#PissForEquality Proves That The Internet Is Not A Safe Place For Women

Arguably situated quite high up as one of the most pathetic things someone can do, mocking a group of oppressed people is something that we as a society should find detestable.

This feeling that most of us share is the reason so many hate Katie Hopkins for example, and one can often find that a virtual lynch mob will be created for anyone found perceivably guilty of such an act. Yet another example of this mocking has crept up this week though, with the more sinister corners of the internet popping up to attempt to fool feminists into urinating on themselves in the name of equality.

Much like society has done time and time again, the ideas of seeing women being pissed on seemed absurdly funny for a few creeps, most likely smiling smugly to themselves, basked in the dim glow of their laptops, having not interacted with a real human being for quite some time. This led to an attempted trend starter among them, where they tried to create a joke movement to further humiliate a group they so despise, for some reason that to this day remains unknown to me. The only problem was, it didn’t actually work very well at all, with an actual example of it happening proving incredibly hard to find, the whole idea was a complete and utter failure.

Unfortunately though, this must surely leave a very bitter taste in the mouths of most, as it proves that the internet, much like the real world, is a very hostile place if you are a woman, and even worse if you are a feminist. I am by no means a feminist, and have decried some of what I feel are its flaws in previous articles, and received my fair share of vitriol from certain groups whom all seemed to identify as feminists.

Can you wonder though, why feminists often seem so hostile on the internet when they are constantly bombarded with this kind of mean spirited, degrading and quite frankly perverted behaviour, time and time again? As if life wasn’t difficult enough, with pay gaps, a massive bias in courts of law against rape victims and a sporting world who devalue the achievements of female athletes as just a few examples of the oppression faced by women, the internet seems to be a breeding ground for this seething misogyny.

Groups from the “satirical” Meninist, to the absurd #NotAllMen campaign consistently allow a place to exist for people to harp on about why they hate women so much, and how wronged they have been, living in an echo chamber of self-righteousness, using it as an excuse not to confront the massive wrongs dealt against women in western society, and indeed the world.

My beliefs have changed – while I do not identify as a feminist, it’s clear that despite it being a great deal worse for women in other parts of the world, namely Africa and the Middle East, it’s still not great for women here either. By entering into a conversation about how people should count themselves lucky, we subvert issues that are still reprehensible and allow them to passively continue. It is true, Britain is one of the best places in the world to be a woman, but just because it could be worse, doesn’t mean we have to settle for the least bad option.

Something has got to change, what that is, I do not know, but we seem to be living in a society that is ever more subtle in its oppression, from the poor, to black people, to Muslims, to women and beyond. This subtlety may convince some people that things are getting better, and perhaps they are in some small way, but there is still a lot of inexcusable behaviour, and this is yet another example.