I. Security video footage:
The grainy, black and white footage shows a large playground with slides, swings, and other equipment at night. In the background, four girls arrive, joined a few minutes later by a fifth. They stand in a circle, holding hands, the latest arrival with her head down. After a minute or two, the other four visibly shiver. A moment later, they let go and it’s obvious the four are crying and shaking. One raises her hands to her face, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. In turns, they hug the fifth girl and each other and then all walk out of the camera’s view together.
II. Partial transcript from interview of fourteen-year-old NAME REDACTED by Dr. Silvia Dulaney, M.D.:
“Will you tell me what happened that night, when you met NAME REDACTED?”
“Why?”
“Because what you girls are doing might present a health hazard. If you’ve contracted something, if you’re contagious, you could be in danger.”
“You should know. You already took my blood.”
“Yes, but sometimes new viruses or strains of bacteria take time to identify.”
“I’m not sick. I didn’t catch anything, not like that. Besides, I’m not the one in danger. Not anymore.”
“Would you like to clarify what you mean by that?”
“Not really.”
“I think that—”
“I want to see my mom. Now.”
III. Text message exchange between sixteen-year-old NAME REDACTED and fifteen-year-old NAME REDACTED of Fallston, Maryland:
My parents are going out to dinner. Tell everyone to come at 7. She says it won’t take long.
I think NAME REDACTED told some people, too.
Good. She says the more, the better. She’ll show us what to do, too, so we can get everyone who can’t come.
I can’t fucking wait!
Same same same.
IV. From Wake Up with John Dawson with guest, Alanna McDonald.
Dawson: What the fuck are these girls doing? Why are their parents letting them? Jesus, it’s like everyone’s lost their minds or something. Parents need to be parents.
McDonald: Would you feel the same way if they were boys?
Dawson: What’s that supposed to mean?
McDonald: Just last week, you said boys needed to start getting together to plan how to protect themselves.
Dawson: That’s different.
McDonald: Is it really? I’d argue the girls are doing exactly that.
After the show, John Dawson was quoted as saying, “I was doing her a favor by having her on my show but I should’ve known better than to try and talk to a feminist. That shit rots their brain cells. We really need to outlaw it or something.”
V. Email from Diana Ferguson of Los Angeles, California to seventeen-year-old NAME REDACTED:
I’m trying to find someone who can help and I was given your name. I heard my daughter saying you knew someone. I want my girls to stay safe. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Please, whatever you can do would be a huge help.
VI. Cell phone video:
Video shows the tail-end of a house party. Discarded beer cans are strewn everywhere, people are passed out on couches. A young man guides a woman, who appears to be intoxicated, into his bedroom. With a smile on his face, he closes the door and begins to remove her clothing. Her eyelids flutter open. He staggers back, the smile replaced with alarm. The phone falls from his hand but doesn’t stop recording. He stands motionless, his head down. He is still there an hour later, long after the woman gathers her clothing and flees.
NOTE: Neither the woman nor the man have been publicly identified but sources say it happened at a Dartmouth University fraternity.
VII. As seen on Facebook, posted by M.L from Springfield, Missouri:
Maybe it’s just a hoax, like that balloon boy thing or that documentary about floating girls. Lots of people want attention these days. I blame it on social media. Everyone wants to go viral, be a star, have their fifteen minutes.
VIII. From Instagram influencer Joey Grayson:
They’re saying we’re dangerous. The truth is, we just changed the rules of the game and they don’t like it one fucking bit.
Are we dangerous? Damn right we are. And it’s about fucking time.
IX. Photograph A:
A middle-aged man with his head down stands in his pajamas in a young girl’s bedroom. The walls behind him are pale pink, papered with posters of pop stars and small animals. The picture was originally posted on Facebook by NAME REDACTED with the caption You won’t hurt me ever again.
