Cases of online sexual harassment against women unfortunately are ever-worsening. Every other day, we unearth incidents, articles, and news that make us loathe the people we are surrounded by. It indisputably compels us to rethink the direction our society is moving forward. A few days ago I came across a similar sickening incident while scrolling through Twitter when I found a 20-year-old, well-educated boy who resides in a metropolitan city, Mumbai, Y*win, @/yuv1ncible on Twitter and @/y*win7_ on Instagram and Twitter harassed a lot of girls with new ones coming in every minute, including minors.
Y*win harassed more than TWENTY girls by bombarding them with numerous inappropriate messages, sending lewd voice notes, making vulgar and horrifying comments about their bodies, repeatedly video calling them, and sending unsolicited images of his genitals. He not only made them feel extremely uncomfortable and tormented but also coerced them into sending nudes and sexting. When the victims frequently told him that he should stop texting them or not make them uncomfortable by making lewd comments, he gaslighted them, shamed them, and made them feel delinquent for not obeying him or doing things as he pleased.
Y*win is an extremely privileged, prerogative, entitled and scholarly man, residing in one of the most cultured and wealthy societies who monstrously manipulates, harasses, and gaslights women including THIRTEEN-year-old minor girls. Y*win is a complete hypocrite, his words and his actions do not coincide in any manner. He claimed that he was a woke, intellectual individual who empathized with women and their problems but continued to do the complete opposite. Y*win deceived women and girls by portraying himself as a feminist, anti-patriarchal, and a woke individual on the internet. He maintained that image on Twitter and Instagram and used it in his favor to trick women and gain their trust only to add to their sufferings later. He would build up an affectionate relationship with the victims, compliment them and talk to them in a really friendly way initially to exploit them later - which is considered as online grooming. The victims constantly expressed their discomfort but he never stopped, let alone consider those pleas. This explains the pure predatory nature that most men with the intent of harassing women commonly develop and exhibit. Where they lure women by exactly doing what women want in the initial phases. The things that women are usually deprived of or are unacceptable in conservative society. Pseudo feminism is a tactic that Yuvim used among many other predators to make women feel heard and validated.
Yuvim also just laughed it off every time someone would tell him it was unacceptable whenever he made extremely silly sexual comments which looked like they were taken out of a really bad teenage smut comic.
“After I told him no around SIX times in a conversation, he told me he was lonely and needed someone to help and he was sad I wasn’t one of them,” said one of the victims. Every time people would call him out he would either victimize himself or make others pity him. “I have no one.” He threatened a thirteen-year-old that he would find her if she did not do what he wanted her to do. He would threaten, manipulate and abuse her so much that she felt violated and disgusted in herself. He is so rotten to the core that when one of the victims confronted him and said that she was a minor and he should stop messaging her, he downright disregarded the fact and resumed harassing and gaslighting her. He also forced one of the women to break up with their partner and told her having sex with him will make her forget about her partner.
Y*win himself is merely a 20-year-old boy who has access to the internet, school and is well aware of the damage that sexual harassment on women especially children can inflict. It is extremely sad and pitiful that he is among a zillion other camouflaged teen sexual predators who trap underaged women and children in India, by being a performative activist in public.
Y*win is just one of the countless other disgusting men who have sexually harassed every other woman on the internet. The cases that are spoken about are synonymous with a grain of sand in the desert. What is more disturbing and disheartening is that women have to go through it every single day, the dehumanizing experience, the trauma, the shame, and the guilt. The harassment that these sexual predators are not much older than the teenage girls inflict on them. On top of that the excessive victim shaming that stems from a patriarchal environment,
“Don’t cry about it, it was just a text.”
“She must’ve posted pictures online that must have provoked men.”
“You just need attention and sympathy from the #metoo movement.”
Women are socialized into remaining silent and accepting the justification for sexual harassment open-heartedly. Until the 2000s the legal system didn’t recognize online sexual harassment as a criminal offense. It is reinforced and encouraged in seemingly harmless ways by the cops, the family, and society. Talking about such a traumatic experience needs a lot of courage and when this trauma is invalidated by cops who see the world through the same social lens, who is supposed to bring justice when they say “he is just 20, you’ll ruin his life.” WHAT ABOUT THE THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD? ARE WOMEN JUST MEEK COMPROMISERS? The thirteen-year-old, twenty year old and the forty-year-old who will never wear sleeveless shirts ever again, who will never feel confident in their bodies, who will feel like their entire existence is being boiled down to being sex objects, and who will FEAR MEN until they die! This makes it much easier for women to stay silent than to speak up. They have nowhere to run to. The men who harass women simply get away with it by paying a trivial fine or being empathized by society. WHY IS THIS SO UNFAIR? Imagine restricting yourself, feeling guilty, feeling violated and disturbed and disgusted every single day because of men who choose to send inappropriate unsolicited messages online.
Y*win apologized for his disgusting acts on Twitter on 8th December 2021. A legal notice was also registered against him and sent to him. Is getting away by saying, "I should have been more careful," enough? Is it a mere compensation for what he put more than FIFTY girls through?
Sexual harassment online or in-person, verbal or physical is unacceptable. Women need dignified lives on the internet and in the real world. It is not only about questioning or giving insignificant punishments to the offenders but to abolishing sexual harassment and creating a safe place for women. I am so sorry to all the women who experience or have experienced sexual harassment. SimplyGenz sees you, hears you, and believes in you. Speak up. We are always by your side.
Sources: @/throw1ngup on Twitter.
Writer - Charmy Savla
Editor - Priyam Kusundal
Graphic Designer - Samira Wali
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