On Tuesday, actress Liza Soberano joined as a guest speaker on Gabriela Youth’s webinar commemorating the International Day of the Girl Child, where she highlighted the injustices that women of all ages are up against every day.
Afterward, a not-so-surprising thing happened: an army of trolls, driven by internalized sexism and political bickering, worked overtime to try and make #BoycottLizaSoberano trend.
In an attempt to justify the one-sided hashtag, likewise one-sided conspiracy theorists flexed their brains to stretch this logic further: “Liza Soberano is talking at a Gabriela Youth event, and we believe Gabriela Youth is tied with the Communist Party of the Philippines. Therefore Liza Soberano must be a communist!”
The argument sounds airtight; if only it were true.
The webinar, entitled “Mga Tinig ni Nene: Reclaiming Our Voice on the International Day of the Girl Child” discussed the variety of struggles women face such as attaining decent housing, quality education, and receiving ample legal and psychosocial support amidst an oppressive patriarchal society.
Liza joined the discussion to speak up about her experience in filing a criminal complaint against a netizen who typed an unsolicited rape remark towards the actress. She used the platform to express her opinion that perpetrators must face the consequences of their offense, and to amplify the call to protect young women from the same.
Raw emotions, factual data, and very valid concerns experienced by women from all socioeconomic status, yet trolls only ever seem to see the color red. More than being dense political pundits or sexist jerks, trolls revealed one thing with their hashtag: that they really don’t care about fighting for fellow Filipinos.
Fortunately, this same sentiment was shared by Twitter users who came to Liza’s rescue and flooded the hashtag with K-Pop fancams. There is still hope after all.
Yo KPop Community, pls spam #BoycottLizaSoberano with fancams. Thanks ???
— ??????????????????????TheJunjun? (@The_Junjun_) October 14, 2020
imagine boycotting someone who defended women's rights lmao try again yall dumb as hell?#BoycottLizaSoberano pic.twitter.com/mAFFc0SyZ7
— chi. closed (@stillwpjmin) October 14, 2020
south korean president irene bae said do NOT #BoycottLizaSoberano pic.twitter.com/S96DPGKGvZ
— bea (@beeanonymous) October 14, 2020
#BoycottLizaSoberano trending just shows that society doesn’t silence women because they think they’re weak. They try to silence women because they’re afraid of how strong they really are. pic.twitter.com/v7Xw4nQkzo
— ? (@raphaelmiguel) October 14, 2020
We got your back, Liza Soberano. ???#DefendFilipinoWomen #BoycottLizaSoberano pic.twitter.com/0CL63Oa66v
— dane (@aterudane) October 14, 2020
Another day, another troll farm put out of business. Onto the next one.