Over the weekend, Emma Watson launched the new United Nations program HeForShe. The program is about feminism and bringing men into the fold of equality. Emma gave a powerful speech at the UN and the video of the speech has gone viral:
The crux of Emma’s speech is barely controversial: that every woman should consider herself a feminist, that feminism is about equality, and that men can and should find feminism beneficial. Well, it wasn’t controversial to me. And it wasn’t controversial to most people. But the trolls on 4chan have been “threatening” Emma ever since.
Members of 4chan’s b board lost their very minds over this, and embarked on a campaign against Emma Watson almost immediately. So far, this has included a threat to release hacked nude pictures of her in the manner that other celebrity photos have been leaked over the past two months–complete with a sad little countdown website titled Emma You Are Next. Although this is almost definitely a hoax, it is an incredibly sick one.
In addition to this, b board members are attempting to get #RIPEmmaWatson trending on Twitter, along with incredibly disturbing fake news website pictures announcing that the actress was found dead in a hotel room. The frightening thing is that, like most of their other campaigns against women, they truly see themselves as just warriors fighting for what’s right. They believe that this is what Emma Watson has coming to her for daring to speak up or identify as a feminist.
This is primarily because they firmly believe that any woman who speaks up on women’s issues is completely disingenuous and only doing it for the purposes of crass, self-serving, self-promotion, and that any man who does is looking to get laid, because they actually cannot possibly imagine a scenario in which someone would genuinely give a sh-t about women.
That Death & Taxes link also includes some foul comments about Emma which… I mean, half the stuff doesn’t even make sense. Maybe my mind has been affected by all of that butter, but I really don’t understand how “Emma Watson gives a speech about feminism” means that Emma is obviously a fraud because someone hacked into her iPhone and got her photos. How does that logically follow? No, I’m really asking. Death & Taxes associates these trolls with the “Men’s Rights activists,” so maybe the better hashtag would be #NotAll4ChanTrolls (like #NotAllMen).
Update by Celebitchy: New reports suggests that the rumored Emma Watson photo leak was a hoax perpetrated by trolls hoping to bring down 4chan. The domain EmmaYouAreNext leads to a site called “rantic marketing,” with the purpose of shutting down 4chan and censoring the Internet, but that all reads like tongue in cheek and it’s credited to a guy named “Brad Cockingham” This is probably some type of next-level trolling meant to dupe the media.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? (This deserved Kanye Kaps.)
Yes it did!!! (Also deserves excessive punctuation.)
Is it wrong that I read this in a Kanye voice?
Oh poor Emma. For every (good) action there is an equal and opposite (bad) reaction.
I found this article on trolls helpful. They really are sociopaths:
http://time.com/8265/internet-trolls-are-actually-sadists-study-finds/
meh, it’s 4chan. It’s not like any of those losers would actually do anything, they just all get into a frenzy of stupidity and try to see who can be the most shocking.
Then they all go back to their full time jobs of donating sperm to their local sewer system
Wasn’t Elliot Rodger pretty active on 4chan?
Lord. Can someone please just shut down the 4chan site already. They’re giving everyone a headache.
Ugh, right???
MRA trolls are the worst. This just proves what I have been saying about the nude picture hacking all along. It was a direct cyber assault on women. The purpose was to shame the celebs involved. And anyone who shamed them, played right into the hackers hands.
Emma has been the target of these people for years. Some of them are probably the same ones who used to have websites counting down until she turned 18. But no pictures of her have ever surfaced . So I’m assuming they either don’t exist or are not stored in a way that is easier to hack. Because these creeps have targeted her for a long time.
“This just proves what I have been saying about the nude picture hacking all along. It was a direct cyber assault on women.”
This exactly. Gross and poor Emma.
Every time I read comments like the ones coming from these dudes my mind instantly goes to the Santa Barbara shooter.
I think about the Santa Barbara gunman as well. I wasn’t aware before that a group of guys with similar contempt for women had organized online. Its frightening.
Yeah, people always say that these guys could get porn anywhere, but that’s precisely why they take screenshots or steal photos.
