October 9, 2018

The Face of #HimToo Speaks Out Against His Mother’s Viral Post

The internet plot twist comes amid a Republican push to energize voters with their own #HimToo angle.

In the wake of the sexual assault allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a surge of social media posts using the hashtag #HimToo began circulating to claim that innocent men are regularly falsely accused of sexual misconduct. 

The trend, a backlash to the #MeToo movement and Christine Blasey Ford’s gripping testimony against Kavanaugh, reached something of a boiling point this past weekend as the final vote to confirm Kavanaugh was being cast. One of the most viral posts came from the mother of a Navy veteran. She claimed that her “gentleman” son no longer goes on “solo dates” out of fear he’ll be wrongly accused of misconduct.

It appears, however, that would be news to her son. On Monday, Pieter Hanson joined Twitter and posted the following message:

Hanson’s brother, Jon, also came forward to correct the record:

“It doesn’t represent me at all,” Hanson told the Washington Post. “I love my mom to death, but boy…I’m still trying to wrap my head around all this.” He explained his mother had a tendency to go overboard on social media, though the post still struck him as surprising considering he had been raised in a progressive household.

The initial post, which sparked a slew of parody memes, has since been deleted.

The internet plot twist comes amid a push to energize Republican voters ahead of the midterms by painting Kavanaugh as the victim of a #HimToo-style false accusation. No one appears more eager to lead the charge than President Donald Trump:

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate