As a feminist who is very involved in the process of social media activism, I am no stranger to harassment and hate. However, the hashtag ‘Feminismisadisease’ is something I had never come across until I set up a Twitter account. It is quite a confronting statement and is often paired with the hashtag ‘feminismiscancer’.
Disturbingly, many of the posts under this hashtag actually used it in a literal sense, some users even going as far as comparing Feminism to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“Also like Covid-19, Feminism has high levels of morbidity, with the majority of its sufferers being asymptomatic – that is, many who are afflicted do not exhibit the classic signs of the infection. In other words, many women hold feminist notions without even being aware of it.”
– Zigato Charles
From what I can see the hashtag is mainly prominent on the platforms Twitter and Facebook with an occasional occurrence on Instagram. While some posts with this hashtag seemed to be fueled by a general disdain for women and feminism with no deeper motive other than misogyny; There was a recurring theme of the hashtag being used in relation to political agendas and religious beliefs.
Who uses this hashtag the most?
Using the program ‘PhantomBuster’ a scrape of the top 25 posts under the hashtag ‘Feminismisadisease’ on both Twitter and Instagram revealed some interesting data.
Gender Breakdown of top 25 users under #feminismisadisease
Shockingly, a vast number of women were found to be the perpetrators of this hashtag. Further analysis revealed almost all of the women in the top 25 that posted under this hashtag have identified on their accounts that they are American Citizens, Trump supporters and/or religious. I found a common theme of internalised patriarchal ideology manifesting in their social media posts, especially in regards to stereotypical gender roles as shown in the tweet below:
Judging by the user’s profiles of the people who post under this hashtag It is pretty clear this hashtag is dominated by conservative, American, males. Also, the seemingly ‘anonymous’ platforms don’t leave much room for imagination in terms of gender with usernames such as: ‘@girlsaregarbage’.
What associations is it linked to?
On Twitter, this hashtag had an association with the ‘Men going their own way’ (#MGTOW) movement. The MGTOW movement, which exists mainly online, essentially condones a radical separatist ideology built on misogynistic and anti-feminist beliefs. It is a movement where men, swear off women in terms of sexual relations and believe feminism is society’s downfall. While there were limited tweets with both hashtags, considering the ideology of the MGTOW movement it can be assumed they relate to the ‘FeminismisaDisease’ hashtag.
In the tweet above you can also see the hashtag ‘RedPill’ which is a reference to the hit movie ‘The Matrix’. In the film, taking the red pill revealed the truth about the world, not the reality that had been fabricated. The line “Take the red pill” was seized by Men’s Rights Activists
(MRA) forums online and developed into a petty plea for society to see the “truth” that white men are in fact the ones facing oppression.
In addition to this, the hashtag ‘feminismisadisease’ seemed to have a strong correlation to conservative America and Donald Trump –
Conservative Hashtags frequently seen with #feminismisadisease include:
- #MAGA – (Make America Great Again)2
- #Libtards
- #AmericaFirst
- #LiberalismIsAMentalDisorder
#Feminismisadisease and Religion
Through my analysis, it was evident a lot of the users were religious. The main religion I noticed under this hashtag on all platforms was Christianity.
“From a spiritual perspective, feminism is an illness premised on a demonic possession that crafts layer upon layer of lies and illusions, so as to build a gross untruth and usurp/overturn every order and principle God has laid down.”
– Zigato Charles
This is part of a caption from a post on Facebook under the hashtag ‘Feminismisadisease’. It was written by a Christian man and in his post, he compares Feminism to the COVID-19 pandemic claiming it is a ‘virus’. He conveniently attaches a list of statements and says if you agree with any you have clearly been ‘infected’.
Some of these statements include:
- “If you think abortion is about women having rights over their bodies, or that female empowerment is about women dressing any way they want, behaving like sluts, or not closing their legs when you sit down, you have been infected by the virus of feminism.”
- “If you claim to be a Christian, but find it difficult to accept the scriptural fact that women shouldn’t preach in churches, and you come up with all manner of excuses to justify your rebellion, you are definitely infected with the virus of feminism.”
- “If scriptural statements like – “woman was made for man”, or telling women to submit to their husbands sounds misogynistic to you, but saying men should love their wives does not sound misandrist, you are infected with the virus of feminism.”
Similarly, in an Instagram post, devoted Christian Stacee Kameya (@fruitofherhandsp31) used the hashtag to discuss “the poisonous effect feminism has had on both society and Christianity”
I find it interesting that the wording used by both of these religious users suggests they view feminism as a physical disease. The terms ‘infect’ and ‘poison’ are almost used in a literal sense instead of figuratively or sarcastically as seen in most other captions under the hashtag e.g –
The implication of hate speech under #feminismisadisease
While I was investigating this hashtag I came across some pretty disturbing and scary things. As a feminist myself my micro-level experience of interacting with this hashtag is an indication of the implications that can arise from anti-feminist and anti-women hashtags such as ‘feminismisadisease.’
One of the main categories that users’ posts fell under was ‘hate speech and misogyny‘. The comments, some made years ago, were vindictive and still made me feel unsafe even though there was no way the user could physically harm me;
“And lastly, if one happen to be verbally attacked by feminists, dont panic, and don’t just simply retreat. In fact, the best course of action is to piss them off even more and watch them menstruating thru their face-hole. Just tell them to shove a phallic object down their throat, preferably one’s own phallus…”
– Ashraf Sahdan
How fkn pretentious and up your own ass can you be, and girls wonder why they’re inferior to men
– Em Anuel#feminismisadisease
The implications of comments such as this cannot be understated. In one comment a man has perpetuated the patriarchal belief that males are above females, in the other, another man encourages sexual violence and rape culture. Furthermore, by Facebook and other media outlets not taking this ‘hate speech‘ down, they are condoning the behaviour of these users and allowing the cycle of oppression of women to continue.
Is it legal?
Technically, yes.
Unlike the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, which specifies and prohibits hate speech on the basis of race, there is no such protection granted to people who experience hate speech based on their gender.
Unfortunately, we must wait for the Australian government to get with the times.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the hashtag ‘feminismisadisease’ is a perpetrator of misogyny and patriarchal ideology in our society. The hashtag attacks the whole movement of feminism and promotes both toxic femininity and masculinity which can be extremely harmful to those who happen to witness the content. A shocking amount of women have been found to use this hashtag and it is often to bring down other women and glorify traditional gender roles. It is clear this hashtag is a vessel for gendered hate speech and radical MRA ideology, as well as a platform for Republicans to enforce their extreme political and religious views that set women’s rights back decades.
Max Fraser 
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