Mr. J, a Former Professor Series — Entry 1: The Man Who Taught Me Ethics by Failing All of Them
I wasn’t going to speak.
I’ve stayed silent through over 50 days of private harassment — through texts, emails, veiled threats, unwanted contact across platforms, and symbolic baiting dressed up as art.
I stayed silent when my name appeared. When my city was mentioned. When my private email alias — only ever shared through Apple Family and private channels — was used in a poem. I stayed silent when my cultural identity, neurotype, and personal traits became narrative tools for someone else’s “healing.”
But silence should never be mistaken for weakness. Or consent. Or forgiveness.
⸻
On 12 March 2025, he said he would only delete my private photo from Substack if I paid him.
On 19 and 20 March, he demanded I return $360 that he had willingly gifted — through my mother. He dragged in his 15-year-old daughter into emotionally manipulative messages. Sent them to someone barely older than her.
He told my mother how much he spent on me — as if that justified everything.
My mother nearly cried.
She asked:
“How could he — a parent himself — treat someone his daughter’s age like that?”
When I refused to comply,
He threatened to tell my parents about my sex life.
He said he’d send them things I’d never want them to read — unless I gave him what he wanted.
And then, he called me cruel.
He called all this “some mistakes.”
⸻
I’ve received over 81 messages I barely replied to.
He kept writing. Kept circling me in language.
He sent me the poems directly — twice.
Once with the message:
“A collection that reveres, honours and celebrates you, for the unique and special person you…”
And again:
“Poems of reverence and gratitude. With love.”
He titled the collection after a Vietnamese phrase — “ẩn như gạo” — and later embedded it into a public poem, claiming it wasn’t about anyone specific.
Now, weeks later, he claims the poems don’t identify me
Because Linh is a common name in Hanoi.
As if there are thousands of Linhs who shared private writing, an email alias, and that specific cultural intimacy with him.
When he wrote it, I was the muse.
Now that I’ve spoken up, I’m suddenly just “a name among thousands.”
That’s not confusion.
That’s erasure.
As if readers don’t know.
As if using anonymity as a weapon makes it okay.
⸻
Let me be clear:
Publishing non-consensual work about someone you once dated,
Using their name, traits, and emotional landscape as narrative tools,
After they’ve asked you — clearly, repeatedly — to stop,
That’s not tenderness.
That’s not grief.
That’s narrative control.
Don’t call it poetry.
Don’t call it art.
Don’t call it healing.
Especially not when it comes with an invoice.
⸻
This isn’t a misunderstanding.
It’s a method.
There are terms for this:
- Image-based abuse
- Emotional blackmail
- Consent bypassing
- Identity laundering
- Symbolic retaliation
If this had happened the other way around — If I had written about him, using his identity, his city, without consent, over and over, and silence as my canvas — Would anyone still be calling it poetry?
⸻
To the ones defending him:
If you know what he did and say nothing,
You’re helping him.
If he has nothing to hide,
Let him show the full 50+ days of messages — not cherry-picked screenshots.
If he blocks or attacks me after this,
That’s not defense. That’s guilt.
You don’t have to like me.
But don’t confuse structure for softness.
⸻
And no — this isn’t just personal.
The messages, the threats, and the literary misuse have already been submitted to the proper channels.
It’s no longer just a story. It’s part of a record.
This is evidence.
And I won’t let anyone
Not even a poet
Write over my name again.
You may choose to believe him.
That’s your right.
But I have 81 screenshots.
[END]
Read the full series
- Entry 1: The Man Who Taught Me Ethics by Failing All of Them (you are here)
- Entry 2: The Disappearance of the Public Poet
- Entry 3: The Hanging Tree Case Study
- Entry 4: Hidden Like Accountability
- Entry 5: The Collapse of Assumptions
- Entry 6: The Ethics of a Tinder Bio
- Entry 7: How He Ate Told Me Everything
- Entry 8: What Makes a Scholar Dangerous
- Entry 9: Fragment of Life, Fragment of Accountability
- Entry 10: Anatomy of Disappointment
- Entry 11: Legal Defense Challenges: A Framing Statement
- Entry 12: Six Years After Ronell – What Academia Still Doesn’t Get
- Entry 13: QUT and The Man Who Raped Me
- Entry 14: Why Sarcasm Toward Institutions Can Backfire
- Entry 15: P*ssy or Toxic Masculinity?