X. From an evening news segment, Wichita, Kansas:
If it were just one or two girls, it wouldn’t be a problem. I mean, you can put them in the hospital, like isolation or whatever. But it’s more than two. My daughter says every girl in her school either has it or wants it. I told her if she even thinks about it, she can move out. No kid of mine, living under my roof, is going to be contaminated like that.
XI. From a paper submitted as the year-end term paper by sixteen-year-old NAME REDACTED:
In Ovid’s version of Medusa’s story, she’s a beautiful maiden. Poseidon rapes her in Athena’s temple and the pissed off Athena—hello, victim blaming—transforms Medusa into the serpent-haired monster so ugly the sight of her face turned people to stone. Doesn’t take a genius to find the allegory there.
It all comes down to the same thing: girls are expendable. Always.
Note: The teacher gave the paper an F, stating it didn’t meet the assignment objective, an in-depth study of a historical event of major importance.
XII. Photograph B:
Central Park at sunrise. A crowd of people gather around a white man in his early thirties. The man is standing with his head down. Someone has written rapist on his forehead in what appears to be red lipstick.
XIII. Evening news report, Washington, D.C.
A young man was found in an alley behind a bar in D.C. last night, with evidence of a physical altercation. There was torn clothing on the ground beside him, part of a woman’s sweater, and he had scratches on his face. The man was found standing still and unresponsive. A witness who wouldn’t provide a name said it was like he was a statue. “He didn’t move a muscle. Like, he didn’t budge. And his skin didn’t feel like skin anymore. But I think he’s still alive. He just can’t move.”
He isn’t the first man found in this condition, but thus far, doctors are mystified. On social media, some people are calling it the Medusa Curse, while still others have named it the Medusa Gift.
XIV. Via X (formerly Twitter), NAME REDACTED:
You can’t stop it, you know. There’s a video that shows it’s in the UK now, not just here. It’ll be everywhere soon. We’re making sure of that. You can lock us away, threaten us with doctors and hospitals but everything’s different now. Everything.
XV. From seventeen-year-old NAME REDACTED’s TikTok video:
It’s a defense mechanism. It only happens when we’re threatened or afraid. No guy who doesn’t intend to hurt us is going to get zapped. It doesn’t work that way. The guys that say it does? They’re probably the ones we need protection from. They’re just mad they can’t do whatever they want to us anymore.
Oh well. Stay mad, fuckers.
XVI. Statement from fourteen-year-old NAME REDACTED:
My parents don’t think I hear them fight about it but I do. My mom thinks I should be protected and my dad says if it was meant to be, I would’ve been born with it.
If they bothered to ask me what I want, I’d let them know I already have it. Every girl I know does. We might be young but we’re capable of making decisions for ourselves.
I don’t know where it came from but I’m glad it did. We were tired of always being blamed for everything. We either dressed wrong or said or did something wrong or were in the wrong place.
XVII. Posted on NextDoor app by JSmith of Tallahassee, Florida:
It’s just not the natural order of things, you know? I mean, women can’t take a joke sometimes. Maybe we’re playing around and don’t really mean anything by it. So now you have guys paying the price for something maybe they didn’t do. How is that fair? Or legal. We should lock them up until there’s an antidote or something.
XVIII. From nineteen-year-old feminist vlogger Olivia Merrick, via her YouTube channel, Stay Angry:
Everyone wants to know what comes next. So many so-called experts spewing so much bullshit when it’s simple, really. Parents, teach your sons to be decent humans. Maybe we wouldn’t be here if you’d done that in the first place.
And yes, I know not all men. I get that. But there are more than enough of them that made this happen and it’s not our fault. It never was.
XIX. Viral post on X (formerly Twitter) from Dr. Analise Henderson of Las Vegas, Nevada:
On a business trip last week, I went for a walk in the city. At night. For the first time ever, I was able to look at buildings and architecture and focus on everything without constantly looking over my shoulder or holding my keys between my fingers. Is this what it feels like for a man?
XX. T-Shirt design available from Etsy seller GorgonGirlsRule:
