Now we’ve all heard that walking alone through a city can be daunting for a young woman alone, this is a regrettable fact of society. Now as a man I’ve never experienced this, not during the day, not at night. But this video is eye opening, and it really grants an inside look at how women are viewed as pieces to be put on display. The men in the video are absolutely disgusting in their treatment of this woman.
A friend in my sorority said she experienced this every single day walking to her internship in Manhattan last summer. She finally turned around to one man and said, “You have no respect for women, do you?” and continued walking.
A man up ahead was staring at her and said, “That was awesome, good for you.” So there are definitely other men who can spot how ridiculous it is!
I don’t think men ever need to experience this, but it is incredibly awkward. Suddenly a non-sexual moment – walking down the street – is turned into a completely different situation. I always wonder what these catcallers are hoping will happen after talking to a female passerby like this…? She turns around and starts talking to you? She feels intimidated and walks faster? What’s the goal here? I think there may just be some men who cannot live with an attractive moment passing by and the moment not being sexualized.
But fortunately, as your video illustrates, I’ve seen so much more publicity lately on this issue which is really cool!
This same video has been shared multiple times on my Facebook timeline. A male friend of mine had shared it and didn’t understand how the compliments could be seen as harassment and stated “Nothing happened to this woman, she simply went on about her day, like I said, if it went a step further and they began trying to touch her and grab her then it would be a problem. Only two of these men went on and tried to talk to her but absolutely none of these men were throwing “sexually charged” statements at her. The majority of the men said hey beautiful or asked her how she was doing.”
It was appalling to read a friend of mine having an opinion like this, but it is a real example of how blind male-privilege can leave people.
I just saw a follow-up to the original video – they replicated it in New Zealand (http://www.buzzfeed.com/abagg/a-woman-did-the-same-catcall-experiment-in-new-zealand-and-n). This time, two men talked to the actress – one was looking for directions. There were definitely some long glances and some ogling going on, but nothing that actually interrupted her day.
The differences could be cultural or societal, but I think this shows that there’s not this inherently sexist, harassing quality in men (even though we know that by no account do all men catcall or otherwise harass women). It’s kind of hopeful to me, and I love that we live in a time when we can use these quick and easy filming projects to spark these discussions and (maybe) create some social change.