The 'Blame One Not All' Campaign slammed online for its 'misleading' message

Feminism is a largely misunderstood concept. It is often confused with hatred for men, which can be blamed on the wanton men-bashing that a few ‘feminists’ indulge in online. But just as not all feminist are men-haters, not all men oppress women.

This is the point, Mintified, an Indian internet media company, wanted to get across through their #BlameOneNotAll campaign. Earlier this week, they posted a series of photographs on their Facebook page with women holding up signboards depicting situations where they felt safe with men.

“We do agree that a woman has to go through a lot. The leering, the catcalls, the groping, the societal othering, the miasma of all this that women bear the brunt of every damn day. Every single day is a war to them. But, generalizing the other gender, is not right. Not all men are rapists. Not all men abuse their significant others. Not all men actively oppress women. And these posters say it all,” they said on Facebook

We do agree that a woman has to go through a lot. The leering, the catcalls, the groping, the societal othering, the…

Posted by Mintified on Monday, May 25, 2015

But the campaign did not get the response they wanted. Instead, it got slammed all across the internet for its message on women’s safety.

The signboards all highlighted one thing - that women shouldn’t blame all men for the horrors they have endured at the hands of a few men.

But here’s the problem - the very things that the signboards are praising men for doing (or not doing) are things they should do anyway.  You elder brother’s friends are supposed to respect you and your uncle isn’t supposed to make you feel uncomfortable in the first place.

So technically they are congratulating men for behaving the way all of them are supposed to behave ideally. And Twitter was quick to point out this fallacy.

Funny how it's #BlameOneNotAll and not #AllWomenShouldFeelSafe. What's important is protecting men's feelings, not women's lives.

— elfwreck (@elfwreck) May 27, 2015

#blameonenotall is an odd concept. Sure, not all men abuse women. But are we rewarding people for what's surely just #everydaydecency?

— Debbie Cameron (@wordspinster) May 26, 2015

Interesting how these #BlameOneNotAll pics have a story of one dude being decent, not all men being decent.

— Margari Hill (@Margari_Aziza) May 26, 2015

While it it understandable that the intentions of the campaign was to address the issue of generalizing and being judgmental, it is only fair to say that it went on to reiterate the issue of gender bias.