"Idols SA" winner Paxton Fielies has become a victim of harassment and cyber-bullying on Facebook again.
And although the recently turned 18-year-old claims she “isn’t bothered” by the nasty memes, her fans are not taking it lying down and have called for the page called “P**s Funny” to be shut down.
Paxton, who is the face of the Western Cape Department of Education’s anti-bullying campaign along with radio DJ Carl Wastie, previously revealed online bullies made death threats against her following her win on Idols.
She told the Daily Voice on Tuesday: “Here we go again with the memes... never fazed me.”
P**s Funny has posted a number of distasteful memes of Paxton, mocking her looks and hair, and her background growing up in Bishop Lavis.
The memes were created by “SuZPekT”.
P**s Funny, which has just over 35 000 followers, is thought to be created by Isaac Meyer, a blogger and meme creator known as SuZPekT.
His latest meme about Paxton posted on Monday afternoon is a picture of the young star, looking fab in a black catsuit and posing for a picture in Cape Town, with two unknown men chatting to each other in the background.
The meme reads: “You know you’re an afkop [curly hair] when the ou ballies [old men] don’t even bother perving on you.”
By Tuesday, the post elicited 99 comments, was shared 452 times and had 529 reactions.
PROVOKE: The meme of Paxton Fielies has drawn a lot of attention
Most of the commentators slammed the creator of the meme for being a bully, and questioning his motives.
Rudaybah posted: “Who even thought this would be funny, really stupid and immature, I don’t care if shes famous or not, this is just plain and simple cyber-bullying.(sic)”
Another meme reads: “Whenever you feel like a failure just remember Paxton’s mommy still lives in a hokkie [shanty].”
Meanwhile, celebrities like Robin Pieters, Keeno Lee Hector and Nicole Bessick, who was also a victim of cruel memes, started a #handsoffpaxton campaign on social media on Tuesday.
ATTACK: Paxton’s appearance ridiculed on Facebook
GHFM DJ Celeste Mitchells also slammed Meyer, saying: “It’s about time karma comes back for him. He has been trolling people for the longest time. It’s crazy that he would deny being the creator of the meme when his name is on the meme. Everyone knows he is SuZPekT.”
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said they are sad to see Paxton being the target of bullies again and urged people to spread “positivity, love and hope” instead.
POSTS: P**s Funny Facebook page shares memes
The admin of the P**s Funny page initially responded: “We are average normal working citizens. There is no personal enmity and prejudice against Paxton, it’s just a meme, this is the internet, if you should just put one foot in the water, you will realise that it’s not that deep.”
An hour later, a second message was received, saying: “The person responsible for the post has had their admin rights revoked and we’ll be dealing with it internally. We feel it’s best that the identity of the admin remain anonymous. The post has since been removed.”
Meyer did not respond to queries.
MEME CREATOR?: Isaac Meyer aka SuZPekT
Paxton’s manager Kim Coppen has slammed these attempts “to bring her client down” and thanked loyal fans for standing up for her.
Meanwhile, the Daily Voice can reveal that Paxton will be launching her next single on radio this Friday.
Coppen says: “I request that the administrators of this page (P**s Funny) pop out, get her new song, as Paxton wrote it for people like them. It’s called Last One Standing.”