Recently, Miss Universe Vietnam 2023 2nd Runner-up Trinh Thi Hong Dang shared on her personal page about being harassed on the street. According to Hong Dang, around the evening of February 21, while walking to the gym, she was run over by a man in a car and collapsed.
Because she was surprised by the harassment, Hong Dang said she fell into a state of fear and anger.
After thinking, Hong Dang returned to that road and asked the surrounding shops to extract camera footage to track down the license plate and identify the culprit. She recalled that when asked for camera footage from the people, the first question she received was "What to wear? ".
After that, Hong Dang received comments such as: "Wearing a jacket", "Were you dressed at that time, there was no place to hide it" (the victim wore a T-shirt, pants with long bags), "Have you a boyfriend yet? Why don't you go without a boyfriend, if you go with him, you won't get arrested", 'Even if you can arrest him, you can only be fined 200,000 VND, why do it"...
Hong Dang shared: "Although I do not feel sorry for myself, I see the idea of focusing on the responsibility of the victims and also understand why many people choose to stay silent. I have been abroad for a long time, so I am not afraid of these things, just not wanting to have baggage in my area".
Hong Dang's post received a lot of sympathy from the social media community, especially from victims of harassment. Many people have shared their obsession with harassment, their hesitation to speak out for fear of being judged.
"After this, I learned a few things. I feel the consensus of people wanting to help, even though there are still prejudices from deep within the subconscious. I wrote this article, because I wanted to help myself and others overcome shyness and prejudice to eat deep into the common subconscious.
I want readers to have experience and knowledge to help and support the victims better. I hope there will be more severe measures against harassment violations, or at least there will be more social pressure to condemn these acts," Hong Dang wrote.
The runner-up also hopes that people will stop blaming the victims, stop asking questions like, "how to wear clothes at that time", "how should I be harassed"...
Miss Grand International 2021 Nguyen Thuc Thuy Tien re-shared Hong Dang's article and expressed sympathy that she herself was harassed but did not dare to speak up. The beauty called on victims to speak up when needed and not to blame or feel ashamed of themselves.
Trinh Thi Hong Dang won the runner-up title of Miss Universe Vietnam 2023. She was born in 1994, born and raised in Russia, and later moved to the US to study and settle at the age of 17.
