This 17-Year-Old Shared A Perfect Example Of How Hard It Is To Be A Woman On The Internet

"As a young woman on the internet, you really can't escape casual sexual harassment."

This is Cat, a 17-year-old high school student from South Wales, UK.

The teen told BuzzFeed News she is hoping to go to college next year to study sociology.

Recently, Cat put up a pretty innocent photo on Snapchat about new headphones she'd gotten. One of her followers sent her a sexual response in reply.

"You wearing those and nothing else, that would be heaven," the person wrote.

Cat said that the person wasn't someone she knew, but was someone who randomly started following her.

"I saw the message and couldn't help but thinking of how it seemed impossible as a young girl on the internet to share anything without running the risk of having someone message you inappropriate things," she said.

She added: "I was amused that a photo I had considered to be innocent with no kind of sexual connotations still managed to garner unwarranted comments. I [was] also annoyed because it seemed that as a young woman on the internet, you really can't escape casual sexual harassment."

Cat said that she has seen people say before that the only reason women are sexually harassed is because they post "slutty" pictures. So she decided to tweet about the message to show how harassers can make anything sexual.

'Boys wouldn't send weird messages if you didn't put up such slutty photos'

"I had seen many people say that boys only message these things because of the types of photos women upload, so decided to use that as the comment above the photos in my tweet to show the irony of this," she said.

Her message really struck a chord with people, and her tweet has been retweeted more than 30,000 times. People said the photos were truly ridiculous.

@catttttt___ @BrandonEvrs look at those headphones just laying there on the bed all sexy and exposed. I mean they're really asking for it 🙄🙄

"I'm a man and I'm ashamed for my entire gender," one person wrote.

@catttttt___ I'm a man and I'm ashamed for my entire gender.

"PERVERT LEVEL - INSANE," another wrote.

@catttttt___ I have to say, his ability to make something as random as a headphone sexual; PERVERT LEVEL - INSANE.

Cat said the response was completely unexpected.

"When I posted the tweet I expected maybe a few retweets and my friends saying they chuckled slightly when seeing it. I certainly didn't expect all of this," she said.

She added that she has appreciated all the comments, and plans to keep speaking out about sexual harassment online.

"It's been pretty heartwarming to see all these people agree that it's wrong, and to see many men shocked at the comments," she said. "I've seen many women saying they've experienced similar, which brought my attention to just how big of a problem it is."

Skip to footer