About

#MessageToFeminists is a YouTube hashtag campaign encouraging anti-feminist vloggers to direct video messages toward feminists to promote meaningful debate and discourage remaining in their respective echo chambers.

Origin

On May 18th, 2016, YouTuber That Guy T uploaded a video titled "#MessageToFeminists Challenge," in which he announced a challenge for vloggers to create video messages directed toward feminists in order to encourage civilized debate (shown below).

Challenge Rules:
1) Present a one sentence video message directed towards feminists
2) Add “#MessageToFeminists Challenge” into the video title.
3) Link to the channel of the person that challenged you in the description box (if applicable).
4) List 5 people who you are challenging & post links to their channels as well.
5) Copy and paste this template.

Spread

On May 20th, YouTuber Bearing uploaded a response to That Guy T's video, in which he asks feminists to "name a right that they think men have that they lack" (shown below, left). The same day, YouTuber SugarTits uploaded another response video, which criticized feminists for blaming all men's social issues on the patriarchy (shown below, right).

On May 23rd, YouTuber Sargon of Akkad uploaded a video using the #MessageToFeminists hashtag, which urged feminists to "stop being so hateful" and to "take responsibility" for themselves (shown below, left). The following day, YouTuber ShoeOnHead uploaded a #MessageToFeminists video in which she encouraged feminists to have an "open dialogue" with those who hold opposing political beliefs (shown below, right). Within one week, the video gained over 178,000 views and 2,000 comments. Meanwhile, a thread about the hashtag was submitted to the International Skeptics Forum.^[4]

Also on May 24th, YouTuber Theryn Meyer uploaded a video titled "#MessageToFeminists: On Trans Female Privilege," which discusses the privileges she experienced since transitioning to become a trans woman (shown below, left). On May 31st, YouTuber Julie Borowski uploaded a #MessageToFeminists video which called for feminists to stop dismissing women who disagree with them as having "internalized misogyny" and to refrain from using debunked statistics. On June 1st, Redditor AmiroZ submitted a post asking about the campaign to the /r/OutOfTheLoop^[1] subreddit.

Search Interest

External References