Udemy Needs to Review Courses and Vet Instructors

Cover image alt: Header reading the this blog post's title. The background is a large lecture hall with light brown, wooden chairs and white walls.

This was originally posted on my personal blog site.

Trigger Warning: violence against women

My Twitter mentions exploded today over tweets I made about misogynistic Udemy course that has (thankfully) been removed from the site. This post is about the course of events from the first tweet I saw, to the end of a day full of problematic replies and discoveries of even more courses that should be removed. I'll break the content up as much as possible.

Table of Contents

1. The First Tweet
2. The Course & Its Issues
3. Problematic Replies and Retweets
4. More Courses To Remove
5. What You Can Do

The First Tweet

I saw the first tweet about this course from Twitter user @ryzokuken. The course is titled: "How to Hack a Girl: The Real Life Version." The link preview description says, "Make Her A Woman Be Attracted to You By Hacking Her Brain!" (ow, the grammar.)

I tweeted about it around midnight and included a screenshot of the course's basic information. Aside from the title and description mentioned above, it also showed:

• A 2.9 / 5 star rating from 36 reviews
• Quantity of 3,231 students enrolled since May 2019
• The instructor's name: Pedro Planas
• A 45% off price of \$10.99, and 5 hours remaining at that price

My tweet has been seen tens of thousands of times. Hundreds liked it. Obviously I'm not the only person who finds it problematic.

The Course & Its Issues

First of all, women are not hardware or software and therefore cannot be hacked. We are human beings. Second of all, you can't make women be attracted to you if they don't want to be. That's called entitlement and women are disproportionately harassed, assaulted, and even murdered because they reject men who think they're entitled to our bodies and attention. Before you try to debate this statement with me, here's JUST FIVE articles you should read:

• Women share the worst ways men reacted after they rejected them
• ‘Rejection Killings’ Need to Be Tracked
• The Toronto Van Attack Suspect Was Obsessed With Rejection From Women. He Is Not Alone Among Violent Men
• MEN ARE KILLING THOUSANDS OF WOMEN A YEAR FOR SAYING NO
• 20 Horrifying Stories That Explain Why Women Are Afraid Of Turning Down Men

The original thread from that last bullet point is no longer up, but you can take a look at these quote tweets from the first tweet in the thread.

Let's also take a look at the course description:

"Have you ever felt like she doesn't pay attention to you and she ends up being with the bad guy while you are left behind hopeless? If this is your case, you are just some clicks away to make her be attracted to you and so you end up being the one who ends up with her. This is a videocourse on how to hack a girl's brain by understanding how a woman thinks, how to improve your overall appealing and science-based pshycological tricks that will make you be awesome at getting her to like you!"

All emphasis, gross misspellings, and horrid grammar are by the author of the description.

Sigh. There's so much to unpack.

1. Women don't owe anyone their attention
2. Women are not girls
3. The "Nice Guy" Trope is hella old

Problematic Replies and Retweets

Here's a bunch of awful replies and retweets sorted into fun little categories.

Whataboutism

Annoying, non-jokes

Mansplaining

Just... no

Freedom of Speech

More Courses To Remove

This isn't the first time Udemy has had to remove courses. Twitter user @ohdaeni tweeted out a series of problematic courses 10 months ago:

• "How to Exit the Friendzone (Or Avoid Falling into it)"
• "Dating For Men - How to Escape The Friendzone!"
• "Crucial Dating Advice For Lovable Guys" (also mentions the friendzone)
• "How To Get The Girl - Dating For Men" (MORE FRIENDZONE GARBAGE)

Luckily, Udemy removed them and others by the same instructors. But why do they keep letting this happen? Why don't they have a review and approval process for all courses attempting to be added?

Below are some courses I found today with just minutes of searching, also sorted into fun categories.

Ableism

• "The secret of how I've seen Over 2500 Deaf and Mute Healed" (impossible, but OK)
• "Hypnosis - Improve Your Hearing Using Self Hypnosis" (also impossible, but whatever)
• Welcoming disabled colleagues and customers with confidence (disabled people are not things to "deal" with, but thanks)

Sexism

Just go read the descriptions. Have a bucket nearby you can vomit into.

• "Make Women Fall In Love With You. (The Secret To Seduction) "
• "How to Attract the Perfect Man & Make Him Love You Forever "
• "Become Irresistible: The Complete Guide to Attract The Man"
• "Meet & Attract Women - Learn How Today"

What You Can Do

Udemy wants you to send them an email.

I want you to flood their mentions.

Pressure them into making change. Report awful courses. It's 2019, we have lots of people wanting to write software to filter this kind of crap, and there's no excuse for exposing paying customers to danger. Notice how Udemy never made a public tweet about this? They want to keep it quiet. Don't let them.

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Image by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash