The Great British Bake Off star Kim-Joy has shared some of the racist messages she received from online trolls.
Kim-Joy competed in series nine of Bake Off, finishing the series as a runner-up.
On Instagram, the baker shared screenshots of dozens of abusive messages about her.
One message described her as “scary”, while another called her “annoying” and “disgusting”, claiming that she had a “punchable face”.
“Should not be on TV and forcing us to have to look at her awful make-up and hair and stupid reactions,” the comment continued.
Other messages compared her appearance to a “Wallace & Gromit character”, a “Studio Ghibli character” and an “Asian Jar Jar Binks”.
As well as the malicious messages, Kim-Joy, who has three published cookbooks to her name, shared a handful of encouraging messages she has received.
In the comment alongside the post, she wrote: “‘Ignore them’ ‘don’t feed the trolls’ ‘just block them’. I tried this, and all it did was make me APPEAR less vulnerable/not bothered. But truthfully, I’m not a robot and I don’t have great self esteem, so these comments have lurked in my brain.
“Over time I’ve been able to laugh about them a bit more and feel a bit more confident, but sharing a bunch of these comments is me finally saying: you DONT BELONG IN MY BRAIN. Because looking like a character from a Ghibli films is absolute goals, and I’d take that ANY DAY even if it means there’s some sad people thinking I look like a spoon/melted clown/fake Asian (people’s racism really comes out when you don’t fit into their stereotyped box).”
She went on to say that she had been inspired by fellow chef Poppy O’Toole, who shared misogynistic comments she had received. “We’re told to ‘ignore’ all the negativity and focus on the good – but thing is it’s human nature to zoom in on the negative, and ignoring is just avoiding being vulnerable and doesn’t actually achieve anything,” Kim-Joy added.
“Lots of these people are looking for validation from their friends and peers (you can see it through how conversational they are) they want to BOND over their shared hate, and they will keep on doing that unless they start to feel guilt or shame.
“So shame on them. They need to start baking cute things and bond over that instead.”
