There are very few safe places left for women online. Incelism is rife, deepfakes have become commonplace, and the comments section under videos tackling trending conversations such as ‘would you rather be stuck in the forest with a man or a bear?’ serve as a constant reminder that misogyny is well and truly alive. Naively, I assumed a platform like Vinted, an online marketplace where people can sell their pre-loved clothing, wouldn’t play a role in this ever-growing manosphere. But naturally, I was wrong.

The combination of an article from Glamour published on 24 October 2024 and a recent Channel 4 Dispatches documentary have sparked conversations online regarding a seriously concerning trend. Investigators have discovered that women’s photos are being taken from Vinted without their permission and subsequently uploaded to highly misogynistic external websites. One of the most prolific sites, which has now been shut down, was called Vinted sluts.

The rise of platforms like ‘Vinted sluts’ begs the question: is anywhere on the internet safe for women?

“The online space is incredibly hostile towards women and girls. A wider conversation has to be had about the role every platform plays in facilitating a culture of… pic.twitter.com/FYvuwOAy8H

— Nordic Model Now! (@nordicmodelnow) October 28, 2024

While women being sexualised on the internet is nothing new, the fact that individuals can no longer post innocent images of themselves on a site such as Vinted without fearing potential exploitation is truly wild.

@politicsjoe

EllIe Flynn’s documentary Vinted’s Dirty Laundry airs on Channel 4 at 7.30pm

♬ original sound - PoliticsJOE

Moreover, the men who are revelling in this gross misconduct are actively seeking out these women on Vinted, sending sexually explicit messages and altogether creating a highly unsafe and dangerous environment.

One woman, 21-year-old Deimantė, who’d been victim to the Vinted sluts platform told Glamour: “I had no idea this was happening. When I first started receiving unsolicited sexual messages on Vinted, I didn’t think much of it. It’s just ‘creeps being creeps’. I uploaded a screenshot of one interaction to Reddit thinking it would make people laugh. Almost immediately, my inbox was flooded with women warning me about groups where people post photos of women from Vinted for sexual gain.”

Indeed, a quick search on Reddit and you come across dozens of threads and posts—mainly from women warning others of this malicious new trend. One user, explaining the seriousness of the situation, wrote: “They’re zooming in on areas of the body, making comments of the women and even making a profile for each woman. They’re putting the locations, adding links to each woman’s vinted, socials etc. The photos are basically normal photos of women, just regular pics you take to show an outfit or when you’re out wearing it and this is being exploited for disgusting reasons.”

A majority of men online have the mindset that women’s bodies are ripe for the picking. If an image exists within the digital space, there is zero sense of duty or responsibility to treat it respectfully. I mean it’s Vinted for crying out loud. Are you saying that I now can’t post an image of myself in a jacket or pair of trousers on an online marketplace without worrying that my picture, or even just my likeness, will end up on the desktop of some creep halfway around the world?

Elena Michael, Co-Founder and Director of Not Your Porn, told Glamour: “The intention of Vinted is to share, buy, and sell clothing, but what we see here shows and illustrates the way in which technology is weaponized against women and girls.”

“The online space is incredibly hostile towards women and girls. A wider conversation has to be had about the role every platform plays in facilitating a culture of entitlement to our bodies. If we’re not tackling this behaviour online, that will only perpetuate this attitude in the offline world,” she continued.

A lot of women online have blamed porn addictions for this new insidious form of exploitation:

porn has really fucked society up. it’s rotted so many mens minds that they see women only as different porn categories and there to please men. if you just happen to exist with those features or interests they think you’re sexualising yourself for them.

— Evie ♡ (@EFCevie) December 24, 2023

so men can jerk off to free and most likely stolen pornography of girls they’ll never talk to but can’t look at a girl being sexy on the internet without bullying them? what’s this double standard? you want us to be sexy but not when we willingly... are... sexy?????

— saira (@sairaspooks) October 28, 2019

No. If i wear a turtle neck, i'm sexualised. if i wear a v-neck, i'm sexualised. it is NOT about the cleavage someone shows.

the problem of being sexualised is NOT from facecams, or women simply showing that they are women online. https://t.co/9xcotpSDc3

— hannah🦋 (@louiseyhannah) December 9, 2020

the amount of men going “its just p*rn lol” or “where’s the link” says more than enough about how normalized the sexualization of women, consensual or nonconsensual, has become nowadays. hoping the site gets taken down, and that content like that can be criminalized in the future

— 𝖇eci 🌱☀️🧼🌧️🍞 (@simpkkuno) January 31, 2023

So, what do we do now? In September 2024, the UK government announced that sharing intimate images without consent would be made a ‘priority offence’ under the Online Safety Act. And while this move is positive and sits within a greater push from the government to “tackle sexual offending and the normalisation of misogynistic material online,” the existence of a platform such as Vinted sluts aptly reflects how strategic these men are.

When one site goes down, it’ll be just days before another pops up. These men seem to take legitimate pride in finding new ways to degrade and humiliate women they’ve never even met. Drastic action has to be taken if we ever want to reach a point where women and girls can feel safe online again. And sadly, I don’t know if we’ll ever get there.