[BRIEF NOTE] On stupidity of the #FHRITP meme and its enactors

[rfmcdonald]

The "Fuck her right in the pussy" meme, known as FHRITP for the sake of convenience and mistaken politeness went viral earlier this week.

"FHRITP: Reporter confronts men who bombarded her with vulgarity" (Watch on YouTube)

This video has 1.1 million views as of this posting.

The televised incident between CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt and fans at Sunday’s Toronto FC game featured several bystanders mimicking a viral trend seen across North America, in which on-air reporters are harassed with the phrase, “F--- her right in the p----.”

Hydro One is firing an employee involved in Sunday’s incident, while Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is taking steps to have the fans involved banned for “at least” a year.

A Hydro One spokesperson identified the employee as Shawn Simoes, an assistant network management engineer who made $106,510 last year. He appears on-camera laughing and taunting, alongside several other men.

The incident began while Hunt was doing taped interviews after the Toronto soccer club’s game. Two men “in a row” shouted the offensive phrase while passing by, she told the Star. “I could hear these other guys conspiring to do it,” Hunt added.

Hunt confronted the group of men while the camera kept rolling, capturing the subsequent expletive-laden exchange.

This has gotten international coverage. That one of the men in question, Shawn Simoes has been fired from his HydroOne job as a result of his national televised behaviour seems to be widely taken as a sign of justice. The others are being identified, and may well face similar penalties from their employers. This story has gotten international coverage as well--see the Washington Post.

blogTO had a couple of posts exploring the issue. What got me there was, as one would expect, the slew of commenters who thought that the people who engaged in this harassment were behaving defensibly and that it was they who were being persecuted, Hunt behaving unreasonably. This sort of thinking enables bigotry. Julia Leconte's open letter to these people at NOW Toronto is perfect.

[B]ros, here’s food for thought for your pea brains: You’re the only class of society that hasn’t been socialized to fear for their safety or brace themselves for regular bouts of discrimination. You feel entitled to your fun, and fuck anyone’s pussy who gets in your way. Your level of entitlement has overshadowed your human decency. Shame on your mothers and fathers. Shame on your teachers. Shame on our culture for catering to your bro needs.

Historically, men, mostly white, killed, stole and raped their way to power. They made all the rules. This kind of engrained supremacy takes generations to diffuse.

You, bro, are the last remnant of that species, desperately clinging onto an era of superiority. You live in the present day, so, officially men and women are equal. But you also live in present day 2015, so you see lots of examples of lingering misogyny. You get to watch shows like Mad Men and listen to your dad and the older bro generation, and you long for the good old days when you just had to exist. You’re coming to the realization that in 2015, you might not get by in life just for being a bro.

But how do you take back that power? By making other people feel smaller than you. By disguising a threat in a joke, and reminding us that you and your bros could very well rape us if you wanted to. It’s our fault for stepping on your bro-dominated sports turf, after all.