Emily Atack has opened up about her experience with “disgusting” online sexual harassment.
The actress admitted that she noticed a “huge increase” of sexually explicit messages being sent to her following her 2018 stint in the I’m A Celeb jungle – and that it has only gotten worse.
The 30-year-old bravely wrote about her experience for Grazia UK, calling for change in a “blind spot that’s being ignored and tolerated”.
“Since I came out of the [I’m A Celeb] jungle almost two years ago, I have noticed a huge increase in sexually explicit messages I’m sent,” Emily wrote.
“I’ve screen-shotted a few, laughed at them with friends, shared them on my story with silly captions so we can all have a good old laugh at it.
“But it’s not always a joke,” she added, “It seems to be getting worse, as well as noticeably more disgusting and sexually aggressive.”
Emily revealed she woke up one morning to 12 vile messages from the same man, admitting she received similar messages “daily”.
“I know I’m not the only one. I know that it’s not all men who behave in this way. But whether you are in the public eye or not, I feel like there is some kind of sexual harassment blind spot which is going completely under the radar.”
“As we know, the world of social media has now made it possible for people so say whatever they like to anybody. Twitter is out of control. Public trolling is out of control. And it’s all out there for us to see.
“I feel Instagram has now become a place where this is also happening, but quietly,” she added.
“My Instagram DM section has now become a realm of sexually abusive comments, pictures, videos (yes- videos!) that I have absolutely no control over.
“I hate to admit it, but the awful thing about it is that it has started to make me question myself and the way I speak, act and behave.”
Emily continued: “I’ve always been a very open person. I’ve been described as ‘flirty’, ‘naughty’ and ‘cheeky’ even ‘erotically charged’.
“I talk about sex in my shows, I talk about my own personal sexual experiences. In fun and comedic detail. Because that is my choice. I enjoy sharing anecdotes and I want to make people laugh. But this is always in an environment where I am comfortable to do so: it’s my choice.
“Somebody commented on a photo of me the other day that I’d uploaded, saying that I show too much cleavage and I’m ‘asking for the wrong kind of attention’ and then complain when it happens.
“It’s the age-old thing of, ‘Well if you wear a short skirt, you’re asking to be sexually assaulted’. Women have been dealing with this FOREVER. And now these sexual predators have a whole other ground they can cover.
“They can come online and silently, and anonymously, sexually harass us without receiving any consequences whatsoever.”
Emily admitted that when she has experienced sexual harassment in person, she has called the police – but when it happens online she feels she doesn’t have as much “grounds for complaint”.
“If someone said or did that to me in the street, I wouldn’t think twice about following it up,” she wrote.
“That’s a terrifying message to receive and yet here I am just thinking of a funny caption for it to stick it on my story so we can laugh at it in some way. That’s my coping mechanism.
“This is a sexual harassment blind spot that’s being ignored and tolerated. It’s a new form of harassment we now have to just get used to. The boundaries have been obliterated. Although I’m not sure there were any in the first place?”
Emily concluded the piece by writing: “Enough. Life is hard enough for everyone at the moment. And we don’t need another pic of a floppy d*ck to prove it guys. If we wanted it, we’d ask for one.”
