The UCSB tragedy has led people worldwide to share experiences of misogyny and inequality on Twitter, leading to a new trending hashtag: #YesAllWomen.
In his final YouTube video, Elliot Rodger, the shooter who murdered six people, injured 13 and killed himself the night of May 25, 2014, said he had planned this attack as retribution for all of the women who had rejected him.
“You girls have never been attracted to me,” Rodger said in his last video. “I will punish you all for it. It’s an injustice … I don’t know what you don’t see in me. I’m the perfect guy, and yet you throw yourselves at these obnoxious men instead of me, the supreme gentleman.”
Once Rodger’s comments gained publicity following the murders, women quickly fired back, with such tweets as, “Things men don’t have to think about: pepper spray, rape whistles, stairwells, elevators, self defense classes, roofies #YesAllWomen” and “Bc I have been taught in school that if I’m wearing shorts, or my shoulders are showing I’m sending the wrong message to men #YesAllWomen.”
A day after the first #YesAllWomen tweets, more than 250,000 had been sent. According to hashtags.org, the hashtag has appeared in over 1.2 million tweets as of Monday.