Reactions against hashtag #NotAllMen

Reacting to reports of mass molestation on New Year’s Eve in Bengaluru in India, despite huge police presence, a hashtag #NotAllMen started trending on social media. Men in India used the hashtag saying that not all men are rapists. However women and a few men were angry that the hashtag was trending.

#YesAllMen - The hashtag started trending in response to #NotAllMen.

Krishna S Jha: “The Bengaluru incident just proves the age old saying that girls say “All Men are Same”. Absolutely shameful. First they distinguish between boys and girls and then leave their creepy kids with creepy mentality on the street’s to molest and harass women. And this #Notallmen is a farce, leave that to the women out there to decide.”

Hena Faqurudheen: “What do the #NotAllMen-ers want? A medal for being decent human beings? Because there is no conceivable reason you should be hijacking a conversation women are trying to have about their safety and rape culture with your useless hashtag. Are men so self-absorbed that they think everything is about them? Because when women talk about feeling oppressed or unsafe, they’re not attacking men, they’re attacking rape culture and patriarchy which are not gender-specific. Do men think their super defensive response to anyone complaining of being sexually harassed by a man is the solution to this humongous problem?”

Siddhant Bajpai: “First you’ll be groped, mistreated and molested, then we’ll make a hashtag and say that not everyone is same because your comments hurt our masculinity.

Now let me also put up a couple hashtags, because I am a man. And that’s all we do to counter women abuse these days.

#NotAllMen #BengaluruShame.”

Zinia Kar: “Every single woman knows that not all men want to hurt her, just as every single woman knows that at least one man has. That gives her the prerogative to be angry, to tweet about it, to talk about it, and to worry about being hurt by other men. That’s it. That’s all women are doing, including when they’re tweeting about the Bengaluru incident.

Then why are random men trying to prove their sainthood because they’ve never raped anyone? Even in a conversation that has nothing to do with them, they want to make sure everyone knows they haven’t ever raped or groped anyone. What they don’t understand is that literally no one cares about that.”

Ajay Kumar: “God you know what’s messed up? A bunch of actual people get molested on a public street in Bengaluru on New Years Eve and all we can talk about is how there are some good people and how there are some bad people.

Hello no! That’s not how it works. I’m a Man. I walk on the road. No one tries to molest me. So yeah. Instead of a #NotAllMen hashtag. It should be a #YesAllMen right? Because we are the ones collectively responsible for ourselves at the end of the day. We fuel this culture. We measure our self worth in terms of our sexuality and that’s a culture re-enforced by us not women. We make women objects that we have to acquire in order to feel good about ourselves. It starts in school and translates in life.

So yeah it’s #YesAllMen. It’s us at every bar, every night club, every public space where we go “bird watching”, single, married, divorced or too sick to be carried. We’ve created this toxic culture where women are like bikes. Things that we are just supposed to have. Is it a wonder if after a few drinks some morons thought they were entitled to try and pick up a bike? So yeah. #YesAllMen have reduced women to bikes and cars. #YesAllMen have reduced women to accessories that they hang on their arms and never talk to. #YesAllMen have made women pictures they put in a frame.

What happened on NYE in Bangalore should make us feel ashamed of ourselves as men. But no. Let’s go and beat our chests and tell ourselves we are better than them. No we aren’t man. We are just as much a part of the problem. If we don’t acknowledge that problem, there’s no way we are going to fix it.”

Pingal Khan Bhaduri: “I think time has actually come Ajay Kumar when we apologise publicly for belonging to the part of the species called Indian men. Hashtags do not mean anything in reality but if it does symbolically then let us make a hashtag #Sorryweareindianmen. Of course there is collective responsibility as it is our collective responsibility to make half of our population (the more civilised and decent half by any stretch of imagination) feel safe in their own country.”

Sanitary Panels: “So angry that #NotAllMen is trending on Twitter in response to women in Bangalore being molested on the streets. How is that the first thing men think of responding with, when what we need is acknowledgement of and dialogue on sexual violence, misogyny, and deep rooted patriarchy?”