Lack of consent.
They want to do things to women that the women do nit agree to. They want force. They want to invade.
And if you think they sound like rapists, you’re right.
yup, for these types, it’s all about power and how much of it you have over women.
Who are these people? Are they total sociopaths or random dudes with a major case of Internet Balls? It’s frightening and disgusting.
Exactly. They don’t like the idea of consent. When the list of people from the hacking was out last month, Jenny McCarthy was on it. She was a Playboy Playmate when she was younger and has posed in Playboy more recently. It is not as though there is a lack of naked pictures that she consented to be published out there. But these creeps get off on the idea of force.
Well said fairyvexed.
+10000
Great point and well said, fairyvexed.
*claps* Such a great point. I made a similar point discussing this with friends when this story first happened. This is the exact power imbalance rapists get off of. Truly vile
Sadly there are men that are scared of women becoming an equal because it makes them have to reevaluate their own masculinity. Some of the fundamentals of manhood/masculinity are based on being in power and control and when they lose that they have to turn to other things. We have seen this played out through domestic violence and so forth. When the dynamic changes it causes confusion and a grab for control just like we are seeing with the death threats against Emma. This is about so much more than just feminism.
As a man I would say you are pretty accurate. Of course that same thing applies to any group that is growing in power. The dominant group always wants to retain power and sees anybody else as a potential threat to their dominance. It is not just men but human nature. Not that it should be accepted.
With an added Darwinian desire to propagate their own DNA, which then leads them to construct a society where women are lauded for their virtue and for being “good” aka submissive. I’m so shocked and disappointed that this is still a conversation in 2014. But then I’m still shocked that the ERA wasn’t passed.
yup, agree.
you’ll get this reaction any time you have a group that has traditionally held power over another getting “knocked back”. It’s not that the traditionally-held-back group has “special” privileges, they just are getting EQUAL privileges.
but the power-holders don’t see it that way. their power is diminishing and that’s all they care about.
I don’t know about fear but they absolutely hate women. And of course women can sense it.
These are men that can *only* fart! They deserve our pity, and scorn. Our pity, because they cannot imagine a life with a true partner. The scorn – that is obvious, isn’t it?
There are women on this site, I am sure, that have been raped or assaulted, by a man. These men intend to control and humiliate a women. How could men first hold power (before recorded time) without controlling women? All that men possess, is their superior physical strength, compared to women. It seems to me, that religion is a marker of a social system, that is closely aligned with the idealization of men, as well as their justification for their power.
This whole thing is so disturbing and so wrong, these people at 4chan are literally the worst.
They are. Hard to believe that 4chan is where LOLcats began. (they claim anyway)
This makes me so sad. Sick to my stomach sad.
Its not just 4chan – I read the Guardian website a fair amount and ANY Feminist slant article there is bombarded with hateful men’s rights comments and outright misogyny within minutes – its so utterly depressing ive stopped clicking on any article where the focus is on women.
They even descended on an article about female cancer ( I think it was ovarian or womb) saying what about prostrate, it much worse for us?? they are all ready with facts and figures showing the undeniable proof ( in their own crazy heads) that the world is totally geared against poor poor men…
It’s happening on articles about domestic violence and rape as well. And The Guardian is one of the most progressive media outlets out there.
A lot of the 4Chan posters and MRAs set their Google alerts and troll articles about women just to add sick and disturbing comments. Gawker Media had to change its entire comment system because 4Chan trolls kept posting nasty gifs of dead women, women getting raped, and naked women in the comment sections of all the front-page stories.
It just boggles my mind that this is how people spend their free time and think they are being productive members of society.
Although Gawker dragged their feet on making that change for months. It was not until the writers at Jezebel called the higher ups out on not making it a priority, that it changed.
Im sure there are some 4channers there but some replies are just too articulate ( though drenched in entitled anger) too be hormonal teenagers, I really suspect that quite a lot of the Guardian male demographic is there commenting too and THAT is scary.
