Pop Culture dictionary
Lewis’s Law
or Lewis' Law [loo-is-is law]
黑料网 does Lewis's Law mean?
Lewis’s Law is an unofficial principle of the Internet that states that the comments on any article about feminism justify feminism.
Where does Lewis’s Law come from?
On August 9, 2012, British journalist Helen Lewis tweeted that “the comments on any article about feminism justify feminism.” She dubbed it听Lewis’s Law,听after herself. The use of law alludes to a general tendency in听internet behavior; other examples include听Poe’s Law (“Satirical expressions of extremism online are hard to distinguish from genuine ones without indicating intent”) and Godwin’s Law (“As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1”)
Screenshot / @helenlewis / Twitter
By this law, Lewis means that pro-feminist internet content inevitably draws sexist reactions from men. In other words, simply mentioning feminism can provoke hateful, misogynist comments from male trolls….
The comments under 's "Why we don't read the comments" article are a sight. Lewis's Law in action
— Jonn Elledge (@JonnElledge)
Lewis’s tweet didn’t gain widespread attention until Wired journalist Alice Marwick mentioned听Lewis’s Law听in a March 2013 article about feminism and Men’s Rights Activists, who believe feminism is oppressive to men. Later that year, the law was added to Urban Dictionary.
Lewis’s Law would later also be added to other online resources Geek Feminism Wiki and RationalWiki, which lists听Lewis’s Law听as one example of Internet feminist laws.
Examples of Lewis’s Law
Who uses Lewis’s Law?
Lewis’s Law has听maintained its currency in discussions of feminism and toxic masculinity online. Because, well, the internet. And men.
Lewis' Law in action
"All negative comments on feminist threads justify feminism"
Dissent is misogyny
— Paula Wright (@SexyIsntSexist)
On social media sites like YouTube or Twitter, where comments are less heavily moderated, you can easily see Lewis’s Law in action. Case in point: the comments on a 2017 YouTube video of Emma Watson explaining why some men struggle with feminism…
Screenshot / Entertainment Weekly / YouTube
Lewis’s Law has also appeared in feminist books and blogs, but it is most often encountered in social media, where people invoking听Lewis’s Law听in citing examples of it in action.
Jesus, the replies to this. Lewis's Law for sure.
— William Pietri (@williampietri)
All the replies to women expressing excitement about Hillary's book demonstrate that Lewis's Law also applies to 140 characters or less.
— RidgewayGirl (@RidgewayGirl01)
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of Lewis’s Law like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Lewis’s Law that will help our users expand their word mastery.