NHL Player Says He's Being Sexually Harassed by Thirsty TikTok Fans
NHL's Seattle Kraken have removed a series of steamy social media videos objectifying the team's own players after criticism from forward Alexander Wennberg and his wife Felicia Weeren.
Wennberg and a few of his teammates had recently been trending on BookTok, a subsection of TikTok where avid readers come together. Hockey-themed romances enjoy tremendous popularity there, and the blonde, blue-eyed Wennberg became a favorite amongst community members who post fan edits transposing existing NHL players into their fictional, supremely horny counterparts.
One of BookTok's most vocal fans of Kraken players is Kierra Lewis, who would often post sexually explicit videos ogling the hockey stars. In one post, Lewis says while admiring a picture of Wennberg: “Baby, I might not got five holes, but I got three. And since you’re so good at assisting, why don’t you assist your teammates in scoring in all three of my holes?”
The Seattle Kraken seemed to enjoy the attention, inviting Lewis to games and even editing videos which sexualized their own players. One showcasing a besuited Wennberg strutting in slow motion was captioned, “When you accidentally become a BookTok account.”
kierra lewis original video that talks about alex wennberg inappropriately pic.twitter.com/TivDYPMAQE
— ???? (@dimpleboyie) July 30, 2023
It stopped being funny last week, when Wennberg's wife Weeren took to her Instagram stories to denounce the BookTok community’s treatment of Kraken players.
“While I’m all for female empowerment and especially around sex, there have been videos and comments made that have crossed the line of what it means to fancy someone and when it actually sounds pretty predatory and [exploitative],” Weeren began her statement. “With the internet, we can normalize behavior that would never be ok if we flipped the genders around.”
Wennberg then sounded off on his own Instagram stories. “It has gone too far…when people post vile comments on my wife’s Instagram and on photos of our child,” he said in part.
After the remarks, the Kraken immediately unfollowed Lewis and deleted their own thirsty posts. Lewis, whose words Weeren quoted in her own statements, felt outraged that she was being scapegoated. Many others in the community felt the Krakens used BookTok to further their own agenda, and then abandoned it when it was no longer valuable.
However, many BookTokkers insist what occurred was sexual harassment and said it is not synonymous with the community as a whole.
“The irony is that communities of romance readers are often very attuned and aware of ideas of consent,” Jessica Maddox, a professor of digital media technology who has researched BookTok, told NBC News. “But we’re seeing a disconnect between how it would be understood in a book versus how it would be understood ‘IRL’, so to speak.”
In real life, Maddox notes, “You can change your mind at any point.”