“because 4Chan trolls kept posting nasty gifs of dead women, women getting raped, and naked women in the comment sections of all the front-page stories.”
..and just when I think nothing can really shock or disturb me, I read something like this. It’s why I only ever come here–at least I know it’s safe. I’m too sensitive to deal with stuff like that.
I may sound like a troll myself…but damn 4chan members are def. Scums Of Earth.
I can’t believe that.
I’m sure some people must think I’m burying my head in the sand and choosing ignorance, but I’m going to tell myself that all those posts/pictures must be photoshopped, otherwise I’m never going to be able to get up in the morning at this rate.
Celebitchy Cuddles for all <3
@Merritt:
You are correct and I should have added that in there. Jezebel writers had to publicly shame Nick Denton into doing something.
@Misstee:
Sad to say you are probably right. I wish it were just 4 Channers but it probably isn’t.
These people tend to condone child abuse as well. Power and humiliation appears to be a driving force with this type.
Misstee – 4channers aren’t just hormonal teenagers. There are plenty of grown ass men in their 20’s 30’s up. I’m sure some of them are perfectly articulate as well. However, there are plenty of articulate but hateful individuals who like to make the same kinds of horrible comments outside of 4chan
The Guardian tend to have some really fantastic feminist contributors, one of their journalists helped launch The Vagenda blog, but I’ve been feeling really disheartened at the BTL comments of late.
‘Over-reacting.’
‘Looking to be offended.’
‘Too much time on their hands.’
Well, excuse me if I take the time out of my day to assert my rights as a woman.
I really feel for Emma, but I’m guessing she’s intelligent enough to know that these people hiding behind their keyboards don’t matter in the slightest. It must still sting, though.
+1
+2
Great comment.
The DM website – which I try to avoid and am always ashamed when I allow myself to get sucked into it – is much, much worse, there are some truly hateful people in this world…
edit: this should have been posted under Misstee’s comment – but you get my drift.
I never read the Daily Mail comments. Ever. It makes me lose what little faith I have in humanity. They a re right down there in the bottom-feeding territory of Yahoo! news stories commentators and You Tube commentators.
@alicia, yahoo news commenters are the absolute scum of the earth. I had to stop reading any articles that were about or touched on special needs children (I am a special needs mother) because of the horrifying and atrocious things people would say about them. We’re taking Nazi like thoughts about how they should all be gassed or euthanized for the good of society. I would get literally nauseated not to mention I would fly off the handle get into fights with people. I eventually realized that it was pointless for me to continue to read the comments and get all worked up and upset about it.
Very true. Even on NPR, the stories about women’s rights, studies about sexual assaults on campus, the predator mentality of some men in bars…they all get tons of comments from regular posters about how some women are asking for it. They say “if you can’t stand the heat (assault) stay out of the kitchen (bar)”, etc.
poor girl looks nervous.
As would I be. She’s addressing the UN, after all. I’m pretty chill about speaking in front of large groups, but I daresay most of us would be a teeny bit intimidated about this particular audience.
You cannot demand rights that you’ve always had, since day one, because of your born gender.
This is why we need feminism – when women ask for equal rights, and even are inclusive to men in their speech, those women are threatened with violence, death, and rape. Men are against feminism because they are upset that their privilege is being challenged – they don’t want to share, they need someone to feel superior to.
I wonder how many of these “men’s rights activist” would actually stand up at the UN and repeat all this? You know, instead of letting their brain farts flow while hidden behind a computer.
You mean the same number of feminists who violently assault peaceful men in Argentina, who refuse to apologize for the Duke Lacrosse case, or who pulled off some illegal acts like falsely crying fire and pulling the fire alarm at the university of Toronto? Feminism will always have a bad rap when feminists claim “a few people don’t represent us” but then go “a few people represent the whole of any other organization” sorry but we egalitarians are superior to you all.
Yes, Mia, all people ARE equal, but sadly, all people are not TREATED equally, that is why women had to fight for the right to vote, fight for the right to have equal pay, which they do not have, the right to not be sexually mistreated, the right to work, the right to own property, etc.
