RE: 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Female

"Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women."

Dr. Maya Angelou

source

First and foremost, I would like to reinstate the definition of the word 'harassment', because I feel that its definition is lost when applied to this occurrence. Google defines 'harassment' as the following:

Please note that harassment can come in the form of 'annoyance', 'irritation', 'bother', 'force', 'hassle', and 'pestering', all of which I felt upon watching the video '10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman'. Harassment is defined by Hollaback!, the institution responsible for acting against street harassment, as 'culturally accepted as 'the price you pay' for being a woman'. Their mission statement, if you please, comes in the form of a video and is a rather interesting watch. Upon watching it, one gains an insight that is not as shallow as the insight gained by watching 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Female alone:

Secondly, I would like to remind people that despite my being female, I am a human being who should be treated equally even if I have an extra amount of fat on my chest that unfortunately constitutes as some sort of sexual symbol all thanks to the media, when really it aids in the natural course of breastfeeding if I were to become a mother or aids in my restlessness at nighttime due to the fact that it becomes difficult to sleep on two extra body pillows, per se. Please note, also, my vast hips as they are the way that they are due to my experiencing of puberty, wherein it is totally normal for the hips to expand to give the womb a copious amount of room for the comfort of a potential child, or for the harbouring of blood clots which seep out of my genitalia monthly, also part of a natural state of my femininity. My gluteus maximus, might I add, is the way that it is, quite large, not for sexual attraction, rather because I sit on it all day because I am lazy, an aspect of my free choice. My free choice will also allow me to improve, in my eyes, its shape, if I permit myself, for myself, and not for another being. Discussion of exercising aside, the size of a gluteus maximus may be hereditary and not due to laziness in some cultures due to the variation of DNA, another fact that cannot be addressed when it comes to social issues regarding women.

Good. Now that I have physically distinguished myself and my body parts as a natural member of the female species, I feel that I can go on to explain my discomfort in the opinions of most male species, in terms of other areas disregarding the natural female physical state, which by owning, should not under any circumstance, albeit the varied measurements of such parts, make the owner the victim of derogatory terms used to offend certain people with a frequent sex drive. The reason as to why I make this distinction comes in later in this post.

The video below depicts actress Shoshana B Roberts walking through the streets of Manhattan over the course of ten hours whilst wearing a pair of jeans, and a crewneck t-shirt. She was to perform this entire walk silently, as part of this social experiment, choosing not to answer all the catcalls she would receive on her journey, so as to possibly entice additional comments which would further the annoyance that is feeling liable to talk to strangers if they find you visually appealing. I have decided to place below the video a transcript of all that was said in it.

"How you doing today?"
"Smile."

"I guess not good."

"Smile!"

"What's up beautiful, have a good day."

"Hey, what's up girl? How you doing?"

"Somebody's acknowledging you for being beautiful! You should say thank you more! ... For real?"

"God bless you, mami" (proceeds to examine her gluteus maximus) "Damn!"

"Hey baby."

"Hey, beautiful!"

"How are you this morning?"

"Have a nice evening."

"Nice!"

"Damn. Damn!"

"Hi beautiful. God bless." (also proceeds to examine her gluteus maximus, and upon observation, adds:) "Sexy American Eagle!"

"Hello, good morning. God bless you. Have a good day, alright?" (this man then proceeds to walk beside her for five minutes)

"Damn!"

"How you doing?"

"How you doing, good?"

"Sweetie?"

"Hey, look it there! I just saw a thousand dollars."

"Damn, girl!"

"You don't wanna talk? Because I'm ugly? Huh? We can't be friends, nothing? You don't speak? If I give you my number, would you talk to me? Huh? Too ugly for you?"

"What's up, Miss?"

"How you doing?"

"Have a nice evening, darling."

