A rather disturbing new trend that can’t be described as anything other than violence (most often against women) is making its way around the Internet.

One victim has gone viral on TikTok for recounting her experience. While walking down an east London canal path, a man ran towards Ayla Mellek from the opposite direction and slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. Then, he ran away.

‘I twist[ed] my body like this so he can get past me, because it is a bit crowded, and there was a gap for him to get past me,’ she recalled. ‘But instead of going in this gap, this guy ran at me at full force and body slammed me to the ground. This guy slammed me in the chest, I twisted in the air and landed face down on the floor.’

In the video, she shows marks on her hands from the fall, as well as a cut on her head. ‘I’ve got a head cut here, but my head landed on grass,’ she said. ‘And my body kind of landed on concrete, and then he just ran away. He just grunted away. I was in so much shock. I just started crying immediately. 

Mellek then went on to consider whether this man’s behaviour was accidental. ‘Maybe he pushed me, even though he body slammed me by accident and panicked and ran away like I thought maybe he panicked. He did not panic. He did not panic. He did this deliberately.’

Many have said that this incident aligns with a Japanese term ‘butsukaro otoko’, which translates to ‘men who bump’ or ‘bumping man’. Hence the coining of the ‘bumping man’ trend’. It refers to instances where men purposely collide with women in public spaces without warning, often aggressively and silently. Experts have said this behaviour has spread from large cities in Japan to New York and London, and is associated with misogynistic subcultures as well as incels. 

Mellek went on to explain that she’s not the only person who has been a victim of this behaviour. ‘I had one comment which made me so upset,’ she said. ‘There was this one woman and she said she was pregnant and some guy just slammed her into the ground.

‘But also it’s reading all the comments online about other women and their experiences, how it’s happened on the train, on the buses, just walking down the street in broad daylight.’

She added: ‘Why should women like myself and others around London have to wait for an incident to become so severe?”

According to the Metropolitan Police, a 38-year-old man from Whitechapel has been arrested on suspicion of common assault in connection with the alleged attack.

‘We are very aware of the concern this has caused in the local community. While we have a man in custody, local officers will continue to patrol around the canal and surrounding areas,’ Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Brittany Clarke told the BBC.

A spokesperson for the Met also confirmed that this man is also under investigation over an incident in which a 60-year-old man was allegedly pushed while walking in a similar area of East London, and fell into a nearby parked car.

The increase in these kind of attacks speaks to a larger problem, in its clear misogyny at the core of the behaviour and the fact that such incidents suggest a kind of internalised misogyny that certain men feel comfortable with displaying in public.

For Gemma Sherrington, CEO of UK domestic abuse charity Refuge, this trend speaks to the weight of the epidemic of violence against women and girls.

‘It is well known that male violence against women and girls (VAWG) is at epidemic levels. Yet it is deeply alarming to see how increasingly normalised this form of violence has become, to the point where attacking women appears to be turning into a disturbing “trend” among men.

‘This so-called ‘bumping man trend’ is not only incredibly misogynistic – it is a chilling reminder of how commonplace VAWG has become. These attacks are not isolated incidents; they are acts of serious gender-based violence that clearly demonstrate just how dangerous our society is for women and girls.

‘Everyone deserves to feel safe, both at home and in public. Tackling VAWG requires all of us to confront and challenge the misogyny that enables it. But most urgently, survivors must be properly supported by the police, and perpetrators must be held fully accountable.’

Lynne Elliot, CEO of White Ribbon UK adds that the perpetrators of these violent acts are ‘a small number of men wanting to have power and control over women in a public space whilst being shielded by the crowd and the ambiguity that brings to the situation.’ 

Jennifer Cirone – director of services at Solace Women’s Aid, London’s largest domestic abuse & sexual violence charity – is calling the calling out of this behaviour ‘a positive step forward’.

‘Any form of gender-based physical intimidation is unacceptable, and the fact that women are calling out this commonplace behaviour on social media is a positive step forward,’ she said. ‘What’s being described fits within a wider pattern of how women are too often made to feel smaller and less entitled to public space. 

‘This is about more than just rudeness or bad manners: it’s part of a spectrum of misogyny that runs from the casual, everyday acts of sexism that chip away at women’s confidence and safety, all the way to serious violence that sees eight women a month killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales. 

‘We can’t separate these statistics from the culture that tolerates, and too often excuses, behaviours that diminish and intimidate women. Recognising and calling out these behaviours is a crucial part of challenging the norms that uphold gender inequality and feed into gendered violence.’