The concept #abregefrere, which has given rise to cyberharassment of rare violence against women on social networks, is accused of being sexist and misogynistic. But is it really? We take stock of the controversy.
For several weeks, the account @abregefrere is on everyone’s lips. Launched at the end of last January on Instagram And TikTok, he enjoyed dazzling success. The idea? Shorten “story times”, longer videos now authorized by social networks (up to 3 minutes), by summarizing the facts in just a few seconds.
Reaction to the camera, blasé face, monotonous tone, loud sip of coffee in conclusion… The recipe worked and the buzz was immediate: in just a few days, the content creator exceeded one million subscribers on Tik Tok and its videos have accumulated several thousand views, likes and comments. But if its concept was initially humorous, it quickly degenerated.
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Has the #abregefrere concept simply degenerated?
The account was indeed criticized for targeting almost only videos posted by women, leading to accusations of mansplainingof misogyny and of stigmatization.
Beyond that, the concept seems to have escaped the author when several of his followers seized on the trend to comment on one (or more) #abbregefrere publications of sometimes very serious TikTokers and Instagrammers (evoking for example violence against women). Often until harassment. Between insults, criticism, sexism, violence and death threats, many influencers have been ordered… to keep quiet.
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Influencers (including Chloë Gervais) denounce a wave of harassment
Some have therefore decided to react, as is the case with Chloe Gervaisvery popular on TikTokwho suffered a wave of cyberharassment after being the target of the @abregefrere account. “At the very least, you don’t give a damn that your content has normalized telling girls who are doing their little story time and their makeup tutorial to shut their mouths. At the most, that tells me that you are a big misogynist”she told the content creator in a video posted on Tik Tok.
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A reaction which, unfortunately, only worsened the surge of online hatred of which she was the victim. Hate marked by powerful sexism, several Internet users having taken the opportunity to point out his alleged relationship with the YouTuber Squeezie. “Hold on to your girl, who cares, she says anything”, “She’s unbearable, I understand better why Squeezie didn’t want to show her”, “Is the Squeezie girl stupid or something?”, “Apart from Squeezie, she has nothing going for her.”can we read in the comments.
“The problem is not being abbreviated, it’s what it creates”
Faced with the scale that her video took, Chloë Gervais spoke again, Wednesday February 21, to clarify certain things. “I never accused @abregefrere of being misogynistic because he shortened the girls’ videos more than the guys’. If he shortens more girls than guys, it’s because his concept is to shorten story times and, on Tik Tok, there are more story times produced by girls”she began.
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“What I criticize him for is that he, despite himself, created an immense wave of harassment and misogyny on the networks”she added, speaking of a “instrumentalization” of its concept by its community who would have seen it “the perfect opportunity to insult and harass girls”. In his eyes, the problem “is not to be abbreviated in itself, that’s what it engenders”.
Finally, the young woman expressed her doubts regarding the lack of reaction from the @abregefrere account since the start of the controversy. “I don’t think we can remain indifferent when thousands of girls point out to you that they are being insulted, harassed, humiliated because of your content. He can’t have missed it since we were tagging him a lot while explaining the problem”, she lamented. She then reiterated the comments made in the first video: “At the very least, he is totally overwhelmed by his new notoriety and does not know how to react. At the most, he just doesn’t care about indirectly leading to a wave of harassment and violence targeting female creators”she concluded.
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A simple “influencer affair”? Not far from here
Chloë Gervais’ comments were defended by several feminists and journalists, starting with Salomé Saqué. “New speech from Chloë Gervais who is trying to calm the wave of harassment she is experiencing, by clarifying what she was made to say. No, she does not accuse @abregefrere of being sexist, but she highlights the wave of misogynistic harassment that her content has caused”she wrote, republishing the influencer’s latest video on X.
Salomé Saqué also spoke on Instagram emphasizing that this affair was not a simple “influencer story” but the “revealing a latent and deep sexism in our society”. “Many creators denounce harassment, it is essential to hear them and try to find collective solutions so that this no longer happens”she insisted.
Section head Society / Psychology / Couple /
Rights of women and children, violence, feminism, gender, discrimination, parenthood, education, psychology, health, sexuality…. Joséphine loves deciphering all the social issues that drive our world today. She you …