RESEARCHER: Jonathan Bishop has been researching misandry and misogyny on Twitter and finds feminists are trolled because of their misandry. Courtesy: Steve Powderhill Photography.
Feminism is out of control. That is the conclusion of multimedia studies researcher, Jonathan Bishop, who has been researching misogyny and misandry on social media websites over the last year.
Jonathan Bishop presented initial findings to the Oxford Cyber Harassment Symposium in Oxford in March 2014, and is expected to present research to two international conferences this summer. “My research has found that people who post chauvinistic messages to the likes of Caroline Criado-Perez are not doing so because they are sexist, but because they despise misandry,” he said. “The people who trolled Caroline Criado-Perez were women as well as men, and their gripe with feminists like her is that they are anti-men, which is totally intolerable in today’s climate of equality.
“It was the view of trolls that Caroline Criado-Perez was misandrist by calling for less men on banknotes, and this sexism was evident in the wake of Ann Maguire’s killing, where Caroline Criado-Perez posted messages attacking men.”
Bishop’s comments come as Oxford Union president Ben Sullivan is cleared of allegations of rape. According to Bishop, the conduct of feminists assuming Sullivan was guilty, before he had the chance to prove his innocence, should explain to them why they are being trolled by men and women alike. “The letter sent about Ben Sullivan, calling on him to resign in name of a so-called ‘push for equality,’ was totally out of order,” Bishop said. “It was signed by Caroline Criado-Perez and fellow feminist Laurie Penny without a shred of evidence to support their allegations.
“If radical and out of control feminists like Caroline Criado-Perez and Laurie Penny want to be left alone by trolls, then they should start treating all men and women as equals, rather than fighting a false crusade against men that should be confined to the 1930s.”
Bishop is due to present his research to 11th International Conference on Web Based Communities and Social Media 2014, between 17 and 19 July 2014, and also at the 2014 International Conference on Security and Management, between 21 and 24 July 2014.