Viral post about a woman who stole money from a man at a bar turns the table on rape culture.
The internet has taken a guy-at-a-bar's sob story and turned it into a biting commentary on consent.
Occasionally the internet cesspool (also known as the comment section) churns out some of the best satire known to humanity. And thanks to a vicious girl at a bar who suckered a man out of $2,000, we now have a running list of comments that perfectly illustrate why so many of the arguments people make against sexual harassment are bunk.
A woman who works in a bar (@SydneyShyanneS on Twitter) tweeted a story about a guy who had $2,000 stolen by a girl he was trying to pick up. The tweet reads, "This dude has been calling my bar to check the cameras because he asked a girl to put her number into his phone & she Venmo'd herself $2000 [cry laugh emoji] drunk bitches are GENIUS."
Venmo is an app that allows people to transfer money to one another. Presumably, this guy thought this girl had shown sufficient interest in him to ask for her number, so he gave her his phone to have her put her phone number into his contacts. But instead, she must've gone straight to his Venmo app and transferred $2,000 to herself. Ouch.
The Facebook page Bitch Code shared the tweet, and comment gold was forged.
Snapchat: bitchycodes
Posted by Bitch Code on Saturday, November 17, 2018
While no one advocates stealing, people in the comments section used the same language people use to discount #MeToo stories.
Whatever sympathies folks may have for the guy were quickly overshadowed by statement after statement highlighting the language often used when a woman claims she was sexually harassed or assaulted.
"How do we even know she did it?" writes one commenter. "Maybe it's just another jealous man who has it out for her. We have to be careful with accusing women because an allegation like this could ruin her career and her future. This could follow her around for life. She has a family to take care of!"
A 3-year-old gave her mom a 25-word master class on what forgiveness really means.
Another commenter took on the notion that if someone agrees to something once, that's an open invitation to do it again. "Well, if he opened up his wallet once to spend money in the past," they wrote, "why is he upset that he spent money here too? It's not like his bank account is pristine."
One person summed up a common argument with, "Check his previous reports. Maybe he's cried robbery before," and then followed it up with "He was probably wearing a suit. That screams 'I want you to take my money.'"
BOOM.
There's seemingly no end to the number of ways people can turn the tables on rape culture rhetoric with this one story.
The first few comments are nod-worthy, but then they just keep going, driving home the absurd number of ways people brush off sexual assault victims.
"If he didn't complain in that moment, he wanted it to happen and cannot complain now," wrote one commenter. Another agreed. "Clearly a case of regret, not theft, here. Just because he changed his mind the next day he's trying to ruin this woman's future. Disgusting."
Another commenter offered a clear shout out to former Representative Todd Akin (R-MO): "If it's legitimate robbery, the phone has ways to try to shut the whole thing down." (Akin, in an infamous interview regarding rape victims getting pregnant, said “If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Yeah, that happened.)
Racist women told Burger King manager to 'go back to Mexico.' He gave them a lesson in civics instead.
How about the fact that he didn't explicitly tell her not to take his money? "I mean he did give her his phone..." wrote a commenter, "& he didn't exactly say that she CANT have $2,000 sOoOo..."
"Assuming this happened," wrote another, "how do we know he didn't send it to her and he's just having post-payment regret?"
The comments go on And on. And on. It's beautiful and horrifying at the same time.
The fact that there are so many ways to turn this situation into a commentary on consent is actually pretty horrible, but the fact that people are doing so with such aplomb is awesome.
The post has more than 12,000 comments, many of which are satirical , some that celebrate the satire, and some that predictably complain about "misandry." But one thing is clear: A whole lot of women—and men who support women—are sick of rape culture rhetoric and are 100 percent here for the example being made out of this story.