If you know even just a little bit about Twitter, you know a big part of the social media titan’s appeal is in its trending topics. A lot of them can be hilarious, cute, informative and sometimes even redeeming (remember the #SorryJesus topic a few week’s back?). But lately, I’ve noticed an ugly, hateful and just straight up, “IGNANT” tone showing up in the trending topics on the site. Many have been sexist, as well as racist, and that’s not cool. I’m sure you’ve seen your share of ratchetness on there while trying to explain a highlight of your day in 140 characters or less, and I want to share the ones I’ve found with you. Be sure to read the titles slowly so you don’t get confused.
#thingsthatmakeadykehappy
You read that right: “Things that make a dyke happy.” This hot mess of a trending topic is what actually inspired this entire post. While scoping out the possible news people could and should be using the trending topic section for, I saw this and was immediately disgusted. I think the only thing that may have disgusted me more was to find that many of the respondents, and the ones who were pretty much keeping the topic alive and thriving, were black. Folks were ki’ ki’ng it up about taking homosexual women to Victoria’s Secret and cutting the sleeves off of their shirts. Last time I checked, I thought the d-word was a slur? Why is it cute to make fun of something like this? #dobetter.
#whatmakesablackgirlmad
This one pissed me off in particular, mainly because the responses were stereotype-based. Let’s see, there was, “Don’t pull her weave,” “Go out with a white girl,” “Push them in a pool,” (though the last one should be true for any woman…) and on and on. But maybe my sense of humor is off, because there were a large number of black women, amongst the gang of black men, white men and random white teenage girls, adding their two cents to the topic.
#AaliyahsAirlinePlaylist
What makes this topic so terrible is the fact that it popped up on the recent anniversary of her death on August 25. Keep in mind that even when you respond in disgust to these topics, if you include the hashtag in your Tweet, you help to make the trending topic that much more popular. And while I saw my fair share of people declaring that folks were going to hell for their disrespect of the dead (that’s a little harsh though), there were many who thought the topic was too funny. If you were wondering what kind of songs were on the list, they were ones that had to do with going downward…
#itaintrape
As everyone knows, and Johnny Depp just learned, you never joke about rape. It’s off limits, it’s never funny, and it shouldn’t even be talked about by a guy if it’s not to talk about it in the most negative of ways. But when this controversial trending topic popped up last year thanks to comedian Lil’ Duval, people got gully with disrespectful responses like: “#ItAintRape is she’s a mute,” “#ItAintRape if you dont remember it happened,” and the the oh-so-classy, “#itaintrape if I bout you popcorn and a drink… then u Didnt eat it.” The fact that rape is even considered comical should be extremely alarming to everyone.
#hoodhoe
Looking for some more stereotypes about women, or hoes, as the good, jobless Twitter folks like to call us? For this one, folks used what they learned from music videos and hood movies as well as the most trifling stereotypes available in an attempt to be funny. Check these out:
“If you only get paid when yo baby daddy get paid #hoodhoe”
#hoodhoe emergency kit= leggings, track glue, cab phone number, ebt card, rush visa card, boost mobile phone and pre paid legal”
#Reasonstobeatyourgirlfriend
This really hateful trending topic was popular on the site for nearly 24 hours, but luckily, it got a lot of people talking–about how stupid and lame people who joke about these things on Twitter are, and got domestic abuse awareness. Many tried to backtrack when people attacked them about being abusive, claiming it was a joke and meant to be funny, but domestic abuse is nowhere near funny. And to know folks like Martin Lawrence and rapper Slim Thug entertained this madness!? I’m sure a lot of the dudes who contributed to the hashtag and making it a trending topic wouldn’t be laughing if their women were beating the breaks off of them…
#myhomelesssignwouldsay
Now, this one was straight up bogus because being homeless is a huge issue issue in the United States. However, I can’t lie, I laughed a little at the things people came up with. I know, I should and I do feel ashamed. Granted, all the other trending topic responses stated above were extremely harsh and disrespectful, but let’s be honest, some of these were a little genius from time to time. That doesn’t take away from the fact that it was ignorant though:
#myhomelesssignwouldsay I was homeless before it was mainstream #hipsterorhomeless
#MyHomelessSignWouldSay $5.00 & up please. NO CENTS!”
#MyHomelessSignWouldSay Who gonna check me boo?!
