Woman receives rape threats after recording sexual harassment walking New York streets

[Scarletohello]

Bloody hell!

Article and video here

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/29/woman-records-10-hours-of-harassment-walking-through-new-york

I know. That's what sucks. The fact I can't do anything about it so all I can do ( I feel) is placate them or ignore it. And then internally seethe.

I remember I was in France once and a guy was following me round the supermarket. I was with 2 male friends who, when I told them, just dismissed it. I think because men don't experience it, they don't believe it or just minimise it.

When I watched it my thought was that she was wearing practical plain clothing. Yes, it followed the shape of her body, which was healthy looking, like many men's bodies and clothing will be.

Some of the remarks seemed quite 'mild' compared to some I have heard.
But, like someone says upthread, the remarks are disingenuous - 'hey pretty, want to say hello?' could sound okay - ish, until you think about the intrusiveness of it. And then you get the aggression when she doesn't respond....

A lot of the remarks are just a comment on her body - like she is bloodstock / a prize cow / a breeding dog.

It is also the relentlessness of it - 10 hours of remarks, endless comments.

The guy walking alongside was very creepy too.

*'Men's Space' - wtaf???

Because the conversation leaves out white men who also perpetrate street harassment, its makes the issue a race issues and it feeds into pre existing ideas about race for example the hyper sexuality of black men.

Its not ALL men but black men who are already seen as predatory. It ignores the universal nature of street harassment so the reaction is not examine men's behaviour but black peoples behaviour.

Yes the racial element has been commented on a lot. It's a shame in a way that most of the men in the video were Latino/ African American as it gives white men a get out. I don't know if it is worse amongst ethnic communities but I do know white men do this too.

Personally the worst sexual harassment I have ever experienced was in Paris. I went there on a school trip when I was 13. I was outside the Pompidou Centre one afternoon with my schoolmates and a grown man came up toe and said, 'Ca coute combien?' ( How much do you cost?) Every single time I've been there I've been harassed on the street by men. Much worse than London.

it seems to me that the race of the harassers matches the racial mix of the people on the streets shown, so tells us nothing.

If she walking through a bunch of frat boys the racial mix would be different.

Piglet... it would seem that, from the film editor's own posts, there was as much harassment from white guys, but that this was drowned out/lost and that is why it appears to only come from black/Hispanic men. I agree with one commentator who said that, in that case, a second go would be in order.

if you look in the background, like PJ says, the racial mix is just that on the street at the time

I am wary of people who home in on race here. I suspect an agenda.

It would be interesting to do the same experiment in different cities to see how that panned out...

happy what agenda is that?

Piglet by their own admission they edited out the harassment by white men. Also if you read the link I posted they show an example of a street harassment video which shows a wide range of perpetrators from different racial and economic backgrounds. Which to me paints a more realistic image of street harassment.

The reason I find the video problematic is that by excluding white men you are making it about race. Instead of examing misogyny and patriarchy in its entirety we are simply examining the behaviour of black men. In the long run this harmful to women because it narrows the scope of what is considered harrasment and who perpetrates that harassment.

The agenda I am suspicious of is that seeking to minimise the sexual objectification of women as a clsss

Class

Did you actually read what I had posted?

The problem might be that, in cutting clips of white men doing it, they might also have cut the clips which featured predominantly white parts of town, or areas of town where you would find more white men on the street.

By making it about race (which it isn't, although I do reckon more females from racial minorities get targeted) then you take away from the gendered aspect of the abuse

This is doing the fb rounds and I don't get it either.
The only one to me who was out of order was the creepy guy walking alongside her.
What is wrong with somebody speaking to you?

happy I am not sure you have understood my post. By editing out white men and only focusing on Black/Latino men the conversation is going to steered around the behaviour of Black/Latino men and not Men's behaviour in general.

The video possibly unintentionally (though I doubt it) exonerates white men from examining their own behaviour. Who are more likely to be in positions of power and can therefore affect positive change.

Why did they edit out the harassment from white men? Surely that just allows white men to belittle it all and pass it off as a racial thing that they are innocent of.

I showed my DH the video (and he's usually good a pointing out sexism and misogynistic behaviour) and even he said some of the men where just saying hello, and I asked he how many times today someone had said hello to him as he passed them (on a busy street) he admitted none, and then I asked him when someone passes him and does say hello do they look at his body.

As said (a couple of times) above, the editor said that the clips they had (and he maintains there were many) of white men harassing her had to be edited out, because they were interrupted by car horns/off shot/in some other way not usable.

And poster, really? Which of the 2 men who walk beside her for a while did you think was most creepy, the one who constantly asked for her number or the one who said nothing, but grinned a lot?

All of them bar one really?

Oh I do apologise for asking, I've been following the thread, obviously I missed those couple of times.

It's a crazy coincidence that every time a white man harassed her they where off shot, or if they weren't there was a car horn, might have been an idea to use subtitles in that situation. Oh wait they did.

Too many people (aka white men) are focusing on the racial aspect of the men because of this editing,

"the editor said that the clips they had (and he maintains there were many) of white men harassing her had to be edited out, because they were interrupted by car horns/off shot/in some other way not usable."

And this happened in all the streets where there were white men? What a staggering coincidence

*"the editor said that the clips they had (and he maintains there were many) of white men harassing her had to be edited out, because they were interrupted by car horns/off shot/in some other way not usable."

Whao, just whao.

I didn't pay attention to the race element because a misogynist I know had put it on facebook and I was just so dumbstruck by his friends' comments. One actually said it was PC gone mad and another asked how he was supposed to meet women if he couldn't do this? I was gobsmacked!

I wholeheartedly agree, however, that's what the man says, and we have no way of proving he's wrong. But, as another commentator said, if that was the case, surely they would have gone and filmed it again, in order to make the sample more representative.

I get it. Sorry if I came across tetchy, I didn't mean to at all. Typing and trying to sort out music lessons with a computer that seems to hate me.

Just wanted to share this. It's a film of a guy walking around NYC streets for ten hours. I think it's a parody in a good way, but tbh I'm not sure. Curious to know what other people think...

www.elephantjournal.com/2014/10/923191/

This is a better article that puts it into context.

www.refinery29.com/2014/10/77065/catcalling-funny-or-die-video