In dark corners of the internet, men are goading each other to masturbate in public – and on female shoppers – and post the footage

…Over the next several weeks and months, MR would learn not only that there had been reports of similar incidents at the same store in the same timeframe – one that had been shared on social media and at least one other she heard about anecdotally from shopping center employees – but that masturbating in front of female customers at branches of Dollar Tree was fast becoming a national phenomenon, a disturbing new form of sexual assault that men were documenting and bragging about in dark corners of the internet.

It even came with its own specialized vocabulary. Masturbating in public and surreptitiously ejaculating on random women was known as “tagging” or “sharking” – or even “cum-sharking”. Online forums praised perpetrators for being “low inhibition” or “low inhib”, and users contributing to the discussion said they wished they could summon the same fearlessness in themselves.

  • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    121·
    2 days ago

    While most appear to pursue their self-pleasure in private “goon caves” and are not criminals, some gooners, the lawyers found, took pride in public acts of masturbation. In fact, some were committing sharking assaults at Dollar Tree stores and posting the footage online.

    This really seems like more of an incel thing than a gooner thing

    • P00ptart
      52·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, isn’t a gooner someone that basically does solo tantric sex? Seems unfair to shoehorn them into sexual assault crimes.

    • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 days ago

      I’m willing to bet there’s a lot of overlap in that Venn diagram. If you have any doubts, you should watch this Channel 5 expose on The Gooniversary, and then ask yourself if any of these people seem like somebody who would jack off on you in a Dollar Tree. I would say “Yes, absolutely”.