#MenAreTrash vs #MeToo: an intersectional look at the two movements

On several occasions, Twitter and Facebook flooded with messages that women only thought men are trash because they were heartbroken and bitter over failed relationships. When #MeToo came out, although it was poor received at first, grew into a popular and well supported movement, although it still has it issues. So, why have the two movements received very different responses?

 

#MenAreTrash was actually sparked by the murder of Karabo Mokoena, a 22 year old South African woman, by her boyfriend in April 2017. The hashtag was tweeted within minutes of the news coming out about her murder, and quickly began to trend, not only in South Africa, but all over the world. While most women understood the context, many men and patriarchal princesses responded in saying that the hashtag was obviously sparked by some hurt and angry woman. Women were mocked and the event and movement were trivialised, and have been ever since.

 

 

#MeToo began to trend on social media in October 2017 following allegations of sexual abuse against Harvey Weinstein. It sought to raise awareness of the sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, but has been concentrated mainly on the entertainment industry. Naturally, some responded to the hashtag accusing women of lying and trying to get publicity and a handout. But as evidence began to be found, the hashtag was warmed up to.

 

 

I pondered over the reason for these different responses many times last week. My interest was sparked by the Gillette advert. The brand openly supported the #MeToo movement and I was happy to see that. But at the back of my head, the question of why that was not the case for #MenAre Trash kept bugging me. Why had no large companies changed their brand to stand up against femicide when #MenAreTrash started trending?

 

Many men have responded to the hashtag by saying that the wording is too harsh and that they do not want to called “Trash”, so I thought that might be the main reason. But as I pondered on the issue further, I realised it was much deeper than that.

 

The two movements were caused by two different events in two different contexts. #MeToo began to trend in earnest when a White woman, Alyssa Milano, tweeted it and the message was clear. But when Black women tweeted in support of Karabo, hardly anybody listened. Because Karabo sits in the intersection of being Black, being African and being a woman. That meant that people would care less about her death than the abuse of the countless White women Harvey Weinstein had targeted.

 

I ran two poll questions on my Twitter account and asked why people thought the two hashtags were received differently. Only a handful of people responded, but the outcome of the polls was exactly what I expected. Here are the results:

 

 

The polls confirmed my thoughts. It wasn’t the way the hashtags were phrased, but rather society’s reactions towards Black women, and how those differed to their responses to White women. So what causes these differences?

 

First, we must unpack a certain word. I mentioned the word “intersection” earlier to refer to being both Black and a woman. The concept of intersectionality has been around for decades, starting out a race, gender and class studies. However, the term was only officially coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Simply put, she has described it as being “multiply-burdened”. It is also an analysis tool that helps one look at where a person is positioned because of their identities, and therefore what kind of power relations they will have with the world. It looks at how power affects a White, middle class, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, educated man, and how it affects, or burdens, a Black, working class, transgender, lesbian, uneducated disabled woman.

 

So having said that, how does this apply to my comparison of #MenAreTrash and #MeToo? It applies because, this ignorance and sweeping away of the death of a Black South African woman is not just a sheer coincidence that causes a hashtag to be lost in translation. It is caused by something much deeper, and that something is the layered discrimination of Black women, which results in the idea that their pain does not matter and, perhaps even that they are disposable.

 

Kimberlé Crenshaw explains this perfectly in her TedTalk (linked below) about intersectionality where she points out that we often forget the names of women who have been victims of a crime. Because Black women are often seen as objects, as tools to be used to achieve one’s selfish agenda in this cruel world.

 

It might be worth noting that #MeToo itself was also started by a Black woman, Tarana Burke years before it gained popularity, but only gained worldwide attention when a White woman used the hashtag. That tells us that injustice need only be paid attention to when its affecting a White woman, a person who, despite facing troubles because she is a woman, holds an immense amount of privilege because of her race.

 

The #MeToo movement itself has revealed a certain attitude to women. It is understood clearly why Harvey Weinstein needs to be imprisoned, but when it comes to a man like R Kelly, it seems justice is just too harsh. Why? Because, again, R Kelly’s victims are Black. And it does not really matter what you do to a Black woman. Why interrupt people from stepping in the name of love over a little bit of rape of young Black girls? Preposterous! We wanna dance, not get justice for the girls.

 

So how do we move forward from this, having seen that the stories of Black women are ignored? The answer is simple. Listen. Simply listen. The voices of Black women are silenced quite enough, despite always being labelled as being too loud. Listen to the cries for help. Listen to the explanation of why something is wrong. Listen when their mouth utter the word “No.” And after listening, amplify Black women’s voices and, inevitably, all women’s voices.

 

The world has had enough silence. Now is the time to shout.

 

Bibliography:

Bartlett, T. (2017) ‘The Intersectionality War!’ Chronicle of Higher Education, pB6-B7

Collins, P.H & Bilge S. (2016) Intersectionality, Polity Press

Davis, P. (2018) ‘They’re just trying to keep a black man down: the (not so) curious case of R Kelly’ Feminist Media Studies, Vol 18, Issue 3, p494-497

Ted (2016) ‘The urgency of intersectionality’ [online video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o [Accessed: 02/02/2019]