The #YesAllWomen Tweets You Need to Read

This weekend, while some of us were grilling and relaxing, a revolution took place on Twitter.

In response to the tragic killings at Isla Vista this past Friday—in which 22-year-old Elliott Rodger went on a murderous rampage after recording a disturbing YouTube manifesto blaming women for rejecting him—Twitter users began sharing their own experiences with misogyny using the hashtag #YesAllWomen.

The hashtag’s wording was in response to the phrase “Not all men,” an internet trope, found on community forums and comment threads and every social media platform when stories about violence against women break. The argument is in the phrasing: Not all men are responsible for the lunatic actions of a few abusers, the commenters point out.

The “not all men” comment misses the point, which is one that the #YesAllWomen hashtag roundly enforces. Though not every man may be responsible for the kind of violent misogyny that drove Rodger, every woman has encountered sexism in their lives. It is an atmosphere that we all live in, men and women alike. Which is why, over the weekend, the hashtag #YesAllWomen became an incredibly moving thing to read through. It offers a collection of examples from hundreds of women (and several men) who face misogyny every day. The real power of the tweets is in their numbers. But below are some of particularly moving examples:

— Ashley Ford (@iSmashFizzle) May 25, 2014