A young woman silently walked around New York City for 10 hours, secretly videoing the catcalls, street harassment and creepy men she encountered. She experienced an instance of verbal harassment at least once every six minutes for nearly half the day.
Shoshana B. Roberts, a New York City-based actress and the “silent woman” in the video, was called at over 100 times in 10 hours ‒ and that doesn’t include any of the winks and whistles she received during that time.
The startling clip was produced by Hollaback, an organization
that is seeking to stamp out street harassment and intimidation.
In August, Roberts walked through Manhattan without speaking or
responding to anyone who tried to engage her – including the man
who followed her for five minutes.
The persistent passer-by, who was captured on tape but had his
face hidden, was not the only one to join Roberts on her walk.
BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T WANT IT. RT:"it says 100 instances of street harassment. Over half of em were just hello ma'am.How is that harassment"
— Jessica R. Williams (@msjwilly) October 28, 2014
The footage was captured by Rob Bliss, of Rob Bliss Creative, via
a hidden video camera in his backpack as he walked in front of
the woman. Roberts held two microphones to capture what men said
to her.
The comments recorded on the video ranged from what Slate’s
Amanda Hess deemed “ostensibly friendly greetings” –
such as “Have a nice evening!” – to inappropriate
comments about the woman’s body, from demeaning commands of
“Smile!” to “pure expressions of entitlement.”
“Somebody’s acknowledging you for being beautiful! You should say thank you more!” one man berated Roberts.
street harassment is not a compliment. being told to smile is not a compliment. being forced into conversation is not a compliment.
— Tracy Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) October 28, 2014
The Bliss video shows “what it’s like to walk down the street alone as a woman: totally exhausting, reliably demeaning, and occasionally, terrifying,” Hess noted. “The ceaseless chatter (plus some light stalking!) adds up to a constant reminder that, just for walking from point A to point B, some men believe that women’s bodies and minds should be made accessible to them on command.“
Following the release of the video, Roberts started receiving rape threats online, Hollaback said.
The subject of our PSA is starting to get rape threats on the comments. Can you help by reporting them? http://t.co/NMYCFd9YOm
— Hollaback! (@iHollaback) October 28, 2014
The clip went viral, triggering a mixed reaction on YouTube and Twitter, as well as prompting female users to share their experience of what they said was misogyny and harassment.
"'I have a boyfriend' is the easiest way to get a man to leave you alone. Because he respects another man more than you. #yesallwomen"
— Roxanne daisy (@MezDaisy) October 28, 2014
When I get "We can't be friends?" for not acknowledging a man, I silently wonder if I'm gonna have to fight him to the death #yesallwomen
— Celeste Shun (@charxthree) October 28, 2014
Unlike the heroine of the Hollaback PSA, Santa Clara-based
freelance writer Jody Amable did answer back, and recounted her
experience on Ravishly.com, an alternative news and culture
website for women. Amable wrote that she and her boyfriend were
at a music venue. When her boyfriend left for the bathroom, a man
sitting at the bar began insistently saying hi to her. When she
refused to engage, he and his friend unleashed “a torrent of
verbal abuse.”
“Oh, come on, what the hell? What the f*ck, I was just trying
to be nice. I wasn’t trying to hit on you! God, why do women
always think we're flirting with them?” he turned to his
friend, but was shouting loud enough so that I could hear.
“Women are always like that. Always assume we’re
flirting.”
Amable said she felt a surge of adrenaline, then asked, “Then
what were you trying to do?”
There was silence from the men, then an awkward response from the
friend. The first man then insisted he wasn’t flirting.
Amable says she then replayed the incident over and over in her
head.
“In the hours after, all I could think about was how I had
brought it upon myself. I mean, he was right – all he was doing
was trying to say hi. He didn't spike my drink. He didn't even
touch me,” she wrote. “But for some reason, this messed
with my head just as much, if not more, than other, more dire
incidents of harassment that I have been involved in.”
She then tried to reevaluate her “entire stance on male
attention,” noting that the unpleasant attempt to chat
stopped short of any sort of sexual harassment – but saying that
it showed a bigger problem.
Even if we don't engage in street harassment ourselves, we have to check our homeboys whenever we see them doing it. Aggressively.
— HumanityCritic (@HumanityCritic) October 28, 2014
“This wasn't rape, but this is where it starts. It starts in
a culture where I am alarmed, but not at all surprised that this
man's immediate reaction to not even rejection, but mild
interest, was to boil over with rage,” Amable said.
“Rage that wasn't even directed at just me, but at every
woman on the planet. The fact that I did not instantly acquiesce
my attention the moment I met him made him not just angry, but
screamingly furious.”
While some people see comments like “Hello,” or
“Have a nice day,” as innocuous, it can turn sinister
when a woman doesn’t know the intention behind it or how the man
might react if she does ‒ or doesn’t ‒ respond. “[W]hen a
male stranger shouts it, it’s just another unearned claim for a
woman’s attention—one that could escalate should the woman so
much as bat an eyelash. Roberts didn’t - she still got harassed
at every turn,” Hess wrote.
Why must we work to end street harassment? B/c no 17yo should have to share this story : http://t.co/wUXB1R6sg9#yesallwomen#endSH
— CollectiveActionDC (@SafeSpacesDC) October 28, 2014
She passed the video on to her male colleagues to gauge their
reactions.
“I knew this stuff happened—I see and hear it every once in a
while—but the frequency of the remarks was astounding,” one
told her.
The video is a “great reminder of how even the most
‘innocuous’-seeming comments pile up over the course of an hour,
day, and life to feel oppressive and awful,” another said.