大象传媒

鈥楳ascara鈥� is being used as a code word on TikTok by young women to talk about their experiences of sex and sexual abuse.

The hashtag #mascara has racked up more than 100 million views on TikTok in the past month or so.

But the euphemism is causing confusion and nobody can quite agree on whether using coded language to talk about painful experiences is helpful or not.

Sophia Smith Galer - journalist and author of 鈥楲osing It: Sex Education for the 21st century鈥�- joined Woman鈥檚 Hour鈥檚 Nuala McGovern to explain the trend, along with Esther De La Ford, a sex and relationship educator and therapist.

Sophia also suggested that parents worried about their children using code words should 鈥渢ake an active interest in these platforms. Be proactive, be on TikTok, following accounts yourself and try and keep an eye on news about the platform鈥�.

You can listen to the full discussion on 大象传媒 Sounds - it鈥檚 the Woman鈥檚 Hour podcast episode from 7 March.