year after its conception only this timeTwitter users falsely attributed it to misogynists and MRAs. With its resurgence, the hashtag became a space for feminists to upload and share selfies, to validate each other’s experiences with trolls and to collectively convene to counter anti-feminist attacks. @bottrill @bottrill Catch me faving every other gorg selfie on #FeministsAreUgly This tweet demonstrates the confidence women feel in collective activism; ‘every other gorg selfie’ suggesting she is positioning herself as gorg in the same way. Clicking the like on everyone’s selfies and affirming women’s appearance independent of normative beauty standards was in line with the intention of the hashtag creators and shows a form of resistance. The hashtag has been used in different ways that seem to miss the point of the founders to reject heteropatriarchal beauty norms. Instead it has been as a way of talking back to trolls who fall back on assumptions that feminists must be ugly, man-hating lesbians who can’t keep a man. @IlIemonade #FeministsAreUgly YEAH SORRY I CAN'T HEAR U @RouReynolds #FeministsAreUgly if a feminist is a person who supports the equality of the sexes then I'm one. And I'm hot as hell @martha_jazz @martha_jazz If #FeministsAreUgly then why am I so fucking cute?#mythBUSTED @MissEmiliePW Ha. What idiot started this hashtag? Lush to see so many beautiful ladies proving them wrong!!!  #FeministsAreUgly In these uses of the hashtag we see a form of irony perhaps rather than hilarity. The posters are outraged at the idea they would be considered unattractive and they protest and defend themselves via sharing selfies and affirmations of self-love on the hashtag. In each case, however, the women defend their own attractiveness without directly critiquing the hegemonic beauty norms through which these judgements are actually being made, which doesn’t get to the level of critique likely envisioned by its creators. Indeed, as @LilyBoulourian tweeted: “Proximity to whiteness means safety, upward mobility, opportunity, etc., but proximity also plays a major factor in who is deemed beautiful.” “Meaning, the closer to white your appearance & features are, the more beautiful you will be deemed. In heteropatriarchy, beauty is currency.” As long theorized by Patricia Hill Collins (2005) an intersectional view helps us to understand white-centric globalised beauty ideals which also racialized, culture specific and classed in varying contexts (Skeggs, 2005). The speed with which users were quick to upload images of globally recognized white celebrities such as Emma Watson and Scarlett Johannson who have defended feminism, to refute suggestions that feminists are ugly demonstrates how valid Boulourian’s points are. We have chosen to highlight tweets featuring Emma Watson as particularly interesting examples that reveal the degree to which postfeminism remains a useful lens with which to critique celebrity appropriations of feminism. Emma Watson could be seen as a paradoxical postfeminist figure who both embodies commercial beauty ideals but presents an edgy confident side by proclaiming herself as a feminist. Arguably this stance increases her corporate sell-abiity. Indeed she was paid to be the face of Elle Magazine’s rebranding of feminism in 2014 , the cover featured in the second tweet image (See Keller and Ringrose, 2015). But the version of feminism Watson sells (on magazine covers and to the UN Assembly) has been called into question as a problematic form of celebrity feminism because it positions itself as non-threatening and appealing to men. Watson’s #HeForShe campaigning is about constructing a form of palatable feminism that placates men, assuring them women present no threat, rather than offering hard line challenges that would force men to confront the enormous scale of structural change needed to equalize gendered power relations. When other images of non-white celebrities were included, the focus was concentrated on and limited to Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. The repeated celebrity feminist postings under the hashtag shows us not only corporate appropriation of feminist discourse, but how widespread women’s own buy-in to this message is, again affirming the utility of Gill’s concept of a dominant ‘postfeminist sensibility’ and McRobbie’s ‘postfeminist masquerade’ the idea that identifying as a feminist is only acceptable if you are beautiful too. Thus, this viral uptake of the hashtag worked in the reverse of the creator’s intentions, re-valuing Eurocentric norms as the epitome of beauty. This same postfeminist logic of it being fine to be a feminist as long as you fit into normative beauty standards too was evident in a particularly problematic tweet on the hashtag from @thisisntjulia, who seems to suggest that feminism makes her more good looking: @thisisntjulia @thisisntjulia #FeministsAreUgly ???????? I see no ugliness, only good genes and enlightenment This tweet is contradictory in that it suggests on he one hand that her (feminist?) enlightenment contributes to her (sex?) appeal, but the ‘good genes’ argument reduces women’s bodily economy down to normative standards of socio-biological perfection. Who defines ‘good genes’? Thus the hashtag creates space for all manner of posts that were not likely intended in its initial iterations. We could critique the hashtag in a number of ways; it is body centric and reduces users to their appearance; it is exclusive and denies access to many people who are already maligned in mainstream depictions of beauty; it drew a lot of negative attention from trolls who systematically trawled the hashtag sending hostile and rude comments to users; it misinterpreted the original aims the creators wanted to focus on and it ironically positioned men’s opinions on women’s beauty as paramount. Nonetheless, it is important to consider the process of viral spread and mutation on the hashtag and ensuing debates that took place through the #FeministsAreUgly hashtag. We argue that is also performed two other functions; it allowed women a space to be playful, present and confident in their appearance and it used humour to resist a long held notion of feminists as being unattractive as seen when women affirmed other women’s use of selfies. Finally, it used humour in creative ways Terms such as ‘missed the memo’ and ‘bish, where?’ utilise semiotic and linguistic cues that have understandings specific to these online communities and work to create an ‘us and them’ scenario where feminists are working collectively to refute negative connotation of the movement. Thus the success of the hashtag is part of a larger movement that is changing the normative relations of power through humour - its playful and satirical functions are part of a wider assemblage of social media feminist humour. Mocking Misandry As noted, feminism has long been associated with man-hating and anger (Scharff, 2010; Moi, 2006) yet the introduction of social media has changed and heightened the visibility of feminist discourse. As a result of social media sites providing a platform for women to share their experiences of sexism and sexual violence and to call out instances of both, feminists have been accused of promoting ‘misandry’. Defined as the hatred of men, the term is utilised particularly by some Men Rights Activists who use the label to construct all feminist resistance as ‘man hating’. Schmitz and Kazyak (2016) suggest that ‘the growth and dissemination of MRA ideology is highly dependent on vast social networks of men connecting with other men to garner support, air their grievances, and recruit new members.’ Dubbed the “manosphere”, this online collection of various MRA websites and blogs consists of extreme, misogynistic viewpoints that blame women, particularly feminists, for the downfall of society’ (Ging, 2016). The upsurge of the use of the word misandry by the MRAs has led to responses from digital feminists, who have ironically embraced of the term misandry. There is limited research into misandry as an online feminist tool against misogyny and sexism yet much popular literature exists suggesting that is a way of ‘sticking a tongue out a school yard bully’ http://www.vice.com/read/the-year-in-male-tears or about legitimate anger at the fact that white men still hold the majority of political, social and economic power in society https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/13/feminists-do-not-hate-men. In this section we will attempt to theorise ironic misandry comedy as a way of allowing women the space and tools necessary to be angry. Popular writer, Amanda Hess suggests that ’ironic misandry is more than just a sarcastic retort to the haters; it’s an in-joke that like-minded feminists tell even when their critics aren’t looking, as a way to build solidarity within the group. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/08/08/ironic_misandry_why_feminists_joke_about_drinking_male_tears_and_banning.html These tweets work to decentre male comfort and refute notions of women being accommodating and passive by simply tolerating instances of sexism. They also aim to draw attention to how patriarchy and sexism harms men as well as women; for example one tweet we have included tells men to blame misogyny instead of misandry for them seeing ballet as off limits to themselves. Often the limitations placed on toys, activities, careers, subject choices etc. are the result of long held gendered norms being internalised and positioned as natural and misandrist tweets such as telling men to blame misogyny for ballet being considered a feminine past time are important in that they aim to destabilise these norms by drawing attention to the absurdity of them. The purpose of some of these misandry hashtags and tweets then, is to actually draw attention to misogyny by pointing out how the term is often deployed when women dominate discussion or collectively share negative experiences of sexism. The tweets that justify misandry seem less open to the possibility of effecting change as the limitations of the universalising nature of the concept (like patriarchy) because it relies on universalised assumptions about history – ‘thousands of years’ and ‘millennia of misogyny. But what does it mean to defend the notion of misandry as an inside joke for feminists? Tumblr Misandry Memes Indeed, going beyond textual hashtags or images on Twitter, the development of misandry memes on Tumblr combines visual images with textual slogans to create symbols of feminist humour. Rentschler (2015) and Thrift (2014) both argue that the construction, use and distribution of memes depict new forms of feminist communication and open up avenues of possible community and conscious raising. Connelly, (2015) writing about ironic misandry on Tumblr sites draws attention to how the phenomenon emerged as a satirical response to notions that feminists must be man haters and goes on to claim that ‘the Tumblr feminist community…participates in an ironic exaggeration of those stereotypes.’ Sometimes a meme can be used on Twitter or other social media platforms as a result of the limited character count allowed; a meme can be indicative of an individual’s viewpoint without them having to articulate it themselves. In that respect, misandry memes present new mimetic and viral communicative tools for women to use online to express their anger and frustration at men. Women may choose to visibly engage with misandry via circulating memes such as these to perform exaggerated displays of female superiority in an attempt to draw attention to the ridiculousness of it. Users bond over a shared antagonism towards men, playing into the man-hating stereotype. Horowitz, writing about a misandric meme that says women should have eyeliner wings ‘so sharp they can kill a man’ argues that ‘all of these sites of misandry trade on the bizarre assumption that women who hate men are necessarily unfeminine; thus, the consciously cartoonish expressions of femininity function as both an in-joke and a strategic manoeuvre. When paired with articulations of ironic violence or earnest rage “misandry” is not only emptied of the meaning ascribed to it by men’s rights activists, but simultaneously weaponizes feminist anger and the devalued trappings of femininity. It turns objects coded as feminine into threats. Misandry becomes potentially dangerous, and liberatory, in its re-direction’ (Horowitz, 2013.) Memes that jokingly claim that ‘men are temporary; cats are forever’ or ones that say ‘I don’t care for your male opinion’ open up space for new ways on engaging with masculinity. In that respect, the memes potentially present a scenario where women are distancing themselves from the long established and accepted desire for male approval. By responding to men with a meme such as ‘bathing in