NEW YORK — A video posted on YouTube by non-profit group Hollaback is getting people around the world talking about “street harassment.”
The video shows a woman walking silently around New York City for 10 hours wearing jeans and a crewneck T-shirt. As she walks a hidden camera records every step and every word spoken to her by the men she passed.
The video shows stranger after stranger calling to her, approaching her and verbally harassing her. At the end of the video the filmmaker reveals more than 100 instances of verbal street harassment took place during the 10 hours of shooting. The filmmaker said the harassment happened across a diverse spectrum of neighborhoods throughout the city.
“This doesn’t include the countless winks, whistles, etc,” wrote the filmmaker.
Some of the displays capture on video are downright scary. At one point she is followed for more than five minutes by a stranger. At another point she is berated by a different stranger trying to force his phone number upon her.
Hollaback calls on women across the world to record incidents of street harassment and share them publicly to bring both awareness to the issue, but also to bring it to an end.
