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One Mother’s #HimToo Post Supporting Brett Kavanaugh Became A Strange Twitter Meme


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Memes are good for many things: blowing off steam, finding humor in hopeless situations, or maybe standing up to power. The latest big meme trend checks off all the boxes. But one that captured Twitter’s attention Monday night had a couple unusual twists, which wound up revealing a strange and, in the Trump-era, all-too-common family drama.

It began with a random woman’s tweet. In the wake of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings — in which the Supreme Court nominee-turned-Justice was accused of sexual misconduct — a woman who tweeted under the handle @BlueStarNavyMom3, decided to take his side. Sometime Sunday, she posted a picture of her young adult son, dressed in the an all-white sailor’s get-up. It read:

“This is MY son. He graduated #1 in boot camp. He was awarded the USO award. He was #1 in A school. He is a gentleman who respects women. He won’t go on solo dates due to the current climate of false sexual accusations by radical feminists with an axe to grind. I VOTE. #HimToo”

This didn’t go over well with social media, once enough people caught wind of it. Twitter has overflown with parodies. They tend to take one of two tacks: loopy send-up (usually with the same text and a ridiculous picture) or savage, angry satire. The woman has since deleted her account, but no one was sure if the person tweeting it was sincere.

But the story has more twists. Another one of her sons, one Jon Hanson, apparently took to Twitter to call out his mom and defend/laugh at his brother.

It seems like what we have here is an old-fashioned Trump parent vs. non-Trump kids tussle. Elsewhere on his feed, Hanson says his mom’s simply “crazy” and she “just loves attention,” which she’s certainly got. As for the idea that her other son won’t date women for fear that they’re vengeful feminists who will invent sexual misconduct allegations to own the cons, Hanson says she “made it up.”

Eventually, the son in the picture himself, Pieter Hanson, joined Twitter (with the handle @Thatwasmymom, which amazingly wasn’t taken), and explained…well, almost everything.

Here, finally, are a couple handfuls of the good parody #HimToo parody tweets, of which the Hanson sons seem to approve. Some stuck with sons who aren’t quite ideal:

https://twitter.com/kmart93/status/1049415612068519936

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1049459471368548357

Some went with movie psychos:

Or BoJack Horseman’s Vincent Adultman:


Some gave us animals:

Or creepy dolls:


Or weird and gross monsters:

https://twitter.com/seankent/status/1049462790832971777

Some went with Rick Astley:

Henry VIII’s Twitter account actually went with Anne of Cleves

Someone channeled William Blake:


Some went with The Village People:

https://twitter.com/shalegac/status/1049420544586784774

Another went with Guy Fieri:

Or this John Travolta deep cut:

https://twitter.com/WGladstone/status/1049427900922044418


Some thought outside the box and went with Tomi Lahren:

https://twitter.com/ManInTheHoody/status/1049485972172201984

Some kept it real. Here’s Mike Pence:

And here’s Brock Turner:

https://twitter.com/sweet_emmee/status/1049438275134414848

And here’s the man who allegedly caused all of this:

https://twitter.com/Diane_7A/status/1049452597952868352

By the way, don’t venture too far into the #MeHim search. Get down too far and you’ll find people actually supporting the whole thing.