We've had the same report done in Brussels. For those interested: Femme de la rue.

The behaviour in the video is shameful, at best.

All backgrounds? I'd say 90% were young black males.

Pretty fucked up though. The guy walking beside her for 5 min, WTF?

Show of hands. Who didn't know that New York is a pretty brutal place, socially? I mean, anyone who isn't a New Yorker rich enough to live where there's an elevator and building security, let alone a door man, because those folks simply develop a thick skin and avert their gaze.

Who has tried to do anything to change it? Anybody?

I grew up in New York City, and I rapidly learned to keep my gaze fixed on the pavement three meters ahead of me while also constantly being aware of the finest details of my surroundings. I swear, New York probably has a Shifty Guy Union with a score locals. Avoiding getting beaten up and robbed and having my pants cut off was a supreme challenge.

With the exception of one or two very rich kids, every single one of my schoolmates has required long-term psychiatric hospitalization. A couple never got better.

This is what New York is. If you're a young adult, it's incredibly exciting and dynamic, but then again, so was Lord of the Flies.

epepke wrote:Show of hands. Who didn't know that New York is a pretty brutal place, socially? I mean, anyone who isn't a New Yorker rich enough to live where there's an elevator and building security, let alone a door man, because those folks simply develop a thick skin and avert their gaze.

Who has tried to do anything to change it? Anybody?

I grew up in New York City, and I rapidly learned to keep my gaze fixed on the pavement three meters ahead of me while also constantly being aware of the finest details of my surroundings. I swear, New York probably has a Shifty Guy Union with a score locals. Avoiding getting beaten up and robbed and having my pants cut off was a supreme challenge.

With the exception of one or two very rich kids, every single one of my schoolmates has required long-term psychiatric hospitalization. A couple never got better.

This is what New York is. If you're a young adult, it's incredibly exciting and dynamic, but then again, so was Lord of the Flies.

The impression I get is that New York is America's equivalent of South Africa's Johannesburg...

As a dietetics student at Jhb General Hospital in 1990, I would often walk into nearby Hillbrow. I remember several near misses on those mean and dirty streets: the Greek shop-owner who wanted to beat me up after (falsely) accusing me of trying to steal a newspaper... the trio of white guys who tried to corner me in the passageway leading to a shut-down cinema... the group of black guys who actually warned me to "turn back" rather than venture down a street where some-or-other commotion was just starting... and a few others.

And Johannesburg has been the scene of some spectacularly bad sexual harassment incidents...
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Johannesburg-taxi-rank-assault-condemned-20120103

I'm probably naive, but I thought maybe some of those guys were trying to get her attention to either sell her something or con her out of something, much the way carnival workers do trying to lure people to play their rip-off games.

And a couple of them were truly creepy, like the one who walked silently alongside her for five minutes and the one that kept trying to give his number to her. And of course, there were some unnecessarily rude "dayum!"s and such. But I actually thought a few of them were just trying to be nice. What's wrong with telling someone to have a nice day or that you think they're beautiful?

I'm having a hard time feeling as offended as I probably should be. Full disclosure: I've never been to NYC and I've never walked down a sidewalk unaccompanied by a male in a major city.

On second thought, there was that time I got separated from my boyfriend at Mardi Gras in New Orleans and I just wandered around for about 10 minutes when this dude started talking to me. He was actually pretty cool and hung out with me for about 2 hours until I ran into my boyfriend. I seriously considered ditching my boyfriend at that point, but it seemed rude, so I just told my new friend goodbye, then dumped boyfriend when I got back home.

^That's not funny, you're 'orrid!

That Hollaback charity is utter BS, imho. A charity to end street harassment..

I know, I suck. He was annoying though.

the woman from the video received a number of rape & death threats hours after the video was released

How does the charity plan to end street harassment anyway?

I'm not sure I would even want to live in a world where I couldn't tell someone to have a nice day without being accused of harassment. Maybe it's just the Southerner in me, but when I pass someone on the street I generally give a slight smile and either a 'hi' or at a minimum a nod of acknowledgement.

Aca wrote:the woman from the video received a number of rape & death threats hours after the video was released

Now that's harassment.

She wasn't harassed for 10 hours straight, no? Sounds a bit misleading the title, wouldn't be at all surprised if we find out in a few weeks time that some of these were actors.

Having said that, whether out of the 10 hours she only endured 20 minutes of harassment, that is 20 minutes too much. Unsettling video!

NamelessFaceless wrote:

Aca wrote:the woman from the video received a number of rape & death threats hours after the video was released

Now that's harassment.

Horrific!!

PS: dayum gurl! yo nice!!

Sorry couldn't resist it!!

I don't really know what to make of this, I counted 23 separate people making comments in the video (out of how many tens of thousands of people she would walk past in 10 hours, I can't say). Clearly some of them were well out of line, the two guys who basically followed her down the street are certainly harassing and possibly to a criminal level and I think it's an eye opener to witness that people actually behave like that. On the other hand it's hard to see how some guy sitting outside a news stand saying "have a nice day!" qualifies as harassment - and that's apparently among the top 20 or so incidents of harassment, since this charity selected it and chose to edit it in.

Not sure why the "Have a nice day"s are included. That's not harassment unless the person saying it is grabbing their crotch or licking their lips or something in which case it's the sexual gesture that's problematic.

That said, I do think I'd prefer to live in a world where people can't say "Have a nice day" if it means they don't say any of the other shit either. The remarks on her appearance and telling her to smile and following her, particularly after she's made it clear she's not interested, is gross yet people think it's OK to keep doing it (and threaten to kill her for pointing it out and calling it harassment.) Ew.

Rachel Bronwyn wrote:Not sure why the "Have a nice day"s are included. That's not harassment unless the person saying it is grabbing their crotch or licking their lips or something in which case it's the sexual gesture that's problematic.

That said, I do think I'd prefer to live in a world where people can't say "Have a nice day" if it means they don't say any of the other shit either. The remarks on her appearance and telling her to smile and following her, particularly after she's made it clear she's not interested, is gross yet people think it's OK to keep doing it (and threaten to kill her for pointing it out and calling it harassment.) Ew.

It would be interesting to see a comparison though. I wonder how many of the "have a nice day" crowd, are equally pleasant to everyone else. I doubt a typically homely person wearing less form-fitting clothing would get the same pleasantries said to her.

Not sure there'd be the same level of harrassment or "have a nice day" in Dublin.

It's going to vary from major city to major city. It's been a problem for me in every major city I've walked in though and Manhattan isn't significantly worse for it than a lot of other cities, in my experience.

NuclMan wrote:

Rachel Bronwyn wrote:Not sure why the "Have a nice day"s are included. That's not harassment unless the person saying it is grabbing their crotch or licking their lips or something in which case it's the sexual gesture that's problematic.

That said, I do think I'd prefer to live in a world where people can't say "Have a nice day" if it means they don't say any of the other shit either. The remarks on her appearance and telling her to smile and following her, particularly after she's made it clear she's not interested, is gross yet people think it's OK to keep doing it (and threaten to kill her for pointing it out and calling it harassment.) Ew.

It would be interesting to see a comparison though. I wonder how many of the "have a nice day" crowd, are equally pleasant to everyone else. I doubt a typically homely person wearing less form-fitting clothing would get the same pleasantries said to her.

Oh, I don't doubt for a second if she were a man or a fat woman or not white people would have been far less eager to "have a nice day" her. It's got a LOT to do with her being sexually attractive to a lot of people.