No one here has stated that two wrongs make a right, so this logic has failings. It is a response to this story. It calls out the people who hide behind a computer screen and make threats.
Whoa “pulling a fire alarm”?!?!? Why I never….
I’m renouncing my feminist title right now because that is JUST. PLAIN. WRONG.
An egalitarian would never just pull a fire alarm for no reason and you are DEFINITELY superior.
….Mia, there is no way that last contradictory statement wasn’t sarcastic. “We egalitarians are superior to you all”?
What???
an egalitarian who claims to be superior to someone else is a bit of an oxymoron for me.
Why should feminists apologise for the Duke lacrosse case? That’s a ridiculous statement. Almost as ridiculous as claiming egalitarianism equals superiority. Maybe, you know – check the word in a dictionary.
Hey kitten, so assaulting peaceful men is okay? Sending death threats to a few barely legal still under twenty years old college guys is okay? They get death threats because some mentally I’ll murderer decides to lie?
Sorry but I am a smug egalitarian. And feminists are equally smug when they say things like “everyone should be a feminist because the definition of feminism is equality.” Well the definitions of Scientology or socialism all sound pretty good too
Mia, you know that feminism is an egalitarian concept, right?
@mia
If you are going to just write a list of talking points from MRA websites, you really should be less obvious about it.
The Argentina story was blown far out of proportion and those men were far from peaceful. Those men were working very hard to ensure that anti-choice laws remain in place. There is nothing peaceful about laws that jeopardize women’s health.
The Duke lacrosse case was a male prosecutor who overstepped the law. And he was punished for it.
And really a fire alarm? Something that people do all over at various high schools and colleges without politics having anything to do with it.
You are not an egalitarian. The concept of equality is completely over your head. You bring up isolated incidents as though they are every day occurrences.
Meanwhile you don’t care about the everyday occurrences of domestic violence, denial of health services, street harassment, rape, unequal pay, etc.
What happened in Argentina? I live there and I have no idea what you’re talikg about. I would really appreciate if you could explain it to me.
People superior to me: Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Queen Tilda Swinton, oh the actual Queen, & god rest his soul Jim Morrison. The list is much bigger but those are some of my favorite superior people. Egalitarians may be included if they make me dinner tonight.
Just laughing that little ole Emma Watson upsets them so much, hahaha……. so masculine, so logical & soooooo needy.
This is disgusting. Poor girl. She’s brave to take this on. These creeps hope their intimidation campaign will keep other young women (and men) from doing the same.
Disgusting. Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of 4chan. So that’s where the putrid dregs of society congregate, huh? At least now we know.
This whole mess just proves how important her work is and I’m guessing she knows this and takes these attacks for what they are. Ridiculous, vile whining of scared little “men” who can’t get a date because FEMINAZIS. Again: Disgusting.
It’s been a very depressing few weeks for high profile women in the media and the extreme reactions from a select group of internet users. I’m honestly becoming bummed out with the hatred thrown out so casually online, especially with the tone that’s all about punishing women for speaking out or having a private sexual life.
It’s easy for them to hide in anonymity. They don’t have to back up their hatred and bullshit in person.
And people say that we don’t need feminism. > . <
EXACTLY. The more these MRA idiots yell every time a woman speaks up for equality, they only prove the need for that equality more and more.
This is the Lewis Law “the comments on any article about feminism justify feminism” on a grander scale.
So true!
I wasn’t a huge Emma Watson fan before, but I definitely consider myself a fan now. She is brilliant and brave. The ignorance of the men (and women!) who can actually criticize her, mock her, and label her after hearing her speech really needs to be stopped. Kudos to Emma on her UN speech. I am a proud feminist, and I hope that Emma’s speech will inspire other young men and women to learn more about the meaning of the word, and teach others about how important it is for our society.
Just think of where she was – the UN! The ignorant boys (gentlemen they are not) could never spout their nonsense there. I hope she made some headway for women in other countries. The enormous brutality and atrocities that women have to endure in their countries of origin, is plainly criminal to those with any empathy. All this is perpetuated in the name of religion.