Indeed, Roberts did receive an array of compliments, but the compliments are beside the point. Please note again, as stated above, that harassment can come in the form of 'annoyance', 'irritation', 'bother', 'force', 'hassle', and 'pestering'. Compliments can pester, bother, hassle and annoy. I personally am affected by compliments in this manner, particularly compliments from a stranger. Yes, you can wish a stranger a good day, a good afternoon and a good night as you cross paths, but you cannot expect to have the person you compliment owe you a response, because that person, apart from not needing to abide by your expectation, needs to have their personal life experiences taken into account, especially considering the fragility of a female figure in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Such is the case with this actress. Roberts was a victim of sexual harassment, saying that in the duration of the filming of this video, she "felt like crying", and due to her "occurrences in [her] past of sexual assault, [she] wasn't even aware necessarily of all the times people were saying things to [her]. [She] was going over in [her] head and reliving [her] memories while [she] was walking. [She] wanted to break down in tears". Amidst the array of compliments, some catcalls which involved the examining of her gluteus maximus were uncalled for. Most people are appalled at this video, taking into account only the compliments and not things like "you should say thank you more", which leads to my interest in the quote, "verbal harassment is in the ear of the beholder", said by Dana Perino, on The Five, Fox News, while discussing the issue at hand. And that is indeed true. While to most, this was a video depicting the absurdity of what is considered harassment, to others it is the very epitome of harassment.

Also on the board of people on Fox News' The Five, Greg Gutfeld makes an interesting point that highlights the ease of slipping through dirty remarks amongst compliments in public, wherein he says that "catcalls are possible [in this case] because the situation is fluid, so men don't have to deal with the rejection because the woman keeps walking". I align with that comment because it is proven as most of the men shown saying the dirtier remarks, as per the man who compliments the back of Robert's jeans, only said so after she was a metre or so past them. Gutfeld goes on to say that "nobody catcalls in an elevator, where there's awkwardness and the woman can tell you to shut up." With this said, Gutfeld hints that men have a sense of shame when it comes to saying things in the vicinity of a woman in a secluded space, rather than in the public domain. If they meant it in an utterly complimentary manner, though, would they still feel ashamed? I recall an incident where I complimented a woman's shirt on my university campus because it had the same image of a wolf as my backpack, and I still remember the look of horror on her face which melted into a look of relief as she realised I complimented her. Most people, me being one of them, feel a state of discomfort walking in a public space, let alone having strangers talk to them, even if the stranger may mean good. Gutfeld also states that, "there were, probably, no doubt, jerks in there. But you can't throw all men into a pile", which brings me to my next statement: indeed, not all men should be generalised to suit the intents of those with bad intentions. This post is by no means aimed at generalising, for it did acknowledge the obvious complimentary words thrown towards Roberts in the above video. 

"She got 100 catcalls, let me add 101. Damn, baby, you're a piece of woman. 

[...] She's a good-looking babe, wouldn't you say something?" 

- Bob Beckel, Fox News. 

It is in what is said by this man, on the same show as Gutfeld and Perino, that truly disgusts me. I am disgusted because what he says is what I call a shifty compliment, a compliment that appears innocent, but really has sexual undertones. The issue(s) here, is that Beckel is engendering Roberts by defining her femininity through her appearance, by stating that appearance is a determinant in whether or not a victim is catcalled, and by missing the point completely, by aiming to prematurely stall her intentions so as to indicate and prioritise his. 

Why should women feel as though what they are wearing determines varied sorts of public reaction? Why should there be public reactions at all? Why cannot women wear what they please so as to please themselves and not please or displease others? My overall concern with this video and its results is that it has shown that the public domain has agency over what a woman wears and how a woman acts if a woman does not comply to the unwritten laws where compliments or catcalls should be answered. Harassment happens physically and verbally. While actions are taken to decrease physical harassment, who is to say that actions to decrease verbal harassment should be stopped?

And irony exists in the comments section beneath the video 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Female, where verbal harassment is happening, where death threats and profanity are aimed at Roberts for her willingness and bravery in stepping up to make a change in our society: 

We cannot expect to live in a harmonious society if we dispel the realities of females and their struggles.

I would like to finish this post by sharing words that Roberts said herself, as per her reasoning behind agreeing to be filmed in 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Female: