See also, “Why are you ignoring me–you’re not even hot enough for me to fuck!”
I don’t think men hollering after women on the street is some kind of unchangeable force of nature. Indeed, it has been nearly eliminated in many areas. And women (half the population) are in near-universal agreement that walking through areas where people don’t catcall is more pleasant, feels more secure, and ultimately leads to more freedom. I’d even go as far as to say streets without catcalls are objectively better.
I don’t think women can eliminate catcalls. Lord knows we’ve tried silence, sass and everything in between. I think in the end the only thing that works is having a male escort- which is frankly bullshit., Societies where women have to have male escorts to avoid harassment suck. I want nothing in common with Saudi Arabia.
I think what works is men. Men teaching their sons not to do that. Men calling out their mates when they act like idiots. Men taking ownership for not only their own actions, but the actions that they implicitly or explicitly condone. This has to be a group effort.
The stated reason for the video is to get all men to stop doing whatever they are doing. That is a flat-out retarded idea and culturally insensitive. How about we move next to Mardis Gras in New Orleans to stop asking women to moderate their alcohol intake and not show their boobs for beads?
There are countless women that are victimized in New Orleansi every single year. Men dangle essentially worthless beads for them to pull up their tops and bare their breasts to the world. Men dangle those beads from balconies to get innocent women to expose those knockers and most do as long as the bead payment is high enough. Women get higher and higher status according to the number and quality of beads that they have. At the middle and end of it, it is a literal orgy for beads and every other form of alternate currency. As far as I know, the women went to some serious effort to participate in the first place. Should they be banned for their own protection?
The woman in the video is not selling me on anything. She is moderately unattractive and a bitch. She has no idea whatsoever about how to handle herself in a large city. I had a roommate once that looked almost exactly like her. My roommates strategy was to fuck as many men as she could except she knew how to handle herself. She wouldn’t have ever been caught in that situation without taking someone down physically.
OK, so women complaining about behavior that makes them feel unsafe and uncomfortable are being insensitive. Got it.
Ugh. It’s one thing to be aware that the Internet (and world in general) has a serious problem with misogyny…depressing as hell to see it in a community you like and value. 
Thanks for laying bare your misogyny. Hint – firstly, it’s the judgement of a woman’s appearance… especially considering it has no relevance whatsoever to this conversation. Secondly, it’s the “bitch” slur – why is she a bitch? Because she dared to be hired by a video creator who directed her to walk down the street without reacting while being filmed?
Only a bitch would be an actress and get an acting job and obey the director… what a bitchy thing to do. Damn women getting jobs and obeying their supervisors, and then having the gall to have an opinion and talk about it afterwards! Who do they think they are?
Were the polite and kind men in the video calling out sweet greetings to other men that they passed? Old women? Young children? Or was it just this one nice looking woman?
At any old time, at whatever place, with whichever complete stranger happens to flit into your field of vision for two seconds?
No, of course not, there are limits. Of course there are times & places where it is acceptable to make an advance with a stranger, but that’s not the whole world. And the difference is not some inscrutable mystery, with “Oh, women expect men to be mind-readers.”
The sidewalk is not a singles club. It’s not hard.
“Ok, hold on, that doesn’t make any sense. How can someone like going to a huge street party where everyone is getting drunk and dancing and flirting with each other, and then NOT like it when a bunch of random strangers make unwanted and often disgusting sexual advances out of the clear blue sky as she walks to the deli on her lunch break? How are those scenarios at all different?”
Sorry for being snarky, but it’s baffling to me how so many otherwise smart people can have no apparent idea about the ways in which context matters. “Hey, how’re you doing today?” means one thing when a bank teller says it to a 40 year old man at his window, but something completely different when the dumbass on the stoop says it to the 20 year old girl who happens to pass by him on the sidewalk. Acting like it’s some normal social pleasantry and women are freaking out over nothing suggests a stunning degree of blindness, as does comparing everyday catcalling to what goes on at the biggest party in the country. Again, there are times & places for flirting with strangers. Mardi Gras is one, a nurse’s lunch hour is not.
