Users of 4chan and other sundry men’s rights activists claim to have duped feminists into making the hashtag #PissForEquality trend on Twitter.
There’s only one problem: No feminists actually participated.
The alleged ‘success’ for #PissForEquality appears to be a hoax orchestrated by MRAs themselves. The earliest trace of this effort can be seen in a screengrab from a 4chan thread, plotting to see just how low they could get feminists to go to prove a commitment to gender equality. The peeing oneself aspect is apparently a nod to stories rape victims often tell about waking up to soiled clothing.
https://imgur.com/gallery/eH94qfU
“What if we somehow get Tumbler tards to publicly piss/shit their pants in the name of ‘Equality’?” the top of the thread reads. From there, other users enthusiastically chimed in. “Potential is radiating from this post,” one wrote.
On October 2nd, tweets started to appear with the #PissForEquality hashtag from accounts with female names and avatars.
https://twitter.com/Jamie_Jones11/status/649872892218376192
soiling yourself to show support for rape victims that soil them when they are raped unconscious #Pissforequality pic.twitter.com/U7pVAm3Cw4
— Brittranny Cena (@BrittrannyCenA) October 2, 2015
The photo below, being circulated in a number of related tweets, is actually from a January post on a woman’s personal blog called Jellyfish Station. The picture is included with the caption “The unfortunate wash on my jeans makes it look like I’ve wet my pants.”
https://twitter.com/JFletler/status/649880050553106432
This tweet in particular has been widely shared on Twitter (and Instagram) as the example of these men really pulling one over on the feminists:
sooooo heres my support for #pissforequality please join this cause it means a lot to me and others who’ve suffered pic.twitter.com/ZCmjRtAo7N
— Casey Green (@meeecaseygreen) October 2, 2015
But if you look back at the accounts supposedly tweeting the hashtag in earnest, three of them (including the one of the pink pants) were created on October 2nd, and one only goes back to September 14th.
Weird how almost every “stupid feminist” tweeting photos on the #PissForEquality hashtag created her account Oct. 2. Nice try, GG.
— Lauren O’Neil (@laurenonline) October 5, 2015
The “GG” referenced in the tweet above stands for “Gamergate,” the anti-feminist movement that caused an Internet holy war in the fall of 2014.
But despite the evidence that #PissForEquality was a hoax, that didn’t stop anti-feminist sites like Infowars from writing about it in earnest. They claimed “Feminists on Twitter have fallen for a troll campaign created by 4chan which encouraged women to post photos of themselves peeing their pants in the name of ‘equality’ under the hashtag #PissForEquality,” adding:
“The sheer hilarity of social justice warriors being so gullible as to fall for such an obvious troll again illustrates how leftists are so desperate to engage in ‘virtue signaling’ that they will literally piss themselves and put photos of it on Twitter to try and earn ‘progressive’ social brownie points.”
Right Wing News also proclaimed “Feminists fall for hoax campaign, PEE on themselves.”
And Twitter users shared the hashtag with glee:
#PissForEquality is a thing. Good job 4chan LOL
— Yanothan Ulitarian (@UncleYanUli) October 6, 2015
People actually believed #pissforequality was real hahahaha
— What the s (@YungJacobG) October 7, 2015
Whoever started #PissforEquality
— Nat_401 (@nat_401) October 7, 2015
I thank you from the bottom of my heart
But with a hoax so easily debunked, the joke’s on them. If someone tries to convince you that feminists wet their pants for equality, you can tell them to piss off.
Image via Twitter.com/Kathy_Viveros
