Hollaback!

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This video by Robert Bliss follows a woman walking through New York during which many men verbally approach her. It is meant to show the prevalence of street harassment directed at woman.
But frankly, I found most of the supposed "cat calls" to be respectful and complementary. I would not be upset in her position (except for the guy who walked with her for awhile, that was kinda creepy.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XGPvbWn0A[/youtube]

Compliments to strangers in the street are never complementary; in my opinion.

A few of them were just fine. Some of them were really creepy. What upsets me about the video (being a minority myself) is that she went through a primarily Black/Latino neighborhood, in a well-known bad part of town, to record this video. So the responses that she's getting are skewed and are not indicative of what actually happens. Second, it just plain ol' makes minorities look bad.

True What Cynical said.. Chicks don't get hit on like that everywhere. ..and she was beautiful so.. you gotta try :p

I think a few of the comments like "how are you this morning?" and "have a nice evening" are quite reasonable (even if still annoying to someone just minding their own business and not wanting to interact), but the vast majority of them are not acceptable at all. So while the description might go a bit overboard in saying she received 100 instances of verbal harassment, the basic message seems sound to me. Even if it was only 50 instances, that's still a hell of a lot! Of course, they purposefully chose quite an attractive woman, so the numbers can't be extrapolated to all women (nor to all men!), but it still shows a very sad state of things.

people have the basic right to be left alone.

I wish it were so. It just doesn't work that way. When you're out in public, you've entered a common space. Only the guy who followed her was behaving wrongly. Other people have a right to speak in public. Mostly what she received were greetings. Nothing to be offended by.

if somebody ogled me for an extended period and then gestured towards me and shouted DAMN! you better believe that is offensive.

Now everyone want to do a version.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75aX9mlipiY[/youtube]

No, a street is a walkway and it's no place for getting know strangers.

Maybe in some smaller towns/villages, people tend to greet others in the street - but it's not the case in urban cultures.

I don't know how much of that is scripted/prearranged, but it looks harassing to me in those cases where people approached him or ogled him.

The guy at the beginning sounds angry and wants a revenge comeback against the original video - making me to suspect the credibility of the whole video honestly.

that is what I thought also.

Agreed.

It's only harassment if you harp on it. A lot of them said their piece and then went on about their day. The ones who followed her and the ones who ogled her were the only ones in the wrong.

And Boo, people greeting each other on the street is more common than you think. I hate doing it myself, though, because I'm not good looking enough to pull it off without being treated like a creep.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJa7VzfWJQg&list=PLA7A636AD7D948933[/youtube]

it is saddening to me, that looks should have to enter into the equation.