2 hours ago
10 
‘How much per night?’
No, I’m not the manager of a quaint B&B, nor am I working in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. I’m actually just trying to sell a mirror on Facebook Marketplace.
I listed the arch mirror for £25 on 22 August, ahead of moving back into my parents’ house, where there already was one.
Having just lost a large chunk of my freelance income, I could have done with the extra cash. But frankly, I’m not sure that the sexual harassment I endured on Marketplace was worth that £25.
‘Is this still available? Does she come with it lol,’ asked another man.
Another messaged: ‘Can you pick up the mirror and shake it?’, prompting a restrained ‘weird behaviour’ reply from me – somehow I knew instinctively that he wasn’t concerned with the structural integrity of the glass.
Yet another said: ‘Not interested in the mirror but you’re beautiful,’ despite the fact that I had obscured my face in the photo.
I had done it deliberately, perhaps subconsciously anticipating some unsolicited attention.
After venting my frustrations about the unsolicited messages I’d received, a friend questioned why I was wearing a dress in the listing photo – as if I’d got dolled up for the occasion.
I was simply doing some life admin while waiting for a friend to arrive for dinner – but even writing this sentence, I can’t believe I’m justifying what I was wearing when selling a mirror.
The thought process reminded me of the arguments deployed by rape apologists, who suggest women somehow invite sexual violence through what they’re wearing.
Gemma, 42, from Gateshead, knows just how quickly an apparently sincere Marketplace enquiry can become something more sinister.
In 2022, she listed her wedding dress, including her measurements and 34FF bra size, so that prospective brides could judge whether it would fit.
When a Yorkshireman claiming to be a photographer expressed interest, Gemma gave him her work phone number, believing he was a genuine buyer.
During their call, he told Gemma that her breasts reminded him of his wife’s, before revealing that they were swingers, and asking whether Gemma had ever considered the lifestyle herself.
‘At first it was an “OMG” story that I could share with my work colleagues,’ said Gemma. ‘We laughed about it because of how shocking it was. The audacity of this man!’
It soon stopped being funny, though: over the following fortnight, Gemma received more than 10 calls from a withheld number.
This Is Not Right
On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.
With the help of our partners at Women's Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.
You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.
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Introducing This Is Not Right: Metro's year-long violence against women campaign Remembering the women killed by men in 2024She said: ‘It just felt disgusting. I could be sitting in work, answering a call and hearing him heavy breathing and – what I suspected was – masturbating on the other end.’
Gemma can’t prove it was the same man, although the caller referenced the bra size in her advert in one call.
Sadly, because she used the phone for work, she couldn’t ignore calls from withheld numbers.
Eventually, she threatened to contact the police, and the calls stopped.
Unfortunately, our experiences are hardly unique.
Research published by Refuge and the End Violence Against Women Coalition on 24 September 2026, which surveyed 2,000 women aged 16+, found that one in three (36%) of UK women reported experiencing some form of online violence against women, with 18% reporting experiences of image-based sexual abuse.
A 2023 OnePoll survey of 3,000 UK women found that one in five had experienced sexual harassment on social media, with 57% of those affected identifying Facebook or Messenger as somewhere they had experienced it.
I received 61 enquiries, with 24 of these contacts making me uncomfortable.
I finally sold the mirror on 9 September, opting for it to go to a woman called Zoe, rather than risk giving a man with an ulterior motive the address where my female former housemate now lived alone.
Heather, 30, Sheffield, didn’t appear in her listing photos at all, when in late 2021, after she listed a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes on Marketplace – using photographs that showed only the shoes, box and dust bags.
A man messaged Heather asking to see them on, and she replied saying ‘I don’t think that’s necessary’.
He then sent an unsolicited image of himself reclining in underwear, which Heather felt was deliberately posed to emphasise his penis.
‘I immediately blocked him,’ Heather said.
Neither woman contacted Facebook after their experiences – they didn’t see the point as they couldn’t imagine any action would be taken.
I did report and, in my experience at least, Heather and Gemma have been right.
Firstly, finding the reporting function within the mobile Messenger app was far from intuitive.
The ‘block’ option comes up first on mobile, you have to go into a submenu to locate the option to report a user for sexual harassment – but even after sending over 20 of these reports, I have received no communication from Meta about what, if any, action was taken.
While Meta claims to review reports and act on content that violates its policies, the company’s ‘Trust and safety on Marketplace’ webpage doesn’t explain what specific repercussions harassers might face, or how complainants will be informed of the outcome.
Scrolling back through the messages, none of the accounts that sent me inappropriate messages appear to have been deactivated.
Consequently, I want Meta to introduce clearer reporting mechanisms, explicitly address sexual harassment within its Marketplace safety guidance, and implement stronger repercussions for serious or repeated offences – including Marketplace bans, or Facebook account suspensions.
Crucially, complainants deserve feedback about the measures that have been taken to protect them and others using the platform.
Blocking someone might prevent them from contacting me ever again – but it does nothing to reassure me that they won’t message the next woman trying to sell her belongings.
Meanwhile, Meta appears to be preoccupied with making Marketplace more autonomous.
In September 2026, Meta’s AI assistant, Muse, reportedly arranged a Marketplace transaction on seller Matt Robb’s behalf, sharing his Toronto home address with a prospective buyer who turned up while he was out.
The seller acknowledged having selected an ‘Allow Always’ permission, but said that he hadn’t appreciated the extent of the authority this granted the assistant, while Meta said that its investigations of similar incidents had found Muse followed users’ instructions and permissions.
Before investing any further in automation, though, I implore Meta to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask why something as simple as selling one still comes at such a cost for women.
Meta did not respond to Metro’s request for comment.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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