male tears’ women are perhaps using humour to deflate a situation but also resisting long held notions of subservience and passivity? In addition, misandry memes present women with an opportunity and way to be angry. Women are often taught to be passive and that anger is an unattractive and unacceptable state (Austin, 2007); by engaging with misandry through using memes they are utilising the space afforded to them online to present an angry front and demonstrate their legitimate frustration at sexism and discrimination. Misandry memes are one of the clearest examples of showcasing feminist rage and anger, in the above cases toying with (white) religious icons to fight against female heterosexist rivalry over men, and to shock the viewer into understanding women’s potential for violence to protect their feminist beliefs. The misandry memes are the most reactive, defensive and binary driven of all the tactics, pitting ‘women’ against ‘men’. As Jane has argued about some forms of feminist internet conflict (2016: 12) it is embroiled in a binary of “adversary/enemy” rather than sparking room for debate, critical change and transformation. This critique is applicable to some of these misandry memes, which position women and men as eternal antagonists. The memes above, for instance re-inscribe sexual difference and male/female identities. These memes employ a logic of reversal, a space to contain feminine rage, but we wonder about its intersectional appeal of these reversals and their limited purchase to challenge male violence through the promotion of female violence. Is creating a violent white goddess for feminism funny and for whom? When negotiating with ‘two girls fighting over a boy’ or male opinions on make-up, a misandric meme may seem an appropriate response but how useful are they if deployed in discussions of sexual violence or domestic abuse? Whilst women may use a meme as a tool for expressing boredom or indifference at something a man may say to them online as a way of shutting down discussion, this could arguably be demonstrative of the privilege the woman in question has; in her ability and relative safety to dismiss a man outright, in her refusal to engage with men online for example. Whilst the memes are problematic they present very interesting examples of the colliding of feminist humour and rage brought together to defend women and feminism via social media. Conclusion In this chapter we have explored examples of how Twitter and Tumblr offer new digital spaces for those who identify with feminism to connect with others and to defend their views against anti-feminist attacks. What we argued was that social media feminist humour and irony were key to enabling different forms of engagements and central in rebutting discursive claims of anti-feminism. We suggested that the idea we are living in times predominantly defined by a postfeminist sensibility may be problematic, although postfeminist sentiment in the form of commodified and market driven appropriations of feminism are of course virally reproduced through everyday social media use. To explore these issues, we first examined how @NoToFeminism worked through an account dedicated to tackling anti-feminism with humorous Tweets that exposed ongoing gender inequalities such as violence against women and girls, man-spreading (or men’s spatial entitlement in public), and racialized sexism against non-white women. The account has gathered an extensive following because it humoursly explores the contradictions of denying the structural and discursive conditions that underpin sexism such as gender pay gaps or widespread violence against women. Exposing absurdity and ignorance of anti-feminist views was a primary aim used to highlight the ‘facts’ that showed that feminism is still needed. We followed this with a discussion of the twitter hashtag #FeministsAreUgly. This hashtag started off by intending to expose the racist, heteropatriarchal conventions of white beauty norms which are used to argue that women who adopt feminism are doing so because they are unable to be attractive to dominant status quo men. However, we found that the cultural beauty norms and expectations are so omnipotent that women ended up using the hashtag to defend themselves as good-looking despite being feminists! Using celebrity feminist Emma Watson as a response seemed to operate as an example of postfeminist cultural norms, Watson as a celebrity figure appropriates feminism in part to deliver its message to a broader public but in the process depoliticizes and sanitizes its content. Everyday women reproduced this message of her as a prime example of a beautiful feminist via accessible and digestible social media tweets that mimic or directly reproduce dominant corporate advertising frames, which indicate the salience of the concept of a dominant postfeminist media culture that feminists must continually manage and navigate. Finally, we considered how feminists have responded to claims that feminists are man-hating bigots practicing misandry through their uses of Twitter to suggest misandry is a myth and through the production and spread of ‘misandry memes’ on Tumblr. These memes suggest for example that cats are more important than men, or that men’s rights activists should be ‘gutted’. We argued that some of the attempts to speak back to the MRAs with misandry humour may be problematic. In particular, misandry memes may fall into the category of ‘white feminism’ by dwelling in a place of implicitly and explicitly coded ‘white’ female rage, where the reversal of violence from women to men is singular and non-inclusive and fails to adequately consider which women and men? Whilst creating space for female rage is a critical component for feminism (Austin, 2007), we think the claims of pro-misandry violence may be limited for whom it can compel into political action given it is not intersectional and fails to address the complexities of violence amongst and between women enlivened through histories of colonization and racism for instance. Overall, we suggest there is a great deal further work in unpacking the intersectional operations of social media feminist humour, but we have demonstrated ample evidence that social media is a critically important medium for defining, debating and defending feminism against its widespread detractors. References Ashford, C. 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