“I don’t know why you girls have never been attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it. It’s an injustice, a crime, because I don’t know what you don’t see in me. I’m the perfect guy, and yet you throw yourselves at all these obnoxious men, instead of me, the supreme gentleman.”
These are the words of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, who shot six people - and himself - on Friday in Santa Barbara.
Rodger said these words on a YouTube video and was later found to have visited 'Men's Rights' forums where he apparently aired misogynistic views.
Although Rodgers killed men as well as women, Jezebel wrote: "(he) went on an anti-woman shooting spree he deemed "the Day of Retribution" in order to punish those women who rebuffed him."
In response to the tragedy, #YesAllWomen started trending on Twitter, with hundreds of women all over the world expressing the misogyny and fear they face being female, and crucially, men speaking up too.
Considering how social media is used to hound prominent women for airing their opinions about equality of the sexes, and how very often this trolling tends to be aimed at them on the basis on gender, this is a very important discussion to be having.
While we can't speak on behalf of all women, a big concern is the fear of speaking out at all, in case retribution strikes - as one Twitter user expresses below.
Take a look at the tweets from men and women:
#YesAllWomen because we teach girls how to not get raped rather than teaching boys how to properly treat a woman.
— sarah lang (@sarahstardom) May 26, 2014Because Miley Cyrus got shamed & Robin Thicke got applauded. Enough with the double standards. #YesAllWomen
— Meg (@sassylibrarian1) May 26, 2014Showing respect for woman is one of the greatest gifts that a father could ever give to his son. #YesAllWomen
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) May 26, 2014Friends have been telling their stories on #YesAllWomen for 2 days. Some stories I knew, some I did not. This solidarity was needed.
— Audry Taylor (@AudryT) May 26, 2014Because being too scared to stand up to my harasser made me feel 100 times guiltier than he will ever feel for doing it.
— lauren mcguire (@imlaurenmcguire) May 26, 2014#YesAllWomen bc when I go running I have to consider whether I've taken the same route at the same time too often. Someone might be watching
— Wendy Rosenfield (@WendyRosenfield) May 26, 2014Because I'm scared of the response for even tweeting about this topic. #YesAllWomen
— Hannah Hart (@harto) May 26, 2014Because I routinely get sexually harassed online (including rape threats) after my investigations air.
Male reporters do not. #YesAllWomen
— Lisa Guerrero (@4lisaguerrero) May 26, 2014"Boys will be Boys" really means "Boys are unable to restrain their primal urges so it's your fault." #YesAllWomen
— Very Serious People™ (@TheXclass) May 26, 2014