Debate Renewed Over Boundaries For Online Comments About Public Figures
In hockey, the blue line clearly and unmistakably delineates between what's onside and what's offside.
The internet, for better or worse, has no such clearly marked lines of appropriate behavior.
Seattle Kraken forward Alex Wennberg and his wife Felicia decided to draw their own line. Separate Instagram postings denounced what they feel is sexual harassment by a subset of the social media video site TikTok. We detailed the story here.
This has reignited the periodic discussion about what public figures like athletes should have to expect, and what, as Ms. Wennberg wrote, "crosses the line." The debate has expanded far beyond traditional hockey media. Here's a sampling:
The Sportsnet story touches on the involvement of Kraken social media, which initially responded to "thirsty" videos by creating some of its own.
"The videos, aimed at the '#BookTok' community on TikTok that focuses on hockey romance novels, were leaning into the appeal for some in that subset of substituting fictional characters for real NHL players (called 'face claiming'). Wennberg, 28, a forward with the Kraken, was one of those players.
"After months of initially embracing the inclusion, the Wennbergs recently felt the content 'crossed the line of what it means to fancy someone and when it actually sounds pretty predatory and exploiting,' according to a social media post by Felicia Wennberg."
The Rolling Stone story mentioned a popular TikTok influencer named Kierra Lewis, who posted what she called "fun" and "humorous" videos of Wennberg.
"Many on BookTok sided with Wennberg and Weeren, claiming Lewis’ videos were essentially tantamount to sexual harassment. 'Did Kierra Lewis forget that it’s okay to take back consent at any point?' one fan wrote on Twitter. 'Also just because other people laughed doesn’t mean everyone was comfortable.'
"Does Lewis’ content go too far? Is it tantamount to sexual harassment to fantasize about being a piece of ice so a Swedish hockey player will glide on you? All legitimate questions — but perhaps none more so than the eternal one of whether terminally horny people should be allowed to have internet access."
"Felicia clarified that despite how Lewis criticized her for bringing up TikToks from months ago, 'she [Lewis] and her following seems to be unable to grasp that the video continued to show up in our life on a daily basis.'
"Lewis and other TikTokers’ confusion about what is and isn’t the right way to be a horny woman on the internet also seems fair. Maybe social media is just a weird, messy place, and we could all do better at remembering that we aren’t just screaming and vocalizing our lust into the void."
"Author Emily Rath's hockey romance books have been widely read and discussed on BookTok. Rath said that the Wennberg situation is about 'that 1%' that allows the lines between reality and fiction to get blurred.
"'A fandom was created around Alex Wennberg and they took it too far,' she said. 'They weren't treating him like a hockey player or even like a fictional boyfriend. You just saw them sexually fantasizing about him in crass and inappropriate ways in a public forum.'
"Rath applauded the Kraken's decision to remove videos aimed at that segment of the BookTok audience. 'The Kraken were in the wrong in feeding into it, but they're in the right to stop it,' she said."
"Dr. Jessica Maddox, assistant professor of digital media technology at the University of Alabama, has researched BookTok.
"'Communities of romance readers are often very aware of ideas of consent,' she said. 'But we’re seeing a disconnect between how it would be understood in a book versus how it would be understood IRL (in real life).'
"The reaction to the Wennbergs’ posts, Maddox said, is an example of solipsism, that one’s own experience is the only important one, online. This can make it difficult to understand or empathize with other people who feel harmed by their behavior.
"BookTok creator Marines Alvarez said the blurring of lines between fan fantasy and real people is common in parasocial relationships with celebrities.
"'There is this question (of) where we should draw the boundaries between this content that we love and appreciate,' she said, 'and then how we’re putting that on top of real people."