Somehow, public harassment of women by creeps and perverts has become something society just shrugs off. Perpetrators often excuse their behavior as mere “admiration” for a beautiful woman, leaving victims to suffer in silence.
Starting with female streamers…
One memorable clip shows Canadian-born streamer Jasmine Vo, who lives and works in Japan, livestreaming her breakfast on Twitch when a stranger suddenly creeps up, grabs her waist, and touches her chest. Jasmine was shocked, scared, and broke down in tears right then.
Viewers urged her to leave immediately after witnessing the public harassment. Frightened, she left, but the attacker followed her for a while before disappearing.
The incident happened back in September 2020 but Jasmine only spoke about it in March 2021. Before that, online users kept blaming her, saying only women who dress revealingly get harassed. In reality, Jasmine was dressed very modestly.
…To hot physics teacher Minh Thu
Still trending on social media, physics teacher Minh Thu continues to attract huge attention on forums. One of her livestreams drew nearly 400,000 comments. Unfortunately, many were inappropriate, teasing her looks, and some even included explicit sexual harassment during her online lessons.
Although Minh Thu tried to focus on teaching and ignored the crude comments, the harassment still affected her mentally. Many have spoken out, urging the online community to stop making inappropriate remarks during livestreams.
The physics teacher said she wasn’t too affected emotionally because she rarely reads comments after class, which often ends late and requires her to check messages from students. Still, she expected mixed reactions once she became well-known.
Sexual harassment comes in many forms everywhere, often disguised as teasing remarks. What people call harmless jokes actually fuel distorted views about respecting beauty and humanity, worsening harassment problems and, in this case, undermining respect for teachers.
The online community’s enjoyment of this, combined with victims’ helplessness, indirectly helps abusers and makes the problem worse, normalizing harassment in society.
It’s important to understand that cruel jokes about appearance or sexual topics are never funny. They spread negative and twisted ideas. Everyone appreciates beauty and deserves praise, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to gossip or make tasteless jokes.
