“Nothing is sexier to me than reading a ‘send nudes’ message from a guy I’ve never met before and have only exchanged three words with on Tinder,” said no woman ever. And even though we’ve all expressed how ineffective and offensive this approach is, women unlock their phones each and every day to discover a random man has slid into their DMs demanding to see their breasts.  

Leave it up to Harper Wilde to twist this cultural phenomenon and place all the power back into the hands of women. The online intimates company has given new meaning to the phrase “send nudes” in their latest campaign. The “Send Nudes” initiative is a collaboration with Free The Girls, an organization that empowers girls rescued from sex trafficking by providing a safe and powerful economic opportunity through the second-hand bra market. 

Beginning Tuesday, January 23, Harper Wilde is asking women to post their most clever responses to an unwanted “send nudes” request using the hashtag #HarperWildeSendsNudes on Instagram, or you can comment on the company’s Instagram post with your best response. For those who aren’t interested in participating but still want to give back, literally all you have to do is buy a bra. When you gift yourself or a friend with a Harper Wilde bra between February 7-14th, the company will donate a bra to Free The Girls.  

It should surprise no woman to learn that those nudes requests are not only gross and annoying—they can be extremely predatory. According to the badass intersectional brains behind Harper Wilde: “After some research, we learned that requesting nude photos is a common tool sex traffickers use to target teens. Traffickers find teens or children on social media who seem like they need someone to talk to—their posts seem “moody” or “depressed”—and reach out to them offering support. Once gaining their trust, they will often ask the victim to send nude photos, promising to keep them private. The sexting quickly turns into sextortion (basically online blackmail) threatening to share the photos with their friends and family unless the trafficker gets what they want.”

So, in hopes of reducing this terrifying scenario, let’s put these assholes on blast. Let them know we laugh at their messages before utilizing that good ole block feature. The reality is that sometimes we have to use humor to cope with the insane amount of misogyny we deal with on a daily basis, and that humor can be very powerful. We can work together on our journey to expose and fix these issues—and laugh a little bit along the way.