InstagramAn alternate name for this Instagram account? "That escalated quickly."
It's hard out there for a woman in the online dating world. Need proof? Look no further than the Bye Felipe Instagram account that features actual exchanges between women and the men they interact with online. And by "interact," we mean forced to endure a barrage of disgusting insults and threats after rejecting men. And by "men," we mean sociopaths.
Alexandra Tweten, the women who started Bye Felipe, wrote in a blog for Ms. magazine that she came up with the idea after she and a friend had similar experiences with men going off on them after they politely turned them down. She knew that other women would have similar experiences, and that they probably wanted a place to commiserate with each other.
So she started compiling screenshots from women who were dealing with angry suitors who couldn't handle the idea of a female not being interested in them after a conversation, a date or just a glance at their profile. The main purpose of Bye Felipe is obviously to expose these individuals, but it also serves as a reminder that this is what it's truly like for women online. Tweten writes in the blog:
"Under their logic, we are supposed to entertain any man who is interested in conversation or a date just because we exist on a dating site. Which is completely ridiculous. This is just a symptom of a larger problem. Censoring these messages may help in the short term, but the messages featured on Bye Felipe are like an immortalized version of the catcalls and threats women receive on the street every day, just walking around and existing. Until we change the cultural atmosphere, women will continue to receive these hurtful messages online and in real life."
Here are just some of the messages that women deal with upon entering the online dating world. Warning: very graphic and pathetic language ahead:
Obviously, not all men dating online are like the ones shown above. In fact, a certain E! Online writer met her current boyfriend through a dating website, and he is very kind and wonderful and would never say such things. And we are sure that men get messages similar to the ones on Bye Felipe. The important thing to remember when using a dating website or a dating app is that you are interacting with real human beings, so please treat them as such.