I agree. Her actions and words have gained my respect.
Maybe it hasn’t been shut down because the police might be looking to see all of those associated in contributing to the blog? If not then they ought to be shut down. False hope, I guess. This is sad because Emma has released the best feminism statements that I’ve heard from any celeb because she made feminism inclusive to the male and female gender in a non controversial manner and has enlightened those females, whom bought into the naivety and false propaganda preached by those opposing feminism. Yet, it goes to show you that when people are against equal and civil rights for any group, they will find a reason to attack it’s leaders purely out of hate and without any “justifiable reasoning”.
The whole notion of feminists hating men, was created by those who oppose feminism.
I suspect it hasn’t been shut down because even idiots have the right to free speech. (Although I’m wondering about when it crosses the line into hate speech.) What I would love to see, though, is every one of those trolls outed–names and photos. That way THEY could “stand up for what they really believe in” and WE could know who to avoid like the plague they are.
Unfortunately, they’re cowards, and wouldn’t dare go public with that kind of crap under their real names. Their mothers might find out.
I used to blog and I was targetted by MRAs. I was seventeen and they had posted this book on scribd about how women shouldn’t be allowed to vote, drive, etc. And really, I just commented saying their views were awful and offensive. They accused me of “hating free speech”, then promptly deleted my comment. So I posted a blog about it and left another comment noting the irony of them saying I was antifree speech while deleting my comment. They told me that if I had the balls, I’d come on their message board and debate them. Well, considering it was their message board and website and doing so would not only give them access to personal info and would give them moderator editing rights over my posts, I said no. Instead, I invited them to debate me on an independent forum where neither of us would have editing/deletion advantages. They declined and trolled my blog, saying no woman ever did anything except look pretty and fart out babies. I had friends and fans of the blog come out and argue with them, pointing out flaws in their claims. They photoshopped images from my social media account. Their stuff is really unbelievable. They’ll take anything and turn it into the most insane crap you can imagine. Like, I posted a blog saying I was pissed at my english teacher, typical teenager stuff, but very innocuous. Stuff like, “teacher messed up project, planning vengeance through rubber spider LOL”. They told me they were going to inform the FBI of a “violent potential school shooter”. They tried to find every social media profile I had and leave comments about how my refusal to debate them proved that “women are too stupid to do anything.” But that was tame. Then they started trolling my friends and wrote things on my blog/social media sits like, “I love the idea of Wendy getting the feminist hypocrisy raped out of her”, etc. My parents started getting worried. I eventually had to abandon the blog because they were worried about violence. And even after I stopped posting, months later I’d still find new emails, comments on other social media platforms of them calling me an idiot hypocrite bitch who should be stabbed and raped. These sickos really go all out. And they will target anyone.
Just….no words..that is just a nightmarish experience.
I hope you still have your blog, because these f*ckers were just trying to silence you through harassment and intimidation. Don’t let them get the best of you.
That sounds like a terrible experience and is exactly the reason why I don’t blog although I would like too.
Escpecially as in Germany we are required by law to give our full name and adress on our blogs.
That begins to sound like a good law. I’ll bet you don’t get a lot of homegrown trolls in Germany.
What is wrong with people?
Someone I follow online had that experience recently. She posted on her own blog about MRAs and they took images of her and set up a thread in which they photoshopped her being raped and tortured. And then they sent her the link.
The head of A Voice For Men also posted an article recently saying he didn’t care how strong the evidence was, he would always vote to acquit if he ever did jury service on any rape case, and any self-respecting man would do the same, because most of the time it’s all lies and he thinks men should refuse to engage in the process at all. By, you know – engaging in the process so they can acquit rapists.
It’s all mealymouthed bullsh-t. The truth is, he wants men to get away with rape, because he hates women.
I believe that some women are trolled, because these men are afraid of them; not to mention that they show every indication of being psychologically unhinged.
Wow…just SMH.
