A video about catcalling went viral after one woman walked around the streets of New York City for ten hours while experiencing over 100 instances where men verbally harassed her.
After the video was posted online by anti-street harassment organization, Hollaback! and marketing agency, Rob Bliss Creative, it provoked criticism and debate about what qualifies as harassment.
Some would define catcalling as the act of getting a woman’s attention in a vulgar manner, others would describe it as a way to reinforce female oppression by making a woman’s value equivalent to her appearance. The video’s intention was to spread awareness of street harassment; an issue that women around the world deal with daily.
Hanna Rosin, writer for the Atlantic, said the video’s main point was to show a variety of street harassment, involving people of all backgrounds, according to Bliss. Unfortunately, Rosin said this didn’t show up in the video.
“We got a fair amount of white guys, but for whatever reason, a lot of what they said was in passing, or off camera,” Bliss said. “It is not a perfect representation of everything that happened.”
Patrick Terry, Sinclair student, said catcalling is wrong.
“Catcalling is going to happen, but it shouldn’t,” he said.
Writer and activist Feminista Jones said street harassment has been a familiar topic for years. She said she feels like people still aren’t empathetic though.
“This video is important for all sectors of this movement,” Jones said.
Many viewers have said that this video focuses on harassment caused by minority men of the lower class level. Many of the comments relate to race, creed and social status.
Lee Warren and John Klos, both Sinclair students, said it’s mainly about ignorance, and disrespecting women. Klos said it goes back to parenting and how people were raised.
Rachel Ruland, Sinclair student, has similar views about relating street harassment with parenting skills.
“I think it’s about the dominative nature,” Ruland said.
She said parents should take responsibility for teaching their sons how to act toward women.
“Fatherless children growing up with disrespect for their mothers creates problems. People think it’s acceptable to treat women that way,” Klos said. “They shouldn’t be treated that way at all.
” Emily May, executive director of Hollaback!, said it’s about acknowledging that people experience harassment differently.
“Women of color experience it differently. L.G.B.T.Q. people experience it differently,” May said.
Ruland said girls have to think everyone is a threat. She said she doesn’t feel safe walking by herself now.
“I don’t respond to it negatively. It’s a fear, but usually I ignore it,” Ruland said. “I’ve noticed most men catcall when they are in a group with their friends to feel more dominant and in control.”
She said she would like to do an experiment where women would catcall men.
“It may open their eyes to how weird it is and how sick it is,” Ruland said.
According to stopstreetharassment.com, 65 percent of women have been harassed verbally on the street. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Reuters blogger, said the video demonstrates how constant and exhausting street harassment can be, even though she said the video was unfair.
“The video is not perfect,” Fazlalizadeh said. “The video was a visual example of what [women] go through constantly…it also served as proof to those who question the credibility of women who have spoken out about their ordeals with street harassment.”
Not only did this video portray a side of verbal harassment women face every day, but it created two viewpoints, according to John Herrman.
“The video works in two ways. It’s a neat portrayal of what it is like to be a woman talking about gender on the mainstream Internet. This became apparent within minutes of publication, at which point the video’s comment section was flooded with furious responses,” Herrman said.
Many of the comments were criticized for feministic thoughts, while arguing that the content wasn’t near any form of harassment. Herrman said the comments from men, online and off, slammed feminism.
“They feel as though the perception of their actions as threats is a threat in itself,” Herrman said. “In other words, they too believe that unsolicited public attention is inherently aggressive.”
Kelsey McKinney said any women, who has walked anywhere, knows the terrifying catcalls and whistles men make to get attention.
“It’s a way men make women feel unsafe walking the streets of their own neighborhoods,” McKinney said.
May, who has similar views as McKinney and Ruland, said that it’s unfortunate of how it feels to be a woman in a public place. She said she believes all harassment is caused by the same problem, which is sexism.
Fazlalizadeh said society puts distrust in women because they think they don’t know the difference between a compliment and an undignified comment.
“To suggest that women should take these advances as a compliment or an innocent greeting, is not only dismissive, it’s insulting,” Fazlalizadeh said. “This is not an exaggeration. This is a truth being told by a woman who lives with the frustrations and dangers of sexism.”
Metro U.K. said many of the responses were divided. “Some questioned whether being told ‘you’re beautiful’ constituted as harassment, while others called the footage ‘eye-opening’,” Metro U.K. said in a recent article.
Ruland said she fears the future. She doesn’t think it will change unless we start teaching men how to respect each women at a young age.
“There’s a fine line between a compliment and harassment,” Ruland said. “You can admire from afar, just keep it to yourself.”