The recent "cat calling video" has got a point, right?

CellularPeptideCake · 2014-10-30T16:58:49+00:00

I have been baffled by the response to the video on this subreddit. I am a lifelong New Yorker and, yes, street harassment/catcalling are very common. It sucks. Yet I have seen people call the video 'racist,' say that the men yelling at her are only trying to 'start a conversation' or 'flirt.' This is nonsense and it has really shaken my confidence in this community. I think that many of the men here are terrified of yielding any ground to female concerns, of admitting that issues like this are serious.

My only real criticism of the video is more along the lines of "Duh, if a curvaceous white woman goes to a black neighborhood alone she's going to get catcalled." That's obvious to me because I live here, but I realize it might not be obvious to everyone so I think that the video has value.

quuuuuux · 2014-10-30T18:14:56+00:00

As was pointed out on a recent Honeybadger podcast, law enforcement advise you never to publicise your rape and death threats, because it encourages more of them. The actress is not publicising her rape/death threats; the company who she worked for has elected to do that, I suspect to "raise awareness". I don't think it's very nice to "raise awareness" by risking a former employee's life.

This video was made by a producer specializing in viral marketing. The featured woman is an actress. It is impossible to see whether the audio corresponds with the men in the video, as their faces are blurred out. They claim 100+ examples of harassment, but only show 44. If they were serious about proving their assertions, they'd have released the full ten hours of footage, and if they really believed that those men were harassing that girl, they wouldn't need to blur their faces, as they would have confidence that the court case would go their way. As evidence of anything apart from the effectiveness of well-made propaganda, this film is worthless. As a way of raising money for an organization by selling a nightmare to people who want to get upset about it, it has already been extraordinarily effective.

burrowing · 2014-10-30T16:45:15+00:00

I don't know exactly what the point of the video is, but casual catcalling is a constant thing for young women living in a city.

My young teenaged daughter gets catcalled so regularly it isn't even noteworthy to her. It makes my blood boil when we are out and she is with a friend or lagging behind, because it is very frequent. However if she is walking directly next to me/ clearly WITH me, they leave her alone.

I'm talking men from 16-60, ranging from "hey pretty girl" to really explicit things. If it doesn't bother you to see a random stranger being catcalled, it will if it's your middle school aged daughter.

MakhSC · 2014-10-30T16:54:44+00:00

Yeah, I don't understand why anyone here is opposed to this video. It's pretty damning evidence that catcalling is a problem.

I'd like it if MRAs could just acknowledge that "yes, that is bad", and move on. However, because this video feels "feministy", MRAs need to oppose it on principle.

Why don't we all agree that men shouldn't harass random women in the street, and then move on to issues that matter?

DavidByron2 · 2014-10-30T17:19:15+00:00

Imo, if you like a girl, approach her respectfully

That makes you the asshole these feminists are talking about. Do you realize that? They are saying it doesn't matter how respectful you are because you're a creepy man. Otherwise why did they include comments on the video like "have a nice day"?

Lobstermansunion · 2014-10-30T17:04:37+00:00

I think catcalling is rude, but this video is racist as hell. It looks like something KKK sympathizers would make to stir up trouble. Videomakers specifically targeted underprivileged minorities for shame & ridicule. Edited video to do so, in fact.

HoneyVortex · 2014-10-30T18:11:20+00:00

Sh0eOnHead's take on catcalls

DavidByron2 · 2014-10-30T17:15:48+00:00

It's a propaganda video. It's not science. They went out to try and provoke a certain reaction and highlight it because it fits with their ideology of hate.

If the same video had been made by white supremacists and their angle on it was that black people are a threat to whites, would you figure they had a point too? Or would you say that you'd like to see some evidence from non-biased non-bigoted people before you jump to racist conclusions?

But all of this does highlight what could become a bigger and bigger issue here which is that as men get the message that feminism is a hate movement, and as men begin to stand up for their rights and demand equality, and as men get angry about the systematic discrimination against them this sort of propaganda by feminists is going to draw a lot of nasty responses by men who don't even have anything to do with the MRA or anti-feminism. And that is just as it should be.

