(War on Women) NYC: 10 hours of Harassment or Compliments?

[aGameOfThrones]

Video: A hidden GoPro records the shocking harassment women are subjected to in NYC


Women who get catcalls as they walk down the street aren’t just a tired cliché we see in movies and TV shows. The Daily Show recently proved this by using a GoPro to record one woman’s daily stroll through New York City. The GoPro — which was being held by a friend in front of her — records her journey as she’s accosted by several would-be suitors.


The video was created for an anti-harassment organization called Hollaback. The woman in the video was a volunteer who walked New York City for 10 hours and recorded what people would yell at her.

In the video, the woman is constantly harassed, followed, and hit on by numerous men throughout her trek through the city. Even as she kept silent, they still persisted.



You check out Hollaback’s website here to see what you can do to end street harassment.

Watch the video below to see what many women have to deal with on a daily basis, and then feel free to feel sick to your stomach as a result:

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck! She was being rude to some.


http://bgr.com/2014/10/28/street-harassment-hollaback-gopro-video/

 

[dannno]

Not having sex for extended periods can be extremely painful physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. In fact, I think it can become traumatizing for men not to have sex. I believe it causes a host of health problems, I'm not quite sure why the only one that has been documented so far is prostate cancer: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...-with-21-women-lowers-risk-of-prostate-cancer

I think a lot of women actually want to have sex, but due to societal pressures from other women, and even men, they abstain because they don't want to be thought of as cheap or a slut or whatever even though they are engaging in a perfectly healthy activity. There's nothing wrong with monogamous sex, imo, however even many men who are monogamous complain that they don't get enough sex. This often leads to feelings of not being appreciated by their spouse.

On top of the societal pressures for women not to have sex, and the seemingly imbalanced nature of the male and female sex drive on a large scale, we have the fact that many women are on anti-depressants and birth control pills that kill their sex drive (there are other effective birth control options available that don't kill the sex drive). It's no wonder men are so desperate for sex... and sex is seen as something that is 'fun', recreational and wholly unnecessary by most of society, even though lack of sex can clearly lead to psychological, emotional, physical and mental impairments.

 

[Rothbardian Girl]

I don't necessarily buy that this behavior is primarily about sex. Seems to me like there's an element of wanting control here that isn't being discussed. The success rate of this kind of behavior is very low, and it comes from the viewpoint that men are entitled to express their enthusiasm about having sex with a woman even if it clearly makes her uncomfortable. What kind of a person would want to have sex with someone that was clearly uncomfortable about the whole situation? Again, this is one of those situations where the woman is put in an awkward and possibly dangerous situation - women have been attacked and killed for walking away from street harassers. So this is why I believe it's largely an issue of power. There have been plenty of times where I've seen men on the street and thought "10/10, would smash," but it would never occur to me to actually express this because they are private individuals and complete strangers with their own lives who don't need my approval. I have enough social skills to recognize when people clearly aren't interested or want me in their space.

The "oh woe is me, I'm lonely" excuse doesn't hold water with me, either. This is caused by a societal tendency to place way too much emphasis on sex as a motivating factor and dehumanizes men. They're not deserving of pity, but they do deserve to be held accountable for their actions as autonomous human beings.

 

[RonPaulIsGreat]

10 hours of walking, and that is what they got, and a good portion of those were not sexual in nature.

Anyway, I don't live in a city, I live in a shitty town of less than 20,000 people. I've not seen cat calls, well, outside of like bar environments anyway, but never witnessed it in a normal walking situation.

So, I guess Large urban areas just suck, I already knew that.

 

[alucard13mm]

What about the experiment where women supposedly stare at a guy with a supposedly huge penis?

 

[Anti Federalist]

We've been told that manners, civility and "acting like a gentleman" are worthless and meaningless throwbacks to a dead era.

So, this is what you get.

 

[asurfaholic]

What about the experiment where women supposedly stare at a guy with a supposedly huge penis?

He was harassing the women by exposing his privates through his clothes. What are they supposed to do, pretend they don't notice?

