Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

I'm currently writing an article about the #shirtstorm trend.
I've seen countless articles on the event. If you don't know what is it about, please google it. I mean, I'm a feminist, I really am, but a man was bullied because he wore a shirt with half-naked women on it while doing a public conference about the Philae landing. The shirt was sewed by one of his female friends for his birthday.

Many twitter from women blamed him of sexism, of making women fleeing the STEM tech industry and everything. Doesn't that ring any bell? Seriously, this is bullying at its finest, to the point in which that guy apologized lived on tv, breaking down in tears. This is not sexism. This is just poor taste of attire for a public appearance but not sexism. Blaming someone for wearing a shirt he loves with women in lingerie in it is not fucking different from blaming a girl for wearing a miniskirt.

What is so wrong with twitter? Why is it so full of bullies?

I'm really confused by this as well. The thing that really makes it odd is that people say this shit on social media, which usually has their real name and various pictures of themselves as well as other important personal information. Which makes me think that because their profile is a representation of themselves, they have to make it front and foremost that they don't like certain things and also have the power to hate and rant on anyone and anything they don't agree on.
Now on the subject of bullying over the shirt, I find it absolutely idiotic. I mean do you see men getting furious over the various shirtless men that are seen on advertising and posters? No you don't. The only thing that would make this way past brain dead level of ignorance would be women trying to cover up or destroy classics art that depicts women in the nude.

Never mind that you're a trained professional and you've just committed a miracle of science, your shirt choice is what really matters and the mostly male PC Shame Brigade will tear you down because of it. I think the irony behind twitter is the irony behind most of modern technological society: it's an impossibly advanced and awesome feat of engineering that's used for the most regressive, primitive, and disgusting behavior possible.

I believe the way twitter works makes it a perfect platform to say stupid/hostile stuff. By making it so that you post whatever comes to your mind in a couple of short sentences without really thinking about exactly what you are writing or its implications, it brings out the dumbest/worst on people. Going to twitter is also a great way to kill the admiration you have for your heroes.

You can thank internet anonymity for that, not that I'm against it or anything

Chicks and dudes trying to popular with chicks were talking shit about a science nerd, sounds familiar somehow….

@Preston

But it's Twitter. It's not entirely anonymous either. Some people do this with their personal photo's in them

I believe this effect is similar, but slightly different from the typical trolling you see in Youtube comments, where people just spout really rude opinions and don't give it any thought. Or say things just to be mean because they know they can

The difference, I believe, is these are people who think they are doing something right. They think they are justified to seek out anything that could possibly offend them and attack people who do things they do not approve of. Like internet feminism police.

But it is still bullying. They just don't recognize their own hyper-aggression, blinded by a passion to fight for a common good.

[edit]

Looking at some of the tweets. This is just pettiness at it's best

Pretty much every major social network or forum can be a haven for bullying, especially ones with really big userbases like Youtube (A few hours ago i saw a Skyrim machinima there and on the comments a guy asked how he did it, then another guy out of nowhere just called him an idiot), or Facebook where i've seen pages dedicated exclusively to posting racist or even borderline illegal stuff to offend people.

Doesn't help that (At least on Youtube from what i know) the moderation system operates on a quantity basis, to explain it easily, the stuff that gets more often reported is more likely to be taken care of, and i don't exactly recall many cases of that happening on Facebook.

The best solution is to stay away of those places IMO, nowadays i just go on Facebook for chatting with friends, i have a Twitter account but i don't use it at all (Mainly because i don't understand the UI ^^…) and i rarely comment on Youtube.

As for the shirt, it's got to be one of the most pointless controversies i've seen, it was just an excuse for feminists to rack up some page views on their sites and blogs.

I mean, i'll be honest i haven't seen the interview so excuse my ignorance but did the reporters on-site even comment on his shirt? because it would already be on the page if it did.