The Internet is taking a stand: no one should ever be shamed for trying to have a good time.
In February, a user on 4chan posted about their encounter with a man at a concert, who was ridiculed for dancing and quickly stopped when he noticed people were laughing at him. The user posted before and after photos of the man, saying "spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing.”
The photo was reposted onto Imgur on Wednesday by a user called FrozenBadger. They wrote, "I find this behavior fucking despicable. If you're out there big man, fuck those kids. Keep dancing."
Many other people on 4chan, Reddit and social media shared the user's opinion, who called out the original poster for bullying the man when he was simply trying to have a good time.
The Free Thought Project writer Cassandra Fairbanks decided to launch a personal campaign to find the dancing man and arrange "something special" for him. In a mere 24 hours, thousands of female Twitter users joined Fairbanks in her search, using the hashtag #FindDancingMan.
An open letter to the dancing man began to circulate, detailing a major dance party the women wanted to throw to not just boost the man's self esteem but also send a strong message against body shaming.
On Friday morning, Fairbanks was sent a strong lead on the identity of the dancing man, who lives in London. After getting in contact with him via social media, the dancing man finally revealed himself to his thousands of Internet fans, and they were very happy to see him.
The man, who's first name is Sean, accepted Fairbanks' offer for a dance party — as soon as he is back from a trip to Kiev. Because he can dance if he wants to. He can leave 4chan behind.
Sometimes the internet brings out the best in people.