In the wake of last Friday's massacre near the University of California, Santa Barbara, and suspect Elliot Rodger's misogynistic manifesto, a new Tumblr page is highlighting violence inflicted on women when they reject sexual advances.
Called "When Women Refuse," the site collects stories of violent attacks on women who turned down male sexual advances. It summarizes the attacks, and provides article links about them.
One submission, titled "Lauren Astley murdered for making sure her ex was okay," describes an incident in which an ex-boyfriend of 18-year-old Astley killed her after she broke up with him.
"After breaking up, Lauren's boyfriend became very depressed. When she reached out to him to make sure he was doing okay, he murdered her. If he couldn't have her, no one could. He has since been convicted," the Tumblr page says.
Other entries detail similar tragedies, all involving men harming women in gender-based crimes.
Violence against women has been called the world's "most pervasive yet least recognized human-rights abuse," according to the United Nations Population Fund, an international-development agency promoting women's rights. Up to one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused, the UNFPA said.
After Rodger, 22, killed six people before shooting himself, the topic of violence against women became a focus of public conversation. Rodger's 147-page manifesto demonstrates his sense of sexual entitlement to female affection. "I desired girls, but girls never desired me back. There is something very wrong with that. It is an injustice that cannot go unpunished," he wrote.
In addition to the "When Women Refuse" Tumblr page, which launched Monday, many women shared their experiences with harassment and sexual assault on Twitter, using the hashtag #YesAllWomen.
What happens to women when they refuse a man's advances? Death. Beatings. Stalking. http://t.co/240G67Gxt5 #YesAllWomen— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) May 27, 2014
"It's an isolated incident" LOL NOPE. http://t.co/xc1VK6tnMZ #YesAllWomen— Steph Guthrie (@amirightfolks) May 27, 2014
The phenomenon of men exercising violence against women for refusing their advances is hardly unusual http://t.co/L6Ht4W7w7Z #YesAllWomen— Sally Strange (@SallyStrange) May 27, 2014
#YesAllWomen b/c misogyny is so pervasive there's now a tumblr that shows what happens When Women Refuse http://t.co/PlWzoDxzzQ— Jessie Jessup (@JessieJessup) May 27, 2014
http://t.co/0mULdjZz7E Horrifying, but unsurprising stories of what has happened to women after spurning sexual advances #YesAllWomen— zoe middleton (@zoyamiddleton) May 29, 2014
Wow. This is so horrifying, but evidence of what #YesAllWomen has been trying to communicate. #WhenWomenRefusehttp://t.co/sCZ9xDOPPY— Stacy Anderson (@theporpoise81) May 27, 2014
These stories are tragic, but they are exactly why we need to raise awareness and create a change. http://t.co/q0xpTNLenm #YesAllWomen— Marissa Kobe (@marissakobe) May 27, 2014
As of Wednesday night, the hashtag has been attached to nearly 2 million tweets since it launched on May 24, according to analytics firm Topsy.