Bryony Gordon, a columnist for the Daily Mail's Femail section, says she has been receiving a steady stream of explicit and body‑shaming direct messages on Instagram from men whose profiles often suggest they are middle‑class fathers.
Gordon writes that the messages have intensified this summer, arriving each time she posts images of herself exercising or enjoying the sea. "The green vomit emojis have been coming thick and fast this summer," she said, and shared examples that range from taunts such as "Whale!" to a message that read, "You’re disgusting and need to lose at least four stone before I’d even consider you." She said other men send explicit descriptions of what they would like to do to her.
When Gordon clicked through to the senders' profiles, she said, many displayed pictures of dog walks or holidays with children, images she said suggested a conventional family life. "If men aren’t getting in touch to shame me for my body, they’re messaging to tell me what they’d like to do to it," she wrote, and asked rhetorically, "Do their wives know about their double lives, harassing strangers on the internet?"
Gordon said she has encountered online harassment for almost 20 years but believes this summer has been the worst period yet. "Not a day has passed by without at least one stranger messaging to tell me what they think of my body," she wrote.
Her column presents a first‑person account rather than a systematic study of online behaviour, and it attributes the pattern to the men she encounters in her Instagram inbox. The messages she described included both overt sexual propositions and derogatory comments about weight and appearance. Gordon noted instances in which senders present themselves publicly as family‑oriented or engaged in routine leisure activities, which she said compounds the sense of dissonance between the men's online behaviour and the images they project.
The account adds to ongoing public discussions about harassment and abuse on social media platforms, where public‑facing users and influencers often report receiving unsolicited sexual messages and hostile commentary. Gordon's observations are anecdotal and reflect her personal experience on Instagram; she did not cite aggregated platform data in the column.
Gordon used the column to call attention to the volume and nature of the messages she has received and to question why such behaviour persists. Her piece underscores how everyday interactions on social media can bring sharply personal and invasive messages to public figures and private citizens alike, and it prompted public debate about accountability and moderation on online platforms.