A poster that no longer hangs in a downtown Winnipeg pub continues to cause backlash.
While some applaud the Winnipeg man whose tweet led to the poster's removal at The Pint, others are angry he spoke out at all.
"When women kind of speak out about sexism it's a lot worse than anything I received,” Ben Wickstrom said.
Ever since the story got out he has been bombarded with hateful messages on Twitter.
"A lot of homophobic stuff,” he said.
The tweets challenged his masculinity and sexual orientation for speaking out about a poster he considered sexist.
“I'm not surprised that I was subjected to some of this pathetic Internet abuse,” Wickstrom said.
He said the responses would've been far worse if a woman had spoken up about the poster.
"I think if it's a woman, it's ‘shrill feminist’ and all kinds of other things that usually gets pretty violent in some cases when women stick their neck out and say enough is enough."
Sexual assault counsellor Mandy Fraser isn't surprised men responded with such harsh criticism.
"It actually is a good litmus test of where we're at culturally with attitudes about violence against women and about objectification and sexualization,” Fraser said.
“It shows that we have a lot of work to do."
University of Winnipeg Gender and Women's Studies professor Fiona Green said because Wickstrom is a man he may have had more power to influence change.
"It's an expected kind of response from women and it's a response that wouldn't be taken as seriously, I think,” Green said.
Wickstrom said most of the offensive messages came from men.
"Frankly, it doesn't paint men in a great light,” Green said.
Despite this, Green said more men are actually beginning to call out other men about sexist attitudes.
Wickstrom said he wouldn't change what he did.
"We're having a conversation about what we can't just stand and let happen. We can't be bystanders anymore,” Wickstrom said.
He said the positive responses outweighed the negative ones.
The Pint removed the poster after the controversy.
Wickstrom said he used social media to contact the pub because it's a more powerful way of sending a message.
