Diminished and silenced? Really? No one was talking over you. You posted a bikini selfie to a public platform for strangers to see, wanting strangers to see it, without a caption... and they reacted positively?

It's not like you wrote some long heartfelt message about important issues that everyone ignored to write "nice tits" instead. THAT would have been diminishing and silencing. Instead they assumed (because it's extremely common on Instagram) that you posted a bikini pic looking for strangers to validate your appearance online - because that's what 99% of the bikini pics on Instagram are for!!! That's why influencers post bikini pics! That's the whole platform in a nutshell!! And they gave you that validation!

What kind of a response to a bikini pic without a caption would you be happy with? Sincerely, what kind of response did you want from these strangers? How could they have responded that would have made you feel that they "looked at you with equal respect and value"?

How many people do you follow on Instagram? Do you "know their complete and whole humanity"? Really? I'm very sceptical.

And by all means call me objectifying if you like. Any woman who doesn't agree with your opinion must be a tool of the dehumanising patriarchy, right?