This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life
A NEW DOCUMENTARY SEES EMILY ATACK OPEN UP ABOUT THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT SHE SUFFERS ONLINE AND ASKS WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE TO PROTECT WOMEN AND GIRLS
A couple of months ago, BBC2 viewers saw actor and comedian Emily Atack join forces with Ruby Wax and Mel B for the series Trailblazers, in which she retraced the footsteps of intrepid Victorian explorer, Isabella Bird.
Now, Emily, 33, is back on the channel on a much more personal mission, as she opens up her life and social media messages – which she has previously said included rape threats – to explore why she and others are harassed online.
The presenter, who found fame on the sitcom The Inbetweeners before going on to appear on Dancing on Ice, I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and her own comedy series The Emily Atack Show, talks about how she has been on the receiving end of unwanted sexual attention from a very young age.
If that wasn’t distressing enough, she has repeatedly been told she’s somehow ‘asking for it’.
When the online abuse began to escalate over lockdown, Emily decided it was time to speak out and she began sharing her experiences with her followers, which prompted many of them to tell their own stories of being harassed – and to admit that they had come to accept the abuse as normal.
In Emily Atack: Asking For It?, she explores how “something so grotesque, aggressive, malicious and violent” as sexual harassment has evolved and how it could be tackled through education.
She points out that “minor and normalised” behaviour can evolve “into something way more sinister and malicious”.
Emily speaks to a sexual violence and abuse counsellor and online safety campaigners and also talks to police about what is being done to protect women and girls.
She says: “This was the hardest thing I’ve ever filmed in my life and one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through and do. I had many points where I felt like I couldn’t carry on with it, I broke down a lot, I had a lot of therapy throughout. It’s revisiting trauma.”
In one “emotional” day, she spoke to young people and was “shocked” to learn it was older men “approaching” girls online, not boys in schools.
In another scene, Emily talks to her parents about her experiences which include attracting unwanted sexual attention from a very young age.
She says: “When you grow up with that sort of behaviour in your life, your family and the people that care about you do everything they can to stop it.”
Emily says this would involve people trying to “change” her behaviour and she had “privileges” like wearing make-up or a skirt to school taken away.
Of making the documentary she adds: “I do feel that as bumpy and as difficult as it was to go through that process, I genuinely feel stronger for it and proud of the film we’ve made.
“If it stops one man from sending an explicit image to a girl that day, then it’s done something right.” Emily Atack: Asking for It? is on Tuesday, BBC2, 9pm