I don’t know what magic stare you have but if someone started pacing me after making lude remarks I would reach for a weapon.
I think the main issue with the video is that that catcalling out to random women walking down the street is not something most middle class men (black or white) do. Once you get out of the underclass neighborhoods and avoid drunk crowds it reduces to the point of being something only mentally disturbed people would do.
The video is trying to make the point that this is something that women walking down streets in the US have to deal with ALL THE TIME and it’s really not. Outside of poorer neighborhoods and away from bars it’s very rare behavior. This is not to say that you won’t get occasionally get some whispering middle class creepazoid muttering disgusting things to you, or pressing too close in crowded circumstances or doing something else furtive and disgusting, but that’s not street shout outs which is what the video is claiming.
The video is premised on a the big lie that this is common everywhere for women when in fact you have to hunt for it for 10 hours in one of the most crowded places on earth then edit it down to a few minutes and still keep in the “How do you do’s” as harassing statements and 99% of your catcalls are black and Hispanic men in poorer neighborhoods. The worst part of it is that white racists are going to love this video to pieces and will point to it again and again as evidence that non-whites are sexually aggressive animals. No one’s consciousness has been raised by this boondoggle and all you have is a ready made racist cannon to point at minorities.
A very few were; most weren’t.
While I agree with Astro I think the video is endemic of large cities. For whatever reason you see men standing around doing nothing. You don’t see this in public in small cities and the suburbs. Of course there are exceptions but what we’re looking at in the video is poverty which inevitably results in a loss of the family unit. Proper parenting is severely absent.
“Yo Magiver, man, seven FOURTEEN yo ROHRER yo you hear me dog! Hey! Hey! What’s with the gun man! Yo SEVEN FOURT-oooooph!!”
They ought to take more of these videos around the gay community. On one board a woman said she went to a large lesbian gathering and lesbians have no problem not only propositioning each other, but occasionally grabbing some butt. I head its the same at gay male events.
For anyone who doesn’t know: http://www.714movement.com/. It’s based on 2 Chronicles 7:14
I don’t believe it matters.
And, if you want to have some fun, here’s Hugh Laurie trying to guess what it (and other rap lingo) means on Ellen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5OFhfdvrzk
So, when these people innocently brush against you guys, is it often your arm or shoulder, or is it predominantly your ass and crotch? Once someone has brushed against you, do they move along or move a little away or otherwise make an attempt to not brush up against your ass and crotch anymore? Or do they stay exactly where they are and keep accidentally brushing up against you? Because when you make repeated contact with a woman’s buttock or breast but never any other part of her and make no attempt whatsoever to move away or reposition yourself to stop said contact…that’s not an accident.
So, you willingly signed on for this knowing what it would entail, did it as a paid part of your job, and the people making passes at you unfailingly took no for an answer. Yeah, women who get grabbed at under those circumstances don’t really find it harmful either. If being grabbed at and propositioned under those circumstances were damaging, strip clubs wouldn’t have such a stead supply of dancers, ya know? But those circumstances are the complete opposite of what we’re talking about here. Women getting catcalled or otherwise harassed on the street trying to get to work or the grocery store, they’re not willing participants in this shit, they’re not getting anything out of enduring it, and a lot of guys aren’t willing to take no for an answer. Some of those will stop at just calling you an ugly bitch (gee, sound familiar?) but some of them will try to physically harm you.
It’s crazy to me, and very telling, that most of the women in this thread are saying this is a problem they’d like to stop, while many of the men are saying it’s not and that the women are being too sensitive. Don’t you think that’s sort of fucked up?
We don’t know. There is only one camera, and it’s trained on only the one person the whole time.
Speaking for myself, I personally have greeted both men and women in passing.
O rly? :dubious:
No. Not really.