 

[jonhowe]

I live in washington heights in Manhattan, a mostly dominican neighborhood north of harlem. Cat calling is an every day thing here, and in much of the city. Some is harmless, just annoying, but a good deal is extremely aggressive. I have several female friends and coworkers who regularly have threatening interactions in all areas of the city.

As the homeless population grows, the number of creepy/crazy/aggressive catcallers will only increase.

 

[AuH20]

We've been told that manners, civility and "acting like a gentleman" are worthless and meaningless throwbacks to a dead era.

So, this is what you get.

They should stop complaining about these wonderful fruits the woman's liberation movement has spawned.

 

[Carlybee]

It's not about sex. It's about chest thumping.

 

[dannno]

It's not about sex. It's about chest thumping.

That's part of it, but it is really more about sex. Guys do it when other guys aren't around too. It's usually more like they know they are probably never going to be with a girl that pretty for the rest of their lives anyway so they may as well go for it, they have nothing to lose.

I'm personally not a cat caller, and really, it's not nearly as big on the west coast as it is on the east coast in my experience. However I have seen plenty of guys completely flub conversations with younger/pretty girls who they are clearly attempting to hit on.. it's usually just less of a cat all and more like actually starting a conversation and turning it in that direction.

 

[LibForestPaul]

I don't necessarily buy that this behavior is primarily about sex. Seems to me like there's an element of wanting control here that isn't being discussed. The success rate of this kind of behavior is very low, and it comes from the viewpoint that men are entitled to express their enthusiasm about having sex with a woman even if it clearly makes her uncomfortable. What kind of a person would want to have sex with someone that was clearly uncomfortable about the whole situation? Again, this is one of those situations where the woman is put in an awkward and possibly dangerous situation - women have been attacked and killed for walking away from street harassers. So this is why I believe it's largely an issue of power. There have been plenty of times where I've seen men on the street and thought "10/10, would smash," but it would never occur to me to actually express this because they are private individuals and complete strangers with their own lives who don't need my approval. I have enough social skills to recognize when people clearly aren't interested or want me in their space.

The "oh woe is me, I'm lonely" excuse doesn't hold water with me, either. This is caused by a societal tendency to place way too much emphasis on sex as a motivating factor and dehumanizes men. They're not deserving of pity, but they do deserve to be held accountable for their actions as autonomous human beings.

You are a women. You do not approach men. You decide, from men who approach you, judge their dance, then accept or reject.

 

[aGameOfThrones]

 

[Carlybee]

That's part of it, but it is really more about sex. Guys do it when other guys aren't around too. It's usually more like they know they are probably never going to be with a girl that pretty for the rest of their lives anyway so they may as well go for it, they have nothing to lose.

I'm personally not a cat caller, and really, it's not nearly as big on the west coast as it is on the east coast in my experience. However I have seen plenty of guys completely flub conversations with younger/pretty girls who they are clearly attempting to hit on.. it's usually just less of a cat all and more like actually starting a conversation and turning it in that direction.

I'm probably the wrong person to comment on this. When I was younger and got catcalls I was likely to go get right in their faces, but I always saw it as posturing.

 

[thoughtomator]

My impressions:

1) Skin-tight clothes are not as modest as they are being made out to be.
2) All of the really creepy stuff is coming from thuggish black men, something the feminists who are celebrating this video don't exactly want to emphasize.
3) 10:00:00 of walking around in the street produced 00:01:30 of video. Not exactly a dramatic result.
4) Parts of that video are completely non-offensive yet portrayed as harassment.
5) The set of clips from @0:35 to @0:44 are all either normal, polite behavior or don't appear to be directed at her at all.
5) As someone who knows Manhattan intimately, I could not help but notice she was choosing pretty crappy neighborhoods overall to walk in. I mean seriously, walking around alone at the Port Authority at night? Walking around side streets in Harlem as a white woman, alone?
6) I couldn't help but wonder why the much more attractive Asian woman who is in one of the clips (@0:26, with the dog) is not being harassed. Perhaps there is some sort of provocation on her part that was edited out of the video?
7) If there were 100+ instances of street harassment, as the text in the video claims, why were far fewer than that shown? Why not include them all?

