Jordan posted a video detailing this encounter, where she did not name these men, and stated that she politely declined their offer due to her very fair aversion to meeting two strangers off the internet.
After she posted this video, creator Jack Macintosh identified himself in his own videos as one of these men, breaking down in tears and expressing anger and frustration that she would not meet up with him.
She shared literature and book suggestions with these men instead of meeting up with them. Jack cried, while saying, “I’ve never read a book so when you sent me these books, I don’t want to say it goes over my head, but when people tell me to read any book, whether I have a fear of reading books I don’t know, but I’ve never read a book before”.
Allie from Missing Perspectives got to chat to Jordan about the developments over the last week, and the global attention she’s received. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did. Note – this conversation has been shortened and edited for clarity.
Allie: So my first question for you is how do you work to amplify the experiences of young women in Australia?
Jordan: It kind of started through literally just posting on TikTok. That’s how I found my voice. I think a lot of other people resonated with that, especially young women. I’ll admit, not for the first part – I used to just get seedy guys in the comments. But now I feel like it’s finally reached the audience that I’ve always intended for it to, which is incredible.
But yeah, it’s just been through sharing my own experiences, talking to a lot of women as well. I’ve got a pretty good network here and just literally just chatting to one another and sharing similar stories and I guess validating women and telling them that, Oh, you’re not alone. Like I feel the same as you.
I guess that’s kind of where this all started from was me sharing a story and saying, well, this is not okay.
I love that. So I know a lot of your work is about de-centering men and that’s very reminiscent of like the 4B movement and everything that has been, you know, popping up over the past few years. When, how, why did that start?
You know what? If I’m being completely honest, I went through a breakup two years ago and I feel like that sparked it for me. I’d been in long term relationships since I was a teenager and I think I was just so done giving my life to the patriarchy, I guess, and men, only to be hurt time and time again.
After that, it’s been the biggest blessing ever. I just took the time to really ground myself, focus on myself, try and make all the right choices. In turn, I guess all of that self love, that I gave to myself kind of turned into, well, actually – if I just think even giving myself the love that I was giving to all of these men, I’m actually okay alone.
I’m empowered and I’m strong and I don’t need a man in my life to be happy or to make me feel validated. I’m okay, just being by myself. I love that.
Yeah, I’m asexual, so I’m there with you 1000 percent of the way. Have have you had any other responses from men that are in a similar vein to like, what Jack’s response was? Was that kind of like the most insidious example of like, you know, what’s happened?
I mean, there’s definitely, we’ve all been through some hard situations with men and that definitely, that to me, was like just a blip. You know what I mean? I wasn’t even that focused on it.
I just thought it was so hilarious and I was like, Oh my God, that’s so typical. But yeah, at the time it was just like the least of my worries. I think it only scratches the surface really of what women are going through around the world. I get harassment every single day since I’ve been posting on TikTok from men, whether it’s in the DMs or whatever.
Then, you know, even now – I literally got it the day after this all kind of unfolded. There’s men out here targeting me at the beach, there’s people that, you know, at my workplace trying to like ambush me about, you know, talking about women’s rights and the patriarchy and my values and I’m like, I don’t want to talk about that here, but yeah, anyway, it happens.
Every day, and I think that’s why I’m really trying to be loud about it because this is something really serious that women are facing. Yeah, definitely.
Do you think that your experience as a woman of colour has kind of like amplified some of like, like it’d be a bit of a different experience?
Absolutely. Being mixed race, I feel like I have also faced a lot of racism. You know, racism along with misogyny, it’s both together, is quite interesting. Particularly in Australia, I think it’s, it’s been a really, really tough experience. Particularly because I feel as though I am a fetish in some ways.
That’s I guess the positive thing, but then you’re facing, you know, extreme racism and, and misogyny and people coming up to you and saying, oh my god, you’re so exotic. You know, I’m like, that’s not an appropriate thing to say. It’s like attraction does not equal allyship in any way.
It’s so weird to see that mindset here, and yeah, it blows my mind. So what responses have you gotten from women around Australia? Between like, and then also like internationally, like, hello, Julia Fox. Come on.
Oh my god, I woke up and Bretman Rock started following me this morning. I just think of him as God, you know what I mean? I think I’m just blown away by the amount of support that has been shown.
It’s in my DMs, like women are sharing their stories all around the world. They’re showing their support, telling me how thankful that they are that I’m speaking up about these things. I’m so overwhelmed with it all. It’s really incredible. It’s what I’ve always wanted through my TikToks and it’s what I was pushing for this whole time in the last year of posting.
I’m like, it’s going to find the girlies. It’s going to happen. They’re going to see it and it’s going to make a difference. This moment has been such a turning point for me and I’m just so grateful that I have the opportunity to be able to speak freely, you know, and for the women who came before me, allowing me to, you know, have this freedom and be able to empower others. I’m so grateful.
I love that. Is that sort of the sort of space you want to like go into, like more or less? What do you do for work?
So I have my own business. I run a social media agency and I’m a content creator. But then I’m also studying, I’m studying computer science and then I’m currently doing my personal training certificate and I also work down at the surf club helping out the community.
How do you think that men can be better allies?
This is an interesting one. I feel like people ask me this a lot, but I think the first step I always say is just to ask women around you if they feel comfortable sharing their stories and all you have to do is listen. To me, that is the very first step and it’s the easiest step. You know, you’ve got a mother, you’ve got, you might have sisters, you might have aunties, like people at work, and I know if someone – if a man came up to me and was genuine, genuine about listening to me, I’m so happy to talk about it.
You know, there’s some women that might not be, but that’s okay. You can respect their boundaries and, you know, politely ask the next one or, you know, that to me is the first step, which I think so many people just miss, you know. That’s the first step.
I just want women to live their most authentic lives and stop apologising for being them.