They’re trolling. This is a non story. You can bet for the few people who claimed nudes or insulted Emma there were a bunch more calling these people idiots. Emma is loved on 4chan. The entire situation is just trolls baiting because of the recent feminist attacks and gamergate controversy that’s been boiling over lately. It’s easy pickings on 4chan right now. Bring up feminism and you’ll automatically start a huge debate that can get you banned.
We love ya, Emma. Thanks for speaking out.
I do not understand MRA trolls. They make no sense. They bitch and moan about women not boning them, and then in the same breath, call women whores for being sexual. YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS AND YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE IT EITHER WAY YOU ARE CRAZY.
Typical case of the Madonna–whore complex. The guys want to sleep (and often cheat) around but their girlfriends better be innocent virgins who would never want sex with anybody else.
These men should be castrated, or all women should turn them down. No one deserves to have sex with monsters.
They’re always cranky at what they can’t have. Of course it’s the woman’s fault for not wanting them, not that they’re hateful neckbeardy losers.
Emma is brave enough to show her face and speak for her beliefs. These trolls are completely ball-less to do all their hating in front of the computer with anonymity protecting them. If you put a face to these COWARDS, they would never have the guts to stand onstage and speak against women.
Wouldn’t it be funny to put each man separately in a room full of strong and powerful women. (lunchtime)!
LOL!
@jammypants, I would like to believe that but just a few months ago, five male Supreme Court justices proudly signed their names to a 60 page decision limiting women access to medically necessary health care without a single paragraph in those 60 pages discussing the women’s health issues affected by their decision. Two years ago, I watched as my representative in the US Senate refused to answer a debate question about why he voted against equal pay for equal work and instead accused his opponent of negative attacks on him. I was supposed to believe he knew what was best for me because his wife loved him. And I was one of those women in Romney’s “binders full of women.” And then there were all those comments about “real rape” and defensive uteruses. Men do stand up in public forums and take actions against women and say horrible things against women and when they do so, they empower those like 4chan.
Well-said @lilacflowers!
Thanks, Sunflower. As a follow-up, that Senator is now my FORMER Senator. We tossed him out and replaced him with a woman.
This….sadly…so sadly….this a thousand times. And some women still vote for these people.
Can someone explain to me the difference between Emma’s definition of Feminism and Egalitarianism. My understanding of Feminism is that it is a movement whose purpose is to advance the women’s rights politically, socially, and economically in order to make them equal to men. Maybe the underlying issue with feminism is the name and not the ideology. The term is exclusionary and maybe the reason some associate Feminism with man-hating.
Egalitarianism is the belief that all people are fundamentally equal.
Feminism points out that we’re not there yet.
+1,000,000
I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to repeat your comment everywhere I can.
But Egalitarianism also advocates for the removal of inequalities among people, so it is more than just a belief. If you are advocating for the removal of inequalities then you are acknowledging that there are inequalities and that they need to be fixed in order to achieve equality. Wouldn’t an Egalitarian association and a Feminist association be fighting for similar things?
I wouldn’t have thought supporting the entertainment or fashion industries would be a particularly good way to fight sexism. In fact you could argue that every ticket you buy to a Hollywood movie is providing material support to sexism.
Lol good point
That’s an excellent point. I agree.
Tom Hiddleston has started a campaign today in support of Emma Watson, on twitter, posting a lovely twitter pic of himself with curly hair, holding a card with a written message. #heforshe
He has also said some nice things about Emma. #crush#
sorry guys, but it is a worthy name drop, me thinks, in support of Emma’s speech. I hope the young girls out there who follow her take note. They need decent role model or two.
And that is the point of Emma’s campaign: that men should support gender equality because it makes the world a better place for everyone.
wow such a load of shaming language from idiots on here. 4chan is nothing to do with men’s rights groups and since you posted all this feminist victimology clap trap, you will find the 4chan spoof was done by a marketing outlet, thus showing what morons you really are , can;t wait to jump on that victim bandwagon can you.
Whose scared? YOU ARE that’s why you are so desperate of men’s rights exposing your lies over and over.