A new video posted Tuesday is helping to shed some light on the daily harassment and catcalling women face.
Working in conjunction with the non-profit Hollaback! street harassment education group and armed with a hidden camera, Rob Bliss walked in front of a volunteer through New York City for 10 hours as she was confronted by men in the street. Two microphones held by the woman captured audio.
The woman was met with comments ranging from the seemingly innocuous (“how you doing today?” “what’s up, miss?”) to the obnoxious (“smile! smile!” “somebody’s acknowledging you for being beautiful, you should say thank you!”) to the outright creepy (“God bless you, mami” “You don’t want to talk? We can’t be friends or nothing?”).
The filmmaker says more than 100 instances of verbal street harassment were captured over 10 hours, not including “countless winks, whistles” and more.
The internet is naturally already buzzing with counter-arguments to this video: “They were just being friendly! They were just paying her compliments! This is blown out of proportion!”
Creator Rob Bliss did a pretty good job of shedding some light on the matter as he answered questions about the video on Reddit this afternoon –
A 2014 study commissioned by the Stop Street Harassment surveyed 2,000 women across the country and found that 65 percent of responders have experienced street harassment.
In 2003, the Rogers Park Young Woman’s Action Team spent six weeks conducting a survey of girls and women in their Chicago neighborhood about street harassment. 86 percent of those who responded said they experienced some form of street harassment.
In fact, women have the right to walk down the street without being pestered. This video is not meant to highlight any one comment as the problem, but rather the systemic way in which men feel obliged to intrude on a woman’s personal space in a public area with the expectation that she will respond. Hope that helps.
