There are some Twitter threads that leave you wishing you could have five minutes of your life back, and then there are Twitter threads like the one put out there by @sswyrs that manage to sum up the experience of literally every single woman alive.
It began when she relayed being in the room when her boss made a rude comment about a woman’s profile on LinkedIn.
[Thread] My boss made a comment today along the line of "I don't get how women can complain about how they get treated when they do sh^t like this." I turned around and to see what he was talking about, and he was looking at a thumbnail of a profile pic of a woman on LinkedIn.
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
She was a nice looking woman – it was a head and shoulders shot of her wearing a grey t-shirt and smiling at the camera. It was as generic as you could get, which is what LinkedIn likes for profile pictures. I was totally baffled and said "sh^t like… what?"
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
To @sswyrs credit, and our eternal gratitude, she did not turn away but instead decided to have the courage to confront misogyny where it sneered behind its computer screen.
He clicked on it to open it full-size, like he thought I just wasn't seeing it well enough and said "This!"
I said "Taking selfies?"
He said "Taking selfies like THAT."I was still absolutely f*cking lost, so I asked him to explain.
He said "Just, like, sl*tty pictures."
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
For what? Taking selfies?
“Taking selfies like that.”
Too many of us would have let it go. Would have rolled our eyes and dropped it, not wanting to make waves, make the workplace more awkward for us later on, or even potentially find ourselves without a job.
But she persevered.
He finally told her the picture was “sl*tty.”
"sl*tty" is obviously a dumb af hypermisogynistic construct, but let me repeat – it was a headshot of a woman wearing a gray t-shirt. The only skin on her you could see was her face and collarbones. I was STILL LOST and he was getting annoyed like I was being deliberately dumb
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
Which was confusing, because (even setting aside the ridiculousness that the word exists at all) the woman wasn’t showing any skin aside from her face and neck.
I was getting annoyed right back, so I told him to just explain what he meant. He talked for a minute about how if you're going to post pictures like that, you deserve what you get. I was incredulous and reiterated to him that it was literally just a picture of a smiling face.
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
The two argued, things getting heated, until he finally defined “sl*tty” and maintained the image screamed “down to f*ck” to him.
We had this go round for a few minutes – him going come on, you know what I mean, me going no, I literally don't. Eventually, I told him to define the word "sl*tty". He said "way over the top sexy and obviously down to f*ck." I asked him what about that picture said that to him.
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
After going around and around and not letting it go (thank you, Sawyer), he finally said that the reason she looked sl*tty and “deserved what she got” for posting a picture “like that” was because she was “insanely hot.”
After going in circles for about ten minutes he finally goes, "Well, she's insanely hot."
There it was.
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
This man saw a THUMBNAIL of a picture of an attractive woman, and decided that not only was she a "sl*t", but that her presumed "behavior" meant she deserved any harassment or assault she experienced – and felt this strongly enough to say it out loud, unprompted, and AT WORK.
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
Yep. Because the woman’s pretty, smiling face angered a man because it excited him and would possibly provoke him to give her what she deserves.
I just threw up in my mouth.
To sum up.
A woman has her smiling face on her profile. A man she has never met sees it and instantly feels rage and disgust. He believes she invites and deserves harrassment/assault.
All because she dared to be attractive in a public space.
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
@ men: Don't you ever ask women why they're afraid again.
— Sawyer (@sswyrs) June 14, 2019
Have courage out there, ladies. Educate. Reprimand. Be the change we need in the world.
Also, stay safe.