The

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...

#NotAllMen is a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

. A shortening of the phrase "not all men are like that", sometimes abbreviated "NAMALT", it is a satirical

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of arguments used to deflect attention away from men in discussions of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...

, the

gender pay gap The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are Employment, employed. Women are generally found to be paid less than men. There are two distinct measurements of the pay gap: non ...

, and other feminist issues.

Origins and usage

Response to feminist discourse

The phrase "not all men are like that" has been in use online since the mid-2000s as a general defense of men. It was used as a catchphrase among

men's rights activists The men's rights movement (MRM) is a branch of the men's movement. The MRM in particular consists of a variety of groups and individuals known as men's rights activists (MRAs) who focus on social issues, such as specific government services, wh ...

(MRAs) in response to online discussions of

misogyny Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against Woman, women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than Man, men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been wide ...

or sexual abuse which they saw as blaming all men as perpetrators. Jess Zimmerman writes that before 2013, "not all men" was absent from discussions of popular derailment tactics used in response to feminist discourse; in its place were phrases such as what about the men?' and 'patriarchy hurts men too'—pleas for inclusion, not for exemption". Zimmerman also highlights a use of the phrase dating to 1985 in

Joanna Russ Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as '' How to Suppress Women's Writing'', as ...

's novel ''On Strike Against God'', where a character muses: Writing at ''

The Awl ''The Awl'' was a website about "news, ideas and obscure Internet minutiae of the day" based in New York City. Its motto was "Be Less Stupid." History Founded in April 2009 by David Cho and former ''Gawker'' editors Choire Sicha and Alex Balk ...

'', John Herrman lists additional uses of the phrase as far back as 1863. In

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' 1836 novel ''

The Pickwick Papers ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was the Debut novel, first novel serialised from March 1836 to November 1837 by English author Charles Dickens. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Bo ...

'', the character Miss Wardle says, "Men are such deceivers", to which another character replies, "They are, they are ..but not all men."

Popularization as a meme

Kelsey McKinney Kelsey McKinney (born ) is an American journalist, podcaster, and author. She is a staff writer at ''Defector'' and the founding host of ''Normal Gossip''. She previously wrote for ''Deadspin'' and ''Vox''. Early life and education McKinney ...

writes at '' Vox'' that the phrase "not all men" has been "reappropriated by feminists and turned into a meme meant to parody its pervasiveness and bad faith." Both the phrase and hashtag "#NotAllMen" have been used as a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

of defensive reactions by men. The first appearance of the meme in popular media was a satirical tweet by Shafiqah Hudson in 2013 that quickly

went viral Viral phenomena or viral sensations are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the te ...

: The following year, the phrase was added to an image of the

Kool-Aid man The Kool-Aid Man (sometimes referred to as the Kool-Aid Guy or Captain Kool-Aid or Big Thirst) is the official mascot for Kool-Aid, a brand of flavored drink mix. The character has appeared on television and in print advertising as a fun-loving, ...

crashing through a wall, a

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

page featured images in which a

speech bubble Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

with the phrase "not all men" was added to images from movies such as the shark from ''

Jaws Jaws or Jaw can refer to: Anatomy * Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth ** Mandible, the lower jaw Arts, entertainment, and media * Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker'' ...

'' and the chestburster from '' Alien'', and artist Matt Lubchansky created a

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

with the character "Not-All-Man", in which the "defender of the defended" and "voice for the voiceful" breaks through a glass window to interrupt a pink-haired woman complaining about men. The comic was retweeted and

reblog Reblogging (or, in Twitter parlance, retweeting (officially reposting since July 2023)) is the mechanism in blogging which allows users to repost the content of another user's post with an indication that the source of the post is another user. I ...

ged tens of thousands of times, and shared by celebrities including

Wil Wheaton Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film ''Stand by Me (film), Stand by Me'', ...

Paul F. Tompkins Paul Francis Tompkins (born September 12, 1968) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He worked in television on such programs as '' Mr. Show with Bob and David'', ''Real Time with Bill Maher'', and '' Best Week Ever'', later renamed ''Bes ...

Matt Fraction Matt Fritchman (born December 1, 1975), better known by the pen name Matt Fraction, is an American comic book writer, known for his work as the writer of '' The Invincible Iron Man'', '' FF'', '' The Immortal Iron Fist'', '' Uncanny X-Men'', an ...

, and

John Scalzi John Michael Scalzi II (born May 10, 1969) is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his ''Old Man's War'' series, three novels of which have been n ...

. Other #NotAllMen-related memes include references to

Aquaman Aquaman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 (November 1941). Initially a backup feature in DC's anthology titles ...

, ''

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward and co-produced by Frederator Studios for Cartoon Network. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn the Human, Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

'', and '' Magic: The Gathering''. A 2024 study published in '' Humanities and Social Sciences Communications '' analyzed comments on Reddit and Twitter and found a transformative use of the hashtag #NotAllMen, finding that there were women and men supporters of both perpetrators and victims of gender-based violence. Many men in social media call out sexism, violence and discrimination, a fact that many feminist women value because their aim is to join as many people as possible in the fight to end all gender violence.

2014 Isla Vista killings

#NotAllMen was already a Twitter hashtag before the

2014 Isla Vista killings Two misogynistic terror, misogynistic terrorist attacks occurred in Isla Vista, California, United States on the evening of May 23, 2014. 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others by gunshot, stabbing and vehicle ...

, but it gained additional traction after the event, because of the hatred against women expressed by the killer. In response to the "not all men" argument, an anonymous Twitter user created the hashtag #

YesAllWomen #YesAllWomen is a Twitter hashtag and social media campaign in which users share examples or stories of misogyny and violence against women. First used in online conversations about misogyny following the 2014 Isla Vista killings, the hashtag was ...

to express that all women are affected by sexism and

. This newly created hashtag was used by women to share their experiences of sexual discrimination and attacks on social media.Sources: * * * *

Bengaluru incident

After reports of a mass molestation occurring at India's

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

New Year's Eve celebration in 2017, #NotAllMen began trending on Twitter. This drew an angry reaction from women, with many Indian feminists and women strongly criticizing the hashtag while responding with their own hashtag #YesAllWomen.

References

External links

Postings to #NotAllMen
on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Origin on "NotAllMen
as gathered on

Storify Storify was a social network service that let the user create stories or timelines using social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Storify was launched in September 2010, and had been open to the public since April 2011. Storify was s ...

Not *all* men...
on

Feminism Men's rights Hashtags Internet memes introduced in the 2010s Internet memes introduced in 2013