Mysogyny forums – it’s time to end now

ON Friday, May 23 this year, a man — identified by police as Elliot Rogers — went on a relentless killing spree in California, killing six people and leaving seven others severely injured.
It was a crime that shocked the nation — but perhaps even more horrifyingly so when police heard the reasons he claimed to have done it.
22-year-old Elliot had a secret passion which he shares with, thankfully, a rare breed of men (ones I am fortunate not to have come across) — the hatred of women.
Before he carried out the alleged mass murder, he made a Youtube video spouting his fury over being rejected by young, attractive females.
And as further investigations were made, it was discovered he had a direct link to men’s rights activism websites, ones where mysogynists posted rants in forums how they hated ‘sluts’ who had rejected them also.
However, the most disturbing thing about this, was the fact that every woman I know has encountered a mysogynist at some point.
From the beginning of time, women have been verbally and physically attacked — called lewd names, hissed at, intimidated — simply for being female.
Feminism is still sneered at to this day — women part of the movement are still thought of as hairy, man-hating loonatics who burn their bras and demand fair pay.
This week I came across a sickening trend online — JadaPose — where social media users take pictures of themselves in the same position of an alleged rape victim, ridiculing the person and sharing it with others.
It stems from a case where the teenager, named Jada, from Ohio was allegedly raped while incapacitated by alcohol and awoke the next morning to find pictures and posts of herself, naked and unconscious, being mocked.

A feminist who posed to support Jada, rather than mock her

Sadly, Jada’s case isn’t unique. We hear stories almost daily how women are roped into sending provocative images of themselves to boyfriends, only for them to end up in the public eye, where they are then humiliated and blamed.
Why are these forums, which glorify violence and hatred against women, still in existence?
And why, with today’s technology, does online bullying and trolling against women still even go on?
That’s why I’m glad an online campaign group, named End Mysogyny, has been launched to put an end to every day sexism.
A line must be drawn. It’s about time these things weren’t just ‘laughed off’ or expected.
It is something that will probably never end, but they should at least no longer be justified.