comment
Mar 24, 2026, 7:16 p.mMar 24, 2026, 7:16 p.m
It is December 11th, 2024. ZDF shows the two-part documentary Deepfake porn: abuse on the internet. The presenter and actress Collien Ulmen-Fernandes and the investigative journalist Marie Bröckling go in search of erotic deepfakes of Ulmen-Fernandes. For pictures and porn films. The research takes them across Europe to increasingly clandestine providers; they learn which tools are used to create deepfakes and where the money flows.
They talk to experts like media lawyer Christian Schertz about the unsatisfactory legal situation. Schertz describes the acts as “media rape”. And Ulmen-Fernandes wonders what could be the motivation behind humiliating her online, pretending to be herself, using her voice to make phone calls to interested men. Instead of a solution, the research reveals even more uncertainty. The longer the two women deal with it, the scarier the digital attack becomes.
On December 25, 2024, Christian Ulmen, the husband of Collien Ulmen-Fernandes and father of their daughter, confessed that he was behind the deepfakes, manipulated photos and sex telephone conversations. This is what Collien Fernandes told her, which is her new name since the divorce in February 2026, last week in a large “Spiegel” report. Christian Ulmen is still presumed innocent. His lawyer is Christian Schertz.
The Solidarity with Fernandes was there immediately and it is huge. The story is all too outrageous. It’s all too horrifying to think that the person closest and dearest has bartered with her for years, offered her to other men, humiliated her and even pretended to be herself. That he should have treated her as property that he could dispose of as he pleased. My wife, my whore.
Just like Dominique Pelicot sold his wife to other men. She didn’t know anything about it either. Because she was sleeping. Collien Fernandes was also asleep. Not because she was numb like Pelicot, but she slept the sleep of the ignorant. Until other men confronted her with her digital double existence. Men who had previously been excited by the supposedly available celebrity. But by the time Fernandes was filming her documentary, Sleeping Beauty had awakened and become dangerous. Just as Gisèle Pelicot became dangerous to her husband and everyone who abused her in court.
Image from ancient days: Christian Ulmen and Collien Ulmen-Fernandes 2014.Image: Getty Images Europe
Pelicot, Elmen, Epstein, the ex-Prince Andrew, the Norwegian half-prince Marius Borg Høiby… all white men, all of them, with the exception of Pelicot, excessively privileged… They all derived endless pleasure from humiliating women. And Pelicot, Ulmen, Epstein, Andrew used the humiliation to get into contact with other men.
The foundation on which our society is built is still homosocial. Women pull themselves together when they are desperate. When they come together to demonstrate against misogyny. Men pull themselves together because that’s what they prefer to do anyway. Because that’s how they get confirmation. No matter how old or young one is. The thrill is not the woman, she is just a means to an end. The thrill is the other men. To each their own Manosphere. Perpetrators feel in good hands and safe there.
The news about misogyny is still increasing. Fortunately, resistance from women is also increasing. Gisèle Pelicot and Collien Fernandes, if their accusations are true, are tough fighters against the lead rain of total frustration. They ignored all concerns, fear and unnecessary shame and took action. According to the principle of courage.
500 people were expected, but (according to the police report) around 7,000 came to Berlin last weekend to demonstrate for Collien Fernandes and stricter legislation against digital sexualized violence.Image: keystone
And what is the reaction? Just a few days after Fernandes’ revelations, media outlets from “Spiegel” to “Welt”, “taz” to “Rolling Stone” etc. are demanding that women should not fall prey to man-hatred or “heteropessimism”. That she should rather do the care work of generosity and tolerance, because the men, yes, the men, not the women, are now really insecure and have a really hard time, they don’t even know what they can say anymore. She urgently needs to be rescued from the silence of men.
If one of them describes themselves as a feminist, they will be considered a smug imposter anyway. But you also have to understand that it’s no fun to simply live your feminism as a man in a normal way, not to talk about it and not to be rewarded for it. And: Yes, no prejudgment of the once popular bro-bear Christian Ulmen! Yes, no media hysteria! Tolerance of ambiguity is the magic word!
My goodness! Or rather: my face, are you serious?! What the hell have we women done to you men to be treated like this? Is it because we gave birth to you, is it womb envy? No! There is no reason! Just as there is no reason for us to rape you, drug you, or offer you to other women. And speaking of the silence of men: It would be necessary for one of the perpetrators to stand up and say in public: Mea culpa, yes, it’s my fault and I’m incredibly sorry. Without expecting applause for it. But nobody does. Until then, the principle of courage applies. If you turn the M upside down, it becomes anger.