What’s wrong with this picture?
On Saturday, Thought Catalog published a “feminist” essay called 5 Things Women Need to Do in Their 20’s (Or Else the Suffragists Died For Nothing) that wasn’t written by a feminist at all. In fact, it was reportedly written by a poster on the Bodybuilding.com forum as a total joke. Using the pen name Anne Gus, the user described himself (herself?) thusly: “I’m a feminist. I’m a woman. I’m strong. I’m in my twenties. I’m beautiful. I deserve love. Give me it.”
If that didn’t tip Thought Catalog editors off to the fact that the post was satire, maybe some of the included suggestions should have. The highlights:
From suggestion #2, Party:
Make sure never to pay for drinks though, you’re better than that. You’re young and free and women haven’t come this far just to throw away their salary on alcohol when chic shoes are so expensive. (Yes we live in a world where women’s shoes are more expensive than mens, thanks patriarchy.)”
From suggestion #3, Major in women’s studies:
This one is a no-brainer. If you don’t agree you’re probably an ignorant, sexist, transphobic, slut-shaming mysogynist cis white male and possibly a rapist…
I was feeling peckish so I ordered three happy meals, the order was placed on two trays, and even though I was on the phone, that loser thought it was OK to talk to me. Rape apologist. He asked me if I wanted help carrying the trays to my kids. I quickly put the call on hold and gave him a lesson in not practicing fat-shaming and sexism anywhere in my presence, and nowhere else for that matter.
Susan B. Anthony would be proud.
AryanofValhalla, the gym bro responsible, came clean on the Bodybuilding forum:
I can’t believe my eyes misc, I was bored one evening a week ago and so I wrote a satire article from the perspective of a twenty something feminist woman and sent it in to Thought Catalog,
A few minutes ago I got an email saying they published the articleMy penname is Anne Gus , as an homage to the misc
It’s happening
Anne Gus has gone on to write “Sorry Dudes: Here’s 5 Reasons That Girl You LIke Doesn’t Want Anything To Do With You.” If you’ve ever wondered whether Thought Catalog will publish literally anything, now you have your answer.
(We’ve reached out to Thought Catalog and will update if we hear back.)
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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com