The “Drunk Girl In Public” Scandal Makes Both Feminists And The Mainstream Media Look Foolish

Update: The video has been set to “private”. Here’s a commentary of the video that shows highlights:

Within the past week, the feminist movement and its many outlets that claim to be “news” attempted to make another viral propaganda push with “Drunk Girl In Public (Social Experiment).” The video’s objective was to show men as prowling jackals yet again, with the parameters of the self-proclaimed experiments being fairly unrealistic.

Recently, however, it has been revealed that it all was apparently a hoax. The guys in the video saw it themselves later and were understandably pissed about being asked to do something under a false premise, and more importantly, portrayed as potential rapists by feminists all across the internet for their compliance.

As hilarious and satisfying as it is to see the feminist movement blow their load, unashamedly backpedal in their argument, and create even more elaborate routines of mental gymnastics, the whole thing seems off and has brought a number of questions. The questions are in no way to make any claims or insinuations, and are purely from personal speculation that are felt needed to be shared as food for thought:

1. What are many of the outlets that claim to be news to do now? Will they at issue an apology at least to their followers, for the failure to check their sources as they claim to be a source of news for them?

2. If this is the matter of them failing to check their sources before perpetuating the articles, what does this scandal say about the legitimacy of the claims made against them in regards to the ethics and practices exposed by Gamer Gate?

3. More importantly, what exactly is the role and the motivations of the creator of the video, Stephen Zhang, since he is the one who produced and originally released the video?

And that is where most of the interest lies. Stephen Zhang, the owner of HYGO, Inc., seems to be the linchpin in these events, and he is refusing to comment even though hoax claims and slandering the men in the video paint him as a dishonest asshole to everybody. From what is gathered, Stephen seems to be running a pretty successful company and has been in the marketing industry for five years. Impressive, considering he’s only 20.

HYGO, being his current venture, is primarily focused on social media optimization and it has a few portfolio examples to show the success of his company’s effectiveness for maximizing social media traffic and using it to yield a profit. However, he states that due to the elite status of his company, only 6, 7, and 8 figure contracts are the only things they work with.

This brings about other questions. Why did Stephen create the Youtube account that the video was originally posted, only recently, on 11/3/2014? And why did he add 3 other random videos a day beforehand, label them as pranks, then just a day after upload drunk girl and label it as “social experiment” instead, then cease all activity?

Since no statement has been made, what could the motivation be to fund, produce and promote this video? Anybody with a hair of business understanding would deduce that it’s unlikely to be just for shits and giggles. Going off that assumption, there are only two logical possibilities: 1) This was a part of some strategy within HYGO to increase their reach and revenue 2) HYGO or Stephen was commissioned to produce and distribute it, possibly with a non-disclosure agreement.

If this video was, indeed, commissioned, who then could possibly be the client? Who could possibly want to contract a business that specializes in the return of investment on social media, to create a video that depicts only men trying to take advantage of a drunk girl? Why would this video come out so quickly after the Catcall video, with the same framework of trying to demonstrate that men are degenerates?

Was it supposed to be that in this video, the appearance of the men’s race and socioeconomic status just happens to conveniently show a more diverse and varying demographic, one of the major argument against the Catcall videos? What does it mean in one of the messages they sent out among the men in the video after they began protesting, when they’re talking about the future success that this video is going to bring about?

Now, there are a lot of ifs and hypothetical scenarios that these questions are asking, and no one else has presented a similar opinion yet that I have seen. But given the course of events this year, I feel that this is not completely implausible. This video and its revelation that it was a hoax seem to allude to the possibility of being a part of a larger picture, one that they are more than likely going to try sweep under the rug.

Or maybe the questions have no grounds, imply a crackpot conspiracy theory, and I’m full of shit. Because there’s no way that various journalists, writers, content creators, social justice advocates, advertisers, and whoever else could be collaborating with each other behind the scenes to make some tangible gain off the target audiences of various industries under the guise of social justice and feminism. That’s just misogyny.

Read More: Is Zoe Quinn Using The Massachusetts Courts To Censor The Legal Speech Of Her Ex-Boyfriend?