The Week on TwitterTopical

The Week on Twitter | Leslie Jones, Burkini Ban, & the Sydney Rose

By Jade Hayden

This week, actress and comedian Leslie Jones suffered yet another online racist attack, a Muslim woman was forced to remove her burkini on a beach in France, and Conor McGregor finally won that fight against Nate Diaz. As well as this, the Rose of Tralee actually ended up being quite a worthy affair this year, as the Sydney Rose used the festival as a platform to speak about the 8th amendment.

#SydneyRose actually makes the #RoseOfTralee relevant for once #Repealthe8th

This week, the Rose of Tralee was on, and it was mainly terrible. I can make this claim because I watched a whole 20 minutes of it before switching back to the Gilmore Girls and wishing that I hadn’t witnessed Daíthí awkwardly stomp around the stage in a pair of heels with a sultry pout on his lips.

However, it was only mainly terrible, because with this year’s Rose of Tralee came a shining beacon of light, a ray of sunshine, a glimmer of hope, a savior in the form of the glorious Sydney Rose.

The Sydney Rose’s name is Brianna Parkins and you’ve probably heard all about her because she did a great thing. When asked about her dedication to women’s rights activism back in Australia, Parkins mentioned her work with domestic violence victims and also her dream to see the 8th amendment repealed here in Ireland.

Her statement was met with applause from the audience, thousands of tweets thanking her for her willingness to use the Rose of Tralee as a platform to discuss this human rights issue, and a mere ten complaints to RTÉ following the broadcast (which apparently warrants more attention than the mass amounts of people who supported Parkins unconditionally, but sure, whatever).

TheLiberal.ie’s Leo Sherlock got particularly stressed during the show’s airing because how very dare a woman from outside of Ireland give any sort of crap about the state of our reproductive rights. Caring about the welfare of another human being? Unheard of.

Thankfully Sherlock received about 1 RT and 0 favs on all of his 76 tweets condemning a woman for having an opinion on a thing on the telly, and he was swiftly drowned out by the waves of people tweeting their love to Parkins.

https://twitter.com/_M_egg/status/767859895874060288

https://twitter.com/pmch99/status/768001745922453504

#LeslieJones attacked yet again for simply being a successful black woman

You might remember a few weeks back when Milo Yiannopoulos was removed from Twitter for leading a racist-fueled attack against Ghostbusters actress and comedian Leslie Jones. The torrent of hate and abuse that Jones received led to her taking a short break from social media, and to a few men’s rights activists/racists shouting mindlessly into the void about things like free speech and censorship and what it’s like to be a generally horrible person.

This week, Jones suffered another attack at the hands of some racist harassers and hackers when an abundance of her personal information and images were posted on her website. The leak included nude photographs as well as images of Jones’ passport, her drivers license, and social media passwords.

The content was quickly removed and site taken down, leaving Jones as yet another victim in a long line of ever growing female celebrities who have had their personal, intimate photos shared online. However, dissimilar to the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Ariana Grande before her, Jones’ attack was not just a misogynistic one, but a racist one too, with the intention of publicly shaming and embarrassing a successful black woman simple because she is just that.

@TheNotoriousMMA beats #Diaz, everyone celebrates #ConorMcGregor 

On Saturday night, Conor McGregor did some MMA fighting against Nate Diaz. Last time McGregor did some fighting against Diaz, he lost, and seemed quite upset. This time McGregor fought Diaz, he was triumphant, and appeared quite happy, giving post-fight interviews in a pair of Deirdre Barlow glasses that people talked about for days.

However, following the fight’s result, some people were not too sure that McGregor had actually won. According to some stats pulled by JOE.ie,  Diaz landed more significant strikes than McGregor to the head and body, and successfully completed more takedowns and submission attempts.

But whether McGregor deserved his victory wasn’t what most people were discussing on Twitter (on my timeline, anyway). They were discussing his glasses, his seemingly Harambe-inspired chest tattoo, and that decades old photo of (Ewan) McGregor and (Cameron) Diaz having a bit of a scrap in what looks like a public toilet.

Muslim woman told by French police to undress on beach #BurkiniBan 

A burkini is a form of swimwear designed to protect the body and to adhere to Islamic traditions of female modest dress. It’s made of a light swimsuit material that covers the legs, arms, and body – sort of like a wetsuit, but with a hood, that can also be used for sunbathing and swimming.

This week, the burkini made international headlines when it was reported that France’s recent laws prohibiting the burkini in certain cities made it possible for two police officers to force a woman to remove her swimwear and then issue her a fine. The dress was legally banned in over 20 towns and cities around France this month, due to the burkini’s supposed link to terrorism and Islamic extremism, instead of y’know, its link to a Muslim woman simply wanting to have a nice time at the beach.

The report led to much online discussion concerning the policing of women’s bodies, and in particular, the overt Islamophobia that the law represents and incites. The ban does not just allow police officers to tell women what they can and can’t wear in public, it allows police officers to tell Muslim women what they can and can’t wear in public, because it is somehow provocative to simply be an existing Muslim woman today.

French courts are to decide whether to overturn the ban over the next few days.

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Jade Hayden 144 posts 0 comments

Jade Hayden has an MA in journalism, a degree in English, and a house rabbit who sleeps in her bed sometimes. You'll often find her wearing glasses, fixing her fringe, and complaining about the amount of time she spends on public transport. Jade is also the editor of HeadStuff's topical section, and she'd love if you sent your submissions over to [email protected].

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