- Entry 16: Who is Your Favorite Comedian?
- Entry 17: And What is Your Favorite Song?
- Entry 18: Grant Proposal — Narrative Ethics as Survivor-Led Forensics
- Entry 19: The Coward Behind the Clone
- Entry 20: [URGENT HIRE] CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST
- Entry 21: [URGENT] Legal Counsel Needed for Complex Reputation Rehabilitation
- Entry 22: YOU’RE AN ABUSER. STOP CONTACTING ME
- Entry 23: Seeking Counsel for a Fallen Academic
- Entry 24: Internal Legal-PR Briefing
- Entry 25: For Journalists – Legal & Ethical Clearance Summary
- Entry 26: Symbolic Prostitution, Transactional Intimacy, or Just a “Loan”?
- Entry 28: Why He Simply Cannot Shut Up
- Entry 29: Forensic Commentary on “LARGE Language Muddle”
- Entry 30: Don’t Just Threaten My Future. Because I’m Going To Archive Your Present
- Entry 31: Open Letter to the Person Who Tried to Break Me with Defamation
- Entry 32: Defamation, Harassment, Doxxing Class 101
- Entry 33: Confidential Crisis Recovery Proposal
- Entry 34: Forensic Behavioral-Somatic Report
- Entry 35: Forensic Commentary on the Tattoos
- Entry 36: QUT and the Abuser They Once Had
- Entry 38: When Poetry Becomes Revenge Porn
- Entry 40: A Man Built for Applause, Not Accountability
- Entry 41: Neurobehavioral Addendum
- Entry 43: Why Does It Sound Like a War Metaphor?
- Entry 44: Forensic Commentary on Racialized and Fetishizing Language in “Hidden Like Rice”
- Entry 45: Public Misuse of Former Academic Affiliation
- Entry 46: The Two Things That Didn’t Leave a Bad Impression
- Entry 47: When Affection is Just an Alibi (A Bundy-Inspired Reflection)
- Entry 48: Humbert, Lolita, and the Fetish of Fragility
- Entry 49: The Fetish of Smallness as Symbolic Violence
- Entry 50: Motif Risk Analysis
- Entry 52: Can an Abuser Be a Good Father?
- Entry 53: Who Protects the Children?
- Entry 54: From Blackmail to Children
- Entry 55: A Letter I’ll Never Send
- Entry 56: Outc(L)assed - Critical Race Analysis
- Entry 57: Forensic Breakdown: “A Voidance” by Johnston
- Entry 58: Johnston, Who Raised You?
- Entry 59: Public Financial Terms & Narrative Conditions
- Entry 60: What Kind of Future Do You Think Awaits You?
- Entry 61: Why I Believe He Has No Real PR or Legal Team
- Entry 62: Why I Can Legally (and Ethically) Call You a Pathetic Pig
- Entry 63: Tell Me You’re a Pathetic Pig Without Telling Me You’re a Pathetic Pig
- Entry 65: Did Your Mother Teach You To Speak Like This?
- Entry 66: Nobody Cares Anyway
- Reflection: The Miscalculation
(More entries coming soon)
→ [Back to Start: Introducing Mr. J, a Former Professor Series]
© 2025 Linh Ng. All rights reserved.
This publication is intended for educational and reflective purposes only.
Sharing the original link is welcomed and encouraged.
Please do not reproduce, redistribute, or translate this content — in whole or in part — without written permission.
This piece reflects both lived experience and critical analysis. It is not meant to be detached from its author or reframed without context.
Misuse or decontextualization may lead to formal clarification or takedown requests.
This work has been reviewed and quietly followed by scholars, educators, and ethics professionals across multiple sectors.
If your institution is engaging in critical discourse around narrative justice, symbolic coercion, or representational ethics, feel free to connect via Substack DMs or formal channels.
A regulatory case regarding this matter has already been classified under a protected status within national education integrity systems.
Should any reputational countermeasures or distortions arise, I reserve the right to publish the documented timeline, behavioral patterns, and contextual metadata.
All relevant documentation has been submitted through formal legal and regulatory pathways.
Image credits:
- Cover photo by Ambitious Studio* | Rick Barrett via Unsplash
- Graphic quote: “CONSENT IS NOT A FREE PASS” - National Domestic Violence Hotline (thehotline.org)