My verdict: This video is an act of trolling.

 

[euphemia]

A guy who catcalls has a problem with his masculinity and confidence. And intelligence, probably. Do men really think that kind of stuff is a turn on?

Better he carries some actual cash: "Hi, I'm Julio/Mike/Ben. There's a coffee shop on the corner. Do you have time?"

I don't know that I would have ever said yes to someone like that, but I would be a whole lot less tempted to do or say something horrible to him.

Men need to figure out that they will get what they ask for. If they want a real relationship with a real woman, they need to act like it.

 

[BamaAla]

Who acts like that toward women? Dudes that do that have some serious issues and I would be afraid that they may be given to violence, so I guess I understand the fear women have.

That said, from what I saw in the video, it seems like they are exaggerating a bit.

 

[KingNothing]

It's not about sex. It's about chest thumping.

Daaaaamn, mami why you gotta be like dat? Smile once in a while! You look pretty when you smile, baby!

 

[Antischism]

My impressions:

1) Skin-tight clothes are not as modest as they are being made out to be.

Victim blaming and even clothing that isn't tight results in women getting constantly cat-called.

2) All of the really creepy stuff is coming from thuggish black men, something the feminists who are celebrating this video don't exactly want to emphasize.

What is your point? That if you grow up in a culture where it's prevalent, you're more likely to emulate that behavior? Look at all the so-called pick-up artists; a lot of them are white. They do this very thing except to a greater extreme. Not sure why you're bringing up 'thuggish black men' when women get it from men of all backgrounds.

3) 10:00:00 of walking around in the street produced 00:01:30 of video. Not exactly a dramatic result.

It's one video and one day. Imagine hearing these things on a daily basis.

4) Parts of that video are completely non-offensive yet portrayed as harassment.

Which parts? Where they were being 'polite' to the woman? The intent behind that is obviously more than a simple hello. You wouldn't see these people being that openly friendly to anyone else in NYC unless there were some other motive behind it. While I can understand why some people wouldn't call it 'harassment,' you have to understand that it happens so frequently to women in NYC that it's usually how it will be construed (rightfully so, a lot of the time).

5) The set of clips from @0:35 to @0:44 are all either normal, polite behavior or don't appear to be directed at her at all.

See the last response.

5) As someone who knows Manhattan intimately, I could not help but notice she was choosing pretty crappy neighborhoods overall to walk in. I mean seriously, walking around alone at the Port Authority at night? Walking around side streets in Harlem as a white woman, alone?

It happens in all parts of NYC, more in some parts than others of course, but why should time of day and location even matter? What if that's the route a woman has to take throughout her day? Or are you going to blame them for not going out of their way to avoid certain places because some men can't control themselves?

6) I couldn't help but wonder why the much more attractive Asian woman who is in one of the clips (@0:26, with the dog) is not being harassed. Perhaps there is some sort of provocation on her part that was edited out of the video?

I'm not understanding what you're getting at here. That there's no way this could happen and they were clearly provoking it in some way because you find another woman to be more attractive in that particular shot? This isn't a good point at all.

7) If there were 100+ instances of street harassment, as the text in the video claims, why were far fewer than that shown? Why not include them all?

Why don't you ask them or check out tons of other videos showing this happens frequently on the daily? Because it does. I see it all the time and have heard stories from female friends. Hell, I've had it happen to women I was dating right in front of my face.

My verdict: This video is an act of trolling.

No, you're being willfully ignorant.

When you try to analyze these things, you can't think about it from a male point of view. Men don't get constantly cat-called while walking down the street like women do nor do they fear being sexually assaulted by an aggressive stranger. A guy might think it's flattering because he doesn't experience the 'joys' of being constantly shouted at and cat-called, so any compliment for a man will be flattering since it happens so infrequently in this manner. Your average woman has to put up with these advances, creepy behavior and cat-calls just for walking down the street minding their own business every day. It's not difficult to understand why random strangers even saying something as simple as "have a good day" or whatever it is, can be annoying or come across as an advance.

 

[Spikender]

Ladies, carry a gun.