The Week on TwitterTopical

The Week on Twitter | Istanbul, Brendan O’Connor, & Heterosexual Pride Day

By Jade Hayden

This week, Brendan O’Connor was an idiot, Cormac McCarthy was not dead, and lots of people did (or didn’t) celebrate Heterosexual Pride Day. 44 people were also killed in a terrorist attack in Istanbul’s Ataturk airport when 3 perpetrators detonated bombs in or close by the terminal.

44 civilians killed in #Istanbul airport bombing

On June 28th, it was reported that three explosives had detonated in Ataturk airport in Istanbul. 47 people were killed in the blast, including the three perpetrators who caused the attacks. The Turkish government believe the terrorists were members of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant who came from Russia or Asia. ISIS have yet to claim responsibility for the attack.

Following the bombing, several flights were suspended and diverted, and security was increased in many major airports around the world. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan released a statement soon after professing that the attack would not “divide or split our country.” Erdogan also stated that the bombers were not true Muslims as they launched their attack during Ramadan and took several human lives, which meant they were going “straight to hell.”

Thousands of people took to Twitter to express their condolences for the 44 innocent lives lost in the airport. Some even offered their homes in Istanbul for those who had nowhere to go following the attack.

#BrendanOConnor slut shames 12 year olds in weird and creepy article

This week, Brendan O’Connor wrote an opinion piece about why 12 year old girls shouldn’t be walking around with their arse cheeks hanging out because it was too “erotic.” In it, Brendan recounted an event where he stared at some 12 year old girls with their arse cheeks hanging out, sexualised those girls, and thus himself created an “erotic” situation in his own confused mind.

Apparently, Brendan and at least one person over at the Independent thought slut shaming children going to a concert would be a pretty good thing to publish on a Monday afternoon, a great way to start the week, not weird at all, etc. But even more insidious (yes, it can actually get worse), was O’Connor’s claim that these young girls belonged to a “junior prostitutes’ convention” – a statement that enraged just about everybody who has a bit of respect for prostitutes, 12 year olds, or just, y’know, women in general.

The ‘article’ was not just ridiculous (it didn’t even make sense, there was no point, what was he even trying to say?), and offensive, but it also proved that our cat-calling, slut shaming, patriarchal culture is, of course, alive and well, lest their still be any doubts. The fact that a prominent and respected figure in Irish media can spend an amount of time watching and judging young girls for their choices of outfits, and then proceed to blame those very same young girls for being too “erotic” only serves to confirm the fact that, no, women are not the problem… And neither are all men, but enough of them are.

https://twitter.com/nessadinneen/status/747454174963568640

https://twitter.com/badmoodring/status/748093553306394624

https://twitter.com/CiaraDicaprio/status/747532418245079040

#HeterosexualPrideDay becomes definitely not a thing

This week, #HeterosexualPrideDay trended. According to at least one guy on the internet, Heterosexual Pride Day is necessary because straights have problems too, gay people can already get married in a small amount of countries around the world, what d’you guys need to protest for anymore anyway, we’re the ones really being oppressed here, fedoras are cool, etc.

Supposedly, the tag started as a joke that turned into a small amount of people genuinely and openly declaring their straight pride (so brave), that eventually became nothing more than a large amount of people taking the absolute piss out of the first amount of people.

It was good, because as many Twitter users suggested throughout the day – every day is Heterosexual Pride Day.

https://twitter.com/grahamslexa/status/748223332613398528

https://twitter.com/AnthonyAmorim/status/748219425736785920

https://twitter.com/tylerdennen/status/748213659093065728

#CormacMcCarthy not dead, at 82

This week, a man started a rumour that Cormac McCarthy had died and lots of people everywhere believed it. The man’s name is Tomasso Debenedetti and apparently he likes to start death hoaxes and make up interviews and stuff. It’s kind of his thing.

On Tuesday, Debenedetti created a new twitter account for McCarthy’s publisher and tweeted that the author had died of a stroke. Despite the publishing company having their own verified account, which was subsequently forced to confirm that McCarthy was indeed alive and well, the hoax worked, for a little while at least, as thousands of people around the world panicked as they thought 2016 had taken another one of the greats.

Luckily, it hadn’t, and McCarthy is grand.

https://twitter.com/bendreyfuss/status/747810705341030400

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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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