The #FeministsAreUgly hashtag on Twitter confuses and frustrates some of the internet's most dedicated feminist-haters

Not actual feminist

#FeministsAreUgly is confusing a lot of people, misogynists included. The Twitter hashtag – which took off yesterday and is still going strong, if not quite so strong, today – was originally started not by misogynistic trolls but by two feminists, @LilyBolorian and @Cheuya, who intended the hashtag to be a way for feminist women to celebrate their own beauty, whether it conformed to conventional (and generally white-centric) standards or not. As Bolorian put it,

For women, particularly of color, owning our appearance is a radical act. I'm about any space to celebrate our bodies. #FeministsAreUgly

— Lily Bolourian (@LilyBolourian) August 7, 2014

Please tweet your sexiness under #FeministsAreUgly

— Lily Bolourian (@LilyBolourian) August 7, 2014

Women responded at once by doing just that, and the hashtag was quickly flooded by feminist selfies. This being the internet, it was also flooded with comments from misogynists and trolls. Given how many of the latter were posted, many feminists on Twitter initially assumed it was just another outburst of internet misogyny; it took a little while before the feminist origins of the hashtag became widely known.

So how did the devoted antifeminists of the manosphere and the Men’s Rights movement react to the hashtag? Some responded with unabashed glee. The regulars on Roosh V’s forum reposted the selfies of some in women posting in the #FeministsAreUgly hashtage, mocking them as fat, lazy “cunts.”

One commenter offered this helpful observation:

A lot of fat crazy feminists are also obviously on heavy psych meds. One of the tell tale signs is volatile temperment and grandiose delusions. The weight gain is often a side effect of some of the drugs. So next time you run into some fat cunt spouting feminist rhetoric just keep in mind she could literally be crazy (bipolar) too.

Another waxed conspiratorial:

Feminist women are trying to turn themselves Idols to be worshiped.

It all ties into the writings of Alice Bailey and Madame Helena Blavatsky.

But elsewhere in the misogynistic online subculture sometimes called the manosphere the responses were a tad more complicated and conflicted.

On the Red Pill subreddit, the hashtag seemed mainly to make the regulars angry. A fellow calling himself MajorStyles won himself some upvotes for a comment complaining that

these bitches have gained control of the media for the past 40 years. Enough is enough. They have desecrated the moral landscape of this country to a barely recognizable wasteland. Fat tattooed harpies who shit on men of value.

Time to call them on their shit.

Over in the Men’s Rights subreddit, the regulars were wary, many of them afraid that the hashtag was some sort of sneaky feminist trap to make them look bad … I guess by luring them into posting what they really thought?

Among the assorted antifeminists I follow or otherwise encounter on Twitter, there were two basic responses. Some flatly declared that yes, feminists are ugly:

Pout, stammer your feet, throw tantrums and protest all u want, fat will never be beautiful. #feministsareugly

— Aaron Clarey (@aaron_clarey) August 8, 2014

Which ones the boyfriend?? #FeministsAreUgly pic.twitter.com/6WID9Bl029

— The Anti-Feminist (@FemsHaveBallz) August 8, 2014

Others, a bit more circumspect, suggested that the real problem is that feminists are ugly on the inside.

Pretty selfies will not cover up your rotten soul. #feministsareugly

— Redd Fields (@ReddFields) August 8, 2014

The truth is, if a feminist screams that they aren't physically ugly in #FeministsAreUgly, that is probably the ONLY part that is not ugly

— Nephanor PhD AndN (@Nephanor) August 8, 2014

I'm very disappointed in the #FeministsAreUgly hashtag, because it ignores the reality that even the attractive ones are unpleasant.

— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) August 8, 2014

A Voice for Men “Honey Badger” Hanna Wallen tried to have it both ways, posting a Dworkin joke aimed at a feminist who, like Dworkin, has dark curly hair, followed by a series of earnest and often incomprehensible tweets trying to prove that feminists (including me, specifically) have ugly souls.

Hey, #FeministsAreUgly, how are those selfies Dworkin for ya? http://t.co/d4RRgGXmT7 #WomenAgainstFeminism #feminismisawful

— H*nnah W*llen (@Oneiorosgrip) August 8, 2014

The way their rhetoric inflicts stupidity on women is one reason why #FeministsAreUgly https://t.co/Ruz8kh8IPK

— H*nnah W*llen (@Oneiorosgrip) August 8, 2014

I can only imagine how tough it’s been for MRAs to read through this hashtag. MRAs constantly attack feminists as fat and ugly; feminist women who aren’t fat are accused of having “manjaws” or other allegedly unflattering features. But many MRAs are also vaguely aware that constantly attacking their opponents as a bunch of uggos doesn’t exactly seem very statesmanlike. And so, many MRAs bite their tongues.

It’s tough being a men’s human rights activist. Sometimes they have to pretend that their opponents are actually human too.