An Instagram account called Bye Felipe is the best new place to share the absurd messages every woman who has ever online dated has received.
Alexandra Tweten, an operations coordinator in Los Angeles, started the account after realizing how many women -- herself included -- receive aggressive or threatening messages, often in very graphic terms, from men they aren't interested in on online dating sites.
"I realized these hostile messages were a trend that women see online," Tweten told The Huffington Post in an email. "That started a conversation about creating an Instagram to keep all of these insane messages so we could discuss them. All women get some degree of creepy or weird messages when they sign up for online dating sites."
Users can submit screenshots of their conversations, which are then shared on the Instagram account.
"It's a standard reaction that I've now seen over and over again with the submissions," Tweten said. "Guy hits on girl, girl doesn't respond, guy lashes out with insulting message. It really shows the entitlement these guys feel, and I think it shows our cultural misogyny problem."
Bye Felipe joins the ranks of place like the Straight White Boys Texting Tumblr where women can call out men's online bad behavior. As Olga Khazan wrote in a piece for The Atlantic, "It would be ridiculous if a stranger showed you his penis in a bar and didn't suffer repercussions. So why... are online daters allowed to assail each other with visual and written obscenity?"
Tweten hopes that the account will show other women they're not alone in dealing with these kinds of comments, and hopefully teach men that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.
"I also wanted to show men what it's like existing as a woman online, because I don't think they realize or know what it's like," she said. "Maybe a guy will see it and put a second thought into sending a woman a mean message."
See more submissions below, and check out the full account here.
Related
Before You Go
