Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: The actress who plays AT&T's Lily is facing waves of online sexual harassment, including manipulated images and objectifying memes

  1. #1
    #DeSantis2024 Teh One Who Knocks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    5280' Above Sea Level
    Posts
    256,044
    vCash
    10966
    Mentioned
    20 Post(s)
    Thanks
    23,810
    Thanked 113,085 Times in 59,902 Posts

    Rape Culture The actress who plays AT&T's Lily is facing waves of online sexual harassment, including manipulated images and objectifying memes

    Margot Harris - INSIDER




    Actress Milana Vayntrub has appeared on hit shows like "This is Us," but many know her as Lily — the friendly employee from AT&T commercials (she played Lily from 2013 to 2016 before taking a hiatus and returning to the role earlier this year). As a public face of the company, Vayntrub has also cultivated a large social media following, boasting nearly 740,000 followers on Instagram. But the actress' recent experience on social media, she revealed in an Instagram live, had been upsetting and violating.

    Last week, social media users rediscovering Vayntrub's AT&T videos began posting a slew of objectifying memes of the actress online, using and distorting many of her old photos. Some posts received hundreds of thousands of likes, spurring thousands of comments about Vayntrub's appearance.

    Instagram users flooded the comments section of an August 17 Instagram post from AT&T featuring Vayntrub – sending the video's view count to over 1 million.

    A post shared by on


    As commenters made objectifying comments and posted "milk" emojis, the AT&T account attempted to shut down the harassment, replying that the company does not condone "sexual harassment of employees in the workplace or [their] social channels" and that users' "overshares aren't welcome."

    Eventually, the account turned off comments on the post.

    Twitter user @megatronraid, who goes by Lu, screenshotted some of the comments and shared them on Twitter.

    Lu told Insider that she believed the comments were "invasive and uncalled for," but felt that any attempts to intervene would have been "futile," as even AT&T was unsuccessful in dissuading the trolls.

    Ultimately, Lu decided to post the comments to show how people behave with impunity online.

    "The kind of things you'd see on AT&T's post is at such a direct contrast with the behaviors of people you'd talk to on a daily basis," she said.

    Vayntrub took to Instagram to speak out against the rampant sexual harassment

    In an Instagram Live, the actress addressed how the sudden onslaught of social media harassment had affected her emotional wellbeing.

    "Maybe it just has to do with being a person on the internet, or maybe it's specific to being a woman on the internet. But all of these comments —" she said before pausing to read several explicit comments as they appeared on the screen, "it hurts my feelings."

    In another segment from her live stream, which has since been reposted to Twitter, Vayntrub stressed how violating the messages were.

    "Let me tell you, I am not consenting to any of this. I do not want any of this," she said in the clip, adding that her tormentors were using her personal, decade-old photos from a pool party.

    As she spoke, some viewers continued to make objectifying comments, while others instructed her to develop a "thicker skin" or simply report her trolls.

    Reporting every harasser, Vayntrub noted grimly, would be virtually impossible.

    "I'm hurting and it's bringing up, like, a lot of feelings of sexual assault," she said. "I am just like, you know, walking my dog and getting messages from people who have distorted my pictures to get likes on their accounts."

    As comments continued to pour in, a visibly emotional Vayntrub elected to end the live stream.

    Some Twitter users immediately came to Vayntrub's defense, calling the situation "tragic" and "utterly unacceptable."

    "I feel so bad for her. At one point in the stream, she sounds like she's about to cry and dumba---- in the comments keep going with the thing she just said makes her uncomfortable," one commenter wrote.

    Vayntrub's long-time employer is also speaking out against the harassment.

    "We will not tolerate the inappropriate comments and harassment of Milana Vayntrub, the talented actor that portrays Lily in our ads," AT&T said in a statement to Insider. "We have disabled or deleted these comments on our social content that includes Lily and we will continue to fight to support her and our values, which appreciate and respect all women."

    Since addressing the situation, Vayntrub has been promoting her newest project: a conversation with Ted Bunch, the co-founder of A Call To Men, an organization that describes its objective as "creating a world where all men are loving & respectful and all women and girls are valued and safe."

    The conversation, which is scheduled to take place on the evening of August 26, will address healthy masculinity, gender equity, and racial justice.

    Representatives for Vayntrub did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

  2. #2
    aka TheInvisibleMan Griffin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    9,477
    vCash
    1000
    Mentioned
    0 Post(s)
    Thanks
    4,213
    Thanked 7,023 Times in 3,854 Posts

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to Griffin For This Useful Post:

    Goofy (08-27-2020)

  4. #3
    21-Jazz hands salute Muddy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    On the Waters of Life
    Posts
    47,246
    vCash
    9653
    Mentioned
    5 Post(s)
    Thanks
    25,971
    Thanked 12,316 Times in 8,172 Posts
    So AT&T should moderate their content.. ? Whats the big deal.. You will never eliminate trolls. But you can control what's on your own page.

  5. #4
    unedited FBD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    26,000LYR out, paying taxes to pedophiles
    Posts
    24,602
    vCash
    1000
    Mentioned
    10 Post(s)
    Thanks
    15,855
    Thanked 5,822 Times in 3,934 Posts
    Would AT&T rather nobody's talking about them whatsoever? Tits sell, and every man who's seen an at&t commercial knows she's got a great set of milkers, I dont know what the big friggin deal is.

  6. #5
    Dilly dilly Goofy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    On the oche
    Posts
    52,011
    vCash
    5200
    Mentioned
    124 Post(s)
    Thanks
    6,061
    Thanked 13,156 Times in 6,846 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Griffin View Post

  7. #6
    Shelter Dweller PorkChopSandwiches's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    77,135
    vCash
    5000
    Mentioned
    15 Post(s)
    Thanks
    47,197
    Thanked 29,254 Times in 16,488 Posts






  8. #7
    Shelter Dweller lost in melb.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Down Under
    Posts
    23,764
    vCash
    7596
    Mentioned
    18 Post(s)
    Thanks
    18,672
    Thanked 7,553 Times in 5,206 Posts
    *squirt* *squirt*

    But she rubbed out a few times over the attention

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •