Anzhela Eremenko, an assistant to the head of Ukraine’s Central Election Commission, announced her resignation on March 4, after she was bullied for her outspoken Facebook post.
Eremenko, 30, published a post in her Facebook blog “Bad Mama” on Feb. 28, telling an amusing story about the broken vibrator she received as a present from her boyfriend for Valentine’s Day.
In the post, Eremenko, who is also a writer, humorously describes how she and her partner tried to fix the vibrator that failed to work.
What was supposed to be a fun, entertaining post turned out to be the end of Eremenko’s career at the Central Election Commission. Soon after it was published, her post received dozens of insulting comments, accusing Eremenko of writing “inappropriate posts” for a public official.
Topics like sex and female pleasure largely remain taboo in conservative Ukraine. Those who dare raise these subjects often become victims of shaming and online bullying.
However, Eremenko said she wasn’t an official. She worked as an aide to the head of the Central Election Commission, being in charge of communication and social media.
She resigned on March 1 after working for the commission for over a year.
“Being open and joking about what I want is more important to me than any position, so on Monday I filed a resignation letter,” her Facebook post reads.
Eremenko did not specify if she was also bullied at work, saying that she wanted to quit the job for a long time.
“I made the decision to quit as soon as these high-profile headlines flooded the Internet. I have a lot of respect for the people I have worked with and I do not want my position to harm them in the future,” her post reads.
The Kyiv Post reached out to the Central Election Commission for comment but has not yet received a response.
Eremenko has been writing in her blog about her life for six years and addressed the issue of shaming women for openly talking about sex in her book “Imago.”
In response to the public criticism, Eremenko said that the public service sector doesn’t accept people the way they are because Ukrainian society isn’t progressive enough yet.
“We complain about officials, not realizing that they are an accurate reflection of our worldview!” she wrote. “I can’t talk about sex, I can’t raise sensitive topics, because the portrait of a civil servant should be completely different.”
Staying in character, Eremenko finished the post saying that she received a new vibrator instead of the broken one, and that it’s good. She recommended for her critics to have sex rather than leave hateful comments online.
“It’s really healthier,” she wrote. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s sex with yourself or your partner!”
Bullying is a big issue in Ukraine. Earlier in September, Kharkiv’s middle school teacher resigned after 13 years at a village school because her colleagues bullied her for years, mocking her teaching methods.
Read more: Kharkiv teacher bullied into resignation named Ukraine’s teacher of the year
