"I GOT FACEBOOK-CATCALLED!": Harassment on Social Media.

I have a relatively low threshold for what would constitute inappropriate interaction between a male and a female. Things can border harassment really quickly, and I’m the type who turns into a prissy little grandma the second it even approximates the harassment border—and you know what, I don’t even know how I turned out this way.

How do we not get harassed on Facebook? Should we adjust our Facebook settings to exaggeratedly high privacy so that nobody, not even people looking for productive connections could find us and send us messages? Should we stop posting beautiful pictures and witty thoughts, and stifle our creativity? OF COURSE NOT. How to not get harassed on Facebook? Teach those idiots a lesson. It’s as simple as that.

Of course, I can’t really preach without doing, right? Well, I did.

A few days ago, I got messages from a Lance Murillo, saying “Hi”, and later, “Gudmorning” (Good morning). Of course, I found it pathetic. 

Sketchy since 2011.

I checked to see who our mutual friends are, and then I found that we only had one—a girl from one of my lower batches at my old school. I actually did message her to ask who this Lance Murillo is, but I simply did not get a reply. She could be busy, you know. Apart from us having just one mutual friend, I also found out that this guy was already at the random messaging as early as 2011, but the thing is, on October 21 of 2011, it was the middle of the semestral break, and on that exact date, I was in Singapore. I didn't know him then, I still don't know him now.

"Take care always"? Don't tell me what to do.

..and then he messaged me again, this time also telling me to take care. I reported him to Facebook, because I’m guessing that to someone like him who radiates vibes of small-mindedness, nothing could be scarier than receiving a warning (and a potential suspension) from Facebook, but for the thrill of standing up for myself, I decided to go on full-on catfight mode.

I was very much on extreme catfight mode that I even made a typographical error.
Let's see if you can spot it.:)

Apparently, he wanted to make friends with a beautiful girl like me. Um, no. First of all, what kind of loser looks for friends based on physical attributes?  Harassment, yo.

In the age of tech-savvy millennialism (we rule the world from the comfort of our own bedrooms, deal with it), it’s greatly appreciated when people use social media to spread awareness for certain causes. Well, blog-writing is my superpower, so I decided to use it. I’m really iffy about using the word threat. Did I really threaten him that I’d write about him on my blog, or did I just inform him, albeit vaguely, that I would?

Oh wells.

I wanted to send him another message, but when I was about to hit send, I was informed that he wasn’t able to receive messages from me. Whether it’s because of the Facebook report I filed a few minutes earlier, or if my “friend” decided to block me after I very nicely informed him that he’d be featured on the blog, I really don’t know. 

I don’t know if I should be proud of how I handled that situation.

I’m all about female empowerment, at this day and age, we can’t really allow males to treat us however they like. You wouldn’t want random men messaging your girlfriend, your sister, or your mother that way, so why would you talk to a woman that way? I’m in no position to talk about gender sensitivity, but being at the receiving end of gender insensitivity, I think I’m allowed to say that it doesn’t feel good at all. I want to contribute, even just a little bit, to teaching harassers a little something about respecting women, offline and online.

With a post like this, two things could happen—it could stay silent, just like all other posts I’ve ever made, or it could make rounds. If anyone wants to fight with me on the Facebook comments section, I hate to break it to you, but I’m rarely ever on Facebook anymore, so please just do it on Twitter. There’s also a chatbox, as well as a Contact Me form on the right hand side of the blog home page, you can fight with me there.:)