FindDancingMan: After 4chan Bullies Shame Dancing Man, Internet Starts Campaign To Invite Him To Party
The internet can be a very mean place, but the FindDancingMan campaign to help a bullied man shows that it can have quite a bit of heart as well.
The incident started when some bullies on the 4chan board/fit/ripped into a larger guy who was trying to have a good time. The anonymous user also appeared posted a picture of the man, who appeared to be in a music club dancing in one frame and then sad and shamed in the next.
The caption read: “Spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing.”
The picture was then uploaded to Imgur and shared on Reddit, where anger grew about the dancing man’s treatment.
Some internet users decided to do something about it. Cassandra Fairbanks, a Los Angeles-based writer for the Free Thought Project, decided to find the man and invite him to a big party where he can dance all he wants.
“I wanted to do something nice for him. I sent out a tweet and spread like wildfire,” she told the Independent. “Now we are keeping in touch as me and my lady cult, GNI (not actually a cult) plan an incredible party.”
“We will make it awesome,” Cassandra added.
Many others joined in the campaign to find the dancing man, and the term #FindDancingMan went viral on Twitter.
#FindDancingMan Help us find this dude with the moves! Let’s do this, ladies! pic.twitter.com/JvBIkpIxdi
— TheElleWord (@TheElleWord) March 6, 2015
Who knows this guy?? We want to throw him a huge dance party with tons of beautiful babes. pic.twitter.com/FJiCR8wTWo — CaseyHoran (@1WithTheSun) March 6, 2015
Others took it as an opportunity to speak out against the bullying faced by the dancing man.
Body shaming is awful & people hide behind social media. Help me and my 2,000 girlfriends #FindDancingMan #dancefree pic.twitter.com/i5iGXYKEwe
— Hope Leigh (@HOPELEIGHMUSIC) March 6, 2015
If you see this, we want you to know that we’ve got your back. You just keep on dancing, mate! #KeepOnDancing #FindDancingMan — Emma Roid (@FitchyEmma) March 5, 2015
It only took a few hours for the FindDancingMan quest to achieve its goal. Someone who saw the trending topic recognized the man from another photo, and he was soon identified as a London resident named Sean.
Now that they have found Sean, the dancing man, Cassandra said they have an awesome party planned.
[Image via Imgur]
