While the peace of the offseason has taken root, Alex Wennberg’s summer has gotten very…very rocky. And none of it is his fault.
Let’s get caught up on the messiest storyline of the summer so far.https://t.co/fnsYrrPdml
— Davy Jones’ Locker Room (@DavyJonesLR) July 30, 2023
Users on TikTok have been sexually harassing hockey player Alex Wennberg because they’ve ‘faceclaimed’ him as a romance book character. When his wife called them out, they got mad and started harassing her instead.
Background:
– Hockey romance has become really popular on BookTok, a section of TikTok dedicated to books.
– Faceclaiming is assigning a real life person to a book character
– BookTok fans have found real life hockey players who may be similar to characters from their favourite hockey romance books and started ‘following’ them and their team. Alex Wennberg is one of those hockey players.
– Kraken, Alex Wennberg’s team, started posting more videos of him because they got a lot of engagement. They even invited one of the TikTok creators to a game.
– BookTok kept making increasingly sexually explicit comments about Wennberg, and also started tagging him in explicit comments and DMing him.
– Finally, his wife had enough and made a statement asking them to stop.
Felicia Wennberg’s statement:
– The wife of Alex Wennberg, Felicia Wennberg (who has a PHD in sexual consent) finally posted an Instagram story saying the comments have verged into sexual harassment and to please tone it down
I think Felicia Wennberg is an amazing woman and I hope you guys take some time to read what she has to say and reflect on how some of the things you say publicly make actual people feel pic.twitter.com/9f05uwOqbN
— Nicole (@NicoleCutmore) July 28, 2023
BookTok’s response:
– BookTok was NOT happy, and started harassing Felicia in all her posts on Instagram, including posts with her and Alex’s children
– Started saying Felicia is probably insecure because her husband is cheating on her
– They also claimed that they made up all the followers and engagement for the team Alex plays for, Kraken
So let’s get this straight, a real person that you’ve been objectifying online said that made her uncomfortable, and your reaction is to call her “this Felicia chick”, and then imply she’s “riding booktok’s coattails for the clout? What. Girl she’s MARRIED TO HIM. https://t.co/o2u59X6oxz pic.twitter.com/kk5dEJKM50
— katie (@itsmitchmarney) July 28, 2023
So Felicia Wennberg calls out people for sexually harassing Alex so that Kierra girl directs her weirdo fans to harass Felicia pic.twitter.com/ve7RGEdpZ0
— Bailey (@MCDAV1D) July 28, 2023
Felicia’s follow-up statment:
Felicia Wennberg released an additional statement where she tried to explain her stance, but it didn’t help
“I really wanted my post to be one statement and be taken for what it was; a request for accountability, respect, boundaries, and for people to educate themselves on sexual harassment, consent, and the double standard I see online.”
“…While the creator is hung up on it being 4 months since she posted the video she and her following do not seem to grasp that the video has continued to show up in our lives on a daily basis. (…) Every game I’ve been to and talked to fans I get in my head if these are genuine hockey fans or the people who comment that they masturbate with his jersey on.“
If you think BookTok amended their stance after this statement, well… they just continued on.
Alex Wennberg statement:
Ultimately, the harassment of Felicia got so bad that the player himself, Alex Wennberg, had to make a statement asking them to leave his wife and child alone.
From Wennberg’s story himself… Wow pic.twitter.com/WRzAhbvsv8
— Max ⚓️🔱 (@fischybusinesss) July 29, 2023
Sorry if this was long and confusing ONTD, it was a lot of info to sort through and explain