Because people who are oppressed have a right to get angry about it. People who are screwed by society have the right to be angry when a bunch of hate mongers try to constantly denigrate them as a birth group. when they see themselves being targeted and abused by these feminists they will naturally get very angry indeed.

Now add that it's men who make up the great majority of people at the bottom of the heap in our society in terms of low IQ, social isolation and mental illness (just as they also make up the great majority of the smartest people) and yes, you're going to get incidents of men attacking these bigots and making angry outbursts at what they correctly come to see as hateful attacks on them.

THIS IS GOING TO GET A LOT WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER.

And that is a necessary thing to happen. And yes the MRAs will be blamed for it even when it's some guy who had nothing to do with the MRA. And yes the feminists will have a field day with all their victimry bullshit even when it's transparently insincere, even as it becomes clear they are egging on marginalized men to attack them so they can go on about how victimized they are.

(Not to say that some of these fems aren't faking some of their own death threats; we know they do because they've been caught doing it; but I do believe it's a genuine phenomena too)

So you better all figure out what you'll do about it all, but I'll tell you now the wrong approach is to act like a pussy and let the feminists win, because these angry men are going to need leadership, not people who apologize to their enemies at the drop of a hat, and if these angry young men don't get that leadership they'll see women as the enemy instead of feminism.

zpatriarchy · 2014-10-30T16:52:33+00:00

if you like a girl, approach her respectfully and talk to her

you mean like say "hello"? which is what most of these were?

If girls get cat-called as much as the video suggests

you mean .42%? less than 1% of the time?

ThePigmanAgain · 2014-10-30T21:24:53+00:00

"If girls get cat-called as much as the video suggests, I'd say it's a problem."

But that's the problem, while the behavior was obnoxious and even threatening there wasn't much of it -- two minutes out of ten hours! And how many good looking young women walk around shit NY 'hoods for ten hours straight? Not many. And that's the other thing, this doesn't happen to "girls," it happens to the good looking ones, a subset of the category "girls." The problem with the video is not that this isn't a problem but with the way it is being used to make the turkey look drier than it is so the wiminz can have more gravy.

Jaykaykaykay · 2014-10-30T19:26:32+00:00

This speaks more of people, like you, and how easily manipulated by feminists they are.

6453634645 · 2014-10-30T17:08:19+00:00

I opened that video reluctantly, hoping to have my eyes opened to some next-level harassment. She walked around in really tight clothing for ten, -ten- hours and got two minutes of footage, much of it incredibly benign. I was expecting people from across the street to start whistling and whatnot. I get "harassed" more by panhandlers and other people in a quarter of that time, it's part of being in an environment with other humans, I don't automatically get to dictate what is and is not appropriate, nor does anyone else.

This all genuinely scares me. It's going to get to the point where there are specific situations where you can initiate interaction with women, but any other time, "it's colored by sex." Yes, how dare we have sexual urges, how dare we be human. From the same people that "celebrate sexuality" no less. What is the end game here? Men never interacting with women unless they get a notarized permission slip? That they should "just know" whatever unwritten rules any woman has, even if she is unwilling to state it? Are we going to pretend we live in a universal monoculture? We're not there yet....

BruceIsTheBatman · 2014-10-30T19:26:07+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Onionoftruth · 2014-10-31T15:00:15+00:00

The video proves that if you walk around a very busy city for a long period of time you will get unwanted attention. I can't believe they are trying to suggest this stuff doesn't happen to men as well all the time, normally with men it takes the form of confrontation and attempts at intimidation.

superstevelive · 2014-10-31T17:18:50+00:00

This video is a great example of how polite and respectful most men actually are who you hear these women complain about as harassers. In ten hours you get one legitimate example.

Title	The recent "cat calling video" has got a point, right?
Author	outcastded
Upvotes	3
Comments	91
Date	October 30, 2014 4:34 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/2ksmdp/the_recent_cat_calling_video_has_got_a_point_right/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/the-recent-cat-calling-video-has-got-a-point-right.994077 https://theredarchive.com/post/994077

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