If you think catcalling only happens in real life, you’re wrong. With the anonymity social media offers, it really feels like creeps and perverts have doubled in number. Some don’t even bother to hide their identity, which shows you that things have really gotten brazen and worse.
Based on a global research by the girls’ rights organization Plan International, surveys reveal that seven out of ten (7 out of 10) girls & young women have experienced online harassment.
The incidents are said to go higher when the girls & young women identify themselves as being at least one of the following: an ethnic minority, an LGBTQ+ member, or one with a disability.
As someone who sees these creepy and perverted comments daily as part of his job (nakakapagod mag-hide ng comments, ha!), I feel compelled to give you examples of what I mean, just so you know why these things can just ruin the day for me.
Xyriel Manabat
Data show that girls like Xyriel Manabat, who are born with curvy figures, are very prone to sexual harassment on social media.
When she reappeared in showbusiness at just sixteen, officially a minor, and her photo—the one seen above—was circulated, it came with the caption "Fave Flowy Shorts."
Read: Xyriel Manabat cries foul over “below the belt” comments on her viral photo
Immediately, the photo was followed by multiple spine-chilling remarks.
One pervert thought he was being witty by mentioning Xyriel's show, 100 Days to Heaven: "paranas ako 100 days to heaven lods."
Another creep showed he had no use for wit at all: "ang laki ng s*so mo pwede ko ba yan e melon grab?"
Use your senses. Imagine you've been away from showbiz a long time. Imagine, too, that you're a minor coming across these petrifying comments while alone in your room. How would you feel? Will you not ask yourself why strangers are being nasty about the body you were born with? Are they saying you should feel your body is ugly and cursed?
That is exactly what it was like for Xyriel at age 16. Now, imagine the trauma. Imagine how she felt every time she had to face a crowd. Imagine her fear that some bottom-feeding specimen in the crowd would shout something lewd about her breasts at any time. Worse still, imagine how she would feel if others laughed along with the bottom-feeder.
Crushed, feeling small, feeling disrespected, imagine how she might've wanted to stay cooped inside her room, surrounded by her music and magazines, surrounded by inanimate objects that could not hurt her. Imagine, too, a 16-year-old getting to the conclusion that people are basically rude and crude.
Already, Xyriel has admitted that she had to go through psychological therapy after the assault on her and her picture.
Read: Xyriel Manabat opens up about going to therapy after "sexual assault" on her photos
What aggravates me even more is that the creepy and perverted comments have also come from fathers who have daughters themselves! How do I know this?
It’s right there on their profile photo! There's this guy who posed with his six-year-old daughter and his wife, his smile really broad, as though the world was all dandy and sweet, while he made the lewd offer to carry the minor's boobs for her if they proved too heavy.
The creep and pervert had too low of an IQ to even connect that his lewdness could go in the direction of his child and his wife! Really, if this sort of behavior were made standard online, what's to stop it from spreading on to the world outside where it can cause real damage?
Venice BEKTAS
Still on curvy teenage girls and creeps and perverts on social media, let’s talk about Venice Bektas.
Given the high-profile lifestyle of her family, it’s no surprise that Venice, like other celebrities, flaunts her looks on social media. If you have it, flaunt it, right?
Read: Venice Bektas heats up summer in beach OOTDs
Unfortunately, a young girl looks like she can't even have that right over her body. Perverts will be perverts; creeps will be creeps. When a young celebrity poses in a cute bikini, all that these perverts and creeps see are boobs.
And it doesn’t matter if you’re a teenager! If you’ve ignited their brain (which is probably located below their belt), then you cannot expect anything rational from these people.
In case you’re reading this and you’re one of them, please mind the trauma you inflict on the young.
A first pervert wrote: "Pakwan! Pakwan kayo diyan!"
A lady called him out, but it didn't faze him. To him, it was just a joke, his own brilliant joke, he had a right to throw it to the universe—and to hell with women with onion skin.
Venice Bektas is clearly still a teen-ager, someone who enjoys the freedom that an archipelago's beaches can give. And yet she is being sexualized by these grown men because she is wearing a bikini on a beach! Really? Where else will she wear them?
A second pervert wrote: "Hindi man engineering ang course niya, madami siyang mapapatayo."
Well, Sir, based on your extraordinary wit (I really hope you know sarcasm when it hits you in the face), it seems like you need extra units on GMRC (Good Morals and Right Conduct).
I would not trust any of these men around minors.
If they cannot discipline themselves to keep their twisted thoughts to themselves, how can we expect them not to act on their thoughts? I’m sorry, but what you put out on social media paints the kind of person you want to be perceived as.
That’s your brand!
Erika Poturnak
Before this “boys being boys” exposé gets old, let me show you a different side to this issue.
It’s no surprise that most creepy and perverted comments come from “men acting like boys,” but it does strike a different chord when the comments come from women—and they do.
You're a woman, you should know better!
Just because you don’t experience the same kind of assault, can you not manage a little empathy? Employ a little imagination? Can you not put yourself in the young female's shoes for a second and see how the chilling comments can make the skin crawl?
Read: Erika Poturnak undergoes breast reduction surgery: "Best decision of my life"
Women, if you can’t fight the good fight, at least don’t be one of the bad guys.
It's bad enough that there are guys who think it's okay to talk to women this way, but to have women thinking this way, too... it just blows the mind.
When we broke the news that Kobe Paras, 25, and Erika Poturnak, 21, unfollowed each other on Instagram, comments from other young women were in the league of verbal sexual assault.
One supposed ally wrote: "nagsisimula ng magbilang ng lalake"
This just goes to show that even women can be bigots.
Another supposed ally wrote: "Nanlabo na mata ko akala ko Erika Pat*rjak ,..Poturnak pala [face palm emoji]"
Sure, it could be true that she misread Erika's family name, but her comment just added fuel to the fire.
A woman, adding to the narrative of sexualizing another woman—if that doesn't creep you out, I don't know what will.
These females might’ve been trying to show off their sassy side, but there really is a better way of sounding smart and cool.
And it comes from a place of compassion.
I say, it may seem like it’s easy to be a celebrity given all the glitz and glam. But, at the end of the day, just like you and me, they can see the comments you leave behind. They can read and they have feelings.
I’m sure all of us have special women in our lives. Is it okay to have them subjected to the same harassment that these female celebrities experience on almost a regular basis?
No.
So, do us all a favor. Just don’t.
Normalizing this kind of behavior in social media will almost surely evolve into something more dangerous in real life. Remember, an assault online does not stay online. It spills over to the real world.
Read:
- Xyriel Manabat opens up about going to therapy after "sexual assault" on her photos
- Xyriel Manabat cries foul over “below the belt” comments on her viral photo
- Get to know Ruffa Gutierrez's youngest daughter Venice Bektas
- This photo proves that Venice Bektas looks so much like her mom Ruffa Gutierrez
- Erika Poturnak undergoes breast reduction surgery: "Best decision of my life"
- Erika Poturnak heats up Instagram with these bikini photos
