Comic about discussions of sexism on the internet provokes anti-feminist backlash, proves its own point

This past weekend, I was forwarded this comic about discussions of sexism on the internet. Perhaps you’ve already seen it too—apparently it’s caused quite the sensation.

Now, when I read it (what’s pictured above is just the couple of panels), I laughed and nodded and made little sighs of agreement—and then my roommate and I immediately contacted the creator to request a high-quality poster version that we could frame and prominently display on our wall.

But others—in particular some men’s rights activists who were alerted to it—read it, flocked to the creator’s blog, and left hundreds of hateful, anti-feminist comments before the comments section was closed. They called the comic’s creator Gabby Schulz (who happens to be a dude, which is very cool in my opinion) all those lovely names they usually reserve for ladies who write something about sexism on the internet: bitch, cunt, dyke, feminazi.

As Gabby noted in an update after closing the comments, the reaction to the comic could not have illustrated its point more clearly. It was almost like an inadvertent performance piece.

“Most of all, thank you for replicating and thus validating my own comic’s meager thesis to an exponent higher than anyone could have ever deliberately orchestrated. If anyone out there was concerned as to the general health of sexism, misogyny, and general denseness in our world today, hopefully this chunk of pixels may stand as proof that, yeah, actually, that stuff is out there, doing its creepy, hateful, jurassic dance of dumb.”

Nonetheless, he ends on an optimistic note:

“BUT ALSO, I am very happy to report that these comments are also chock full of real-life dudes who actually, vocally are down with the concept that women are humans! This is an assurance I, for one, could not possibly hear enough, these dark, post-feminist days.”

Thanks to Gabby for stepping (perhaps unwittingly) into the shitstorm of misogynistic MRA crap on behalf of women all over the internet—and to all the dudes out there who buy into the crazy notion that women are humans and quietly live by that idea every single day.