A mother's tone-deaf #HimToo tweet goes viral but her son wraps things up with an epic response

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that when women speak up about their sexual assault experience, a man (not all men of course, let me hasten to add before the pitchforks come my way), will come along and turn the conversation into one steeped in whatabouterism.

The past few weeks have been exhausting and terrifying for women around the world. 

The high-profile case which saw Brett Kavanaugh being confirmed and taking a seat in the U.S. Supreme Court may be something that has been happening abroad, but it only served to highlight that a lot of women all over the world aren’t believed when they speak up.

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For many, the #MeToo movement has afforded victims of sexual assault the chance to come forward and tell their story.

Many have been mercilessly mocked and borne the brunt of people who wilfully refuse to acknowledge their pain – even if it’s years old and even if they only found the courage to speak up now.

A recent tweet on Twitter, while shockingly hilarious, highlights the fact that there’s still a huge lack of understanding about sexual assault and likens reporting rape and assault crimes to a radical feminist agenda.

In a now deleted tweet (and Twitter account), HuffPost reports that user @MarlaReynoldsC3, or Navy Mom as she’s been dubbed by social media smart alecks, tweeted the following (along with a photo of her son):

“This is MY son. He graduated #1 in boot camp,” the #HimToo tweet began.

“He is a gentleman who respects women. He won’t go on solo dates due to the current climate of false sexual accusations by radical feminists with an axe to grind.”  

Needless to say, social media had a field day with it and turned her response into threads of savage pushbacks by copying and pasting her posts but adding twists of their own.

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Before we get to the twist in the story, it’s important to note that Marla’s lack of understanding about the #MeToo movement doesn’t only wrongfully equate feminism with reporting sexual assault, but it once again dismisses the narratives of sexual assault and rape survivors.

Not only that, but the #HimToo movement was never started as a means to hit back at so-called “feminazis,” but it hijacks the stories of male survivors of rape and assault.

The viral tweets spun so much out of control, that Marla’s sons actually picked up on it and tweeted about it themselves.

In fact, the twist comes in where Pieter Hanson, the subject of the viral photo, became aware of the tweet through his brother who posted about it.
Jon Hanson then encouraged his brother to create a Twitter account, which ended up being the best thing in response to the misguided tweet as it turns out that Jon is far more aware than his mother.

In his tweet he reveals he actually supports the #MeToo movement and in doing so doesn’t throw his mother under the bus and added that “sometimes the people we love do things that hurt us without realising it.”



And Twitter users couldn’t be happier about the way this came to a wrap, with director and comedian, Zack Bornstein calling it the “best act 2 of a meme ever.”


We couldn’t agree more. Hopefully Marla takes it as a lesson that sexual assault isn’t part of an agenda but a crime – one that affects women and men and one that damages them only further when their stories aren’t believed.