Leah Green went undercover to find out what would happen if a woman used sexist remarks when talking with men.
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The tables were turned when Leah Green went undercover for The Guardian, she hoped to expose the outrageous nature of sexist comments made by men to women. By turning the table onto men, Green was successful in triggering an array of responses from the men she harassed, as well as a wide range of responses from viewers.
Some women noted that it was an accurate depiction of the verbal assaults they face on a daily basis, light-hearted “jokes” that leave a feeling of unease in their stomachs. Others responded with a more negative tone, accusing Green of harassing potentially-innocent men to prove her point.
Offers of lap-dances, propositions of some “fun” and even interrogating strangers if they wax or shave their genitals is just a small sampling of the awkward situations Green puts these men in.
For more on Green’s project, you can find her in-depth explanation here.
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It’s not just that only a small fraction of men are street harassers. It not just some that do it and most don’t do it. For me and the vast majority of other men, catcalling women is just a totally foreign concept. 95 to 99% of us don’t do it, not because we know it’s wrong, but because it would never occur to us to do such a thing. There’s no lesson that we got or any self-control mechanism we developed. It just would never occur to us. I’ve never felt an urge to yell or hoot or whistle at… Read more »
It’s intriguing until you watch it. This video fails to make a strong point. Saying things like “nice trousers, they would look better on my bedroom floor” and “would you like to come home with me” are not sexist remarks—they’re just really bad flirting cliches. It would’ve been interesting if she were turning the table on sexist men, but most of the men she approached seem like pretty nice guys going about their day. One was even a do-gooder helping her with directions. This stunt would’ve been more effective had she created a situation where a man might actually behave… Read more »
Intriguing until you watch it. This video fails to make a strong point. Saying things like “nice trousers, they would look better on my bedroom floor” and “would you like to come home with me” are not sexist remarks—they’re just really bad flirting cliches. It would’ve been interesting if she was turning the tables on sexist men, but most of the men she approached seemed like pretty nice guys going about their day. One do-gooder was even giving her directions. This stunt would have been more effective had she created a situation where a man might actually behave in a… Read more »
@Ericka while I agree with you in spirit,the belief that women cannot be sexually aggressive without fear of forever damaging their virginal image has no basis in fact today.Women around the world flock to male strip shows where they stand in line to tongue kiss,fondle and be fondled by total strangers.Lindsey Lohah’s list of sexual conquests-that she left (OMG)in a public space- is making the rounds.Miley Cyrus dresses more and more risque,Rihanna is known to have had many sexual partners.Kim Kardashian made $5 million off of her sex tape and suffered no lasting harm to her reputation.After the fact, she… Read more »
Many times it’s considered ‘harassment’ not only by what’s said, but also by who says it. If a woman walks past the dead ringer for her favorite Hollywood Hunk and he compliments her on how she looks,you’ll usually see a half smile and perhaps a look over the shoulder, but if she should walk past some F.O.F. like yours truly, and he should say the exact same compliment, well you’ll get the ‘humph’, the quick head shake, and a flip of the hair.
I hope maybe some of you will try to thinking differently about blame. Our society IS sexist and racist and yes we are all brainwashed into believing at least some of it. It is a system, and our notions about men and women come from that system. For instance, above a man talks about women being scantily clad and enjoying the attention. He’s saying that until we don’t act that way and ask for the “unwanted attention”, we cannot expect men to not make remarks and such. So, realize something about this. Those women are actually playing the game we… Read more »
It was pointless… yeah it was a little funny but pointless. Women do not have that power. Because when she did, she was confused for a hooker or a nut case, so there she has no power but the men still did. It was useless because it is not acceptable that a woman act this aggressive. And truth is she was acting more like a male version of a jerk than just an average guy. Men stood up for themselves and ridicule her and kept their power. Maybe we women should learn from this and ridicule these jerks who feel… Read more »
@ Sara Deegan @ Pam @ Jaz First thing I’d like to say is I believe you. I’m also sorry that this is happening to you. I’ve heard women say they’re harassed daily. I’ve heard women say they get harassed once a year. I don’t believe (or maybe don’t want to) that it’s a large proportion of men who do this. Could it possibly be the same guys? Some women have pointed to a group of guys. If you take the train to work, odds are that you take the same train every day. If a harasser takes the same… Read more »
It is currently 70 degrees at 10:30 am in Oakland,Ca..So far I have seen three women wearing daisy dukes,no stocking with heels.Just yesterday I listened to some women bragging about all of the attention they received from men on the street when wearing short, spaghetti strapped, sun dresses.”Girllll,I was stopping traffic!” A burleques show in downtown Oakland is rated in the top ten in the country.I won’t go to the burlesque show,or give the daisy dukes or sun dresses the time of day.Why?Because I am tired of the games,the tease,the bs denial and outright rejection of personal responsibility for being… Read more »
IMO stunts like this minimise the cases where women actually are harassers, by presenting it as some kind of anomalous thing that only really serves as a stunt to make a point about who is “really” oppressed – and as ever, it’s teh wimmenz.
There was a French short called Majorité Oprimé recently which did the same thing with sexual assault.
One thing about this ‘Turning the Tables’ stunt is the fact that if you are a Man and are harassed with ‘sexist remarks’, there’s really nothing you can do about it. Say anything of a equally vulgar nature back and you run the risk of possibly being arrested on harassment charges. Even when your physically assaulted by a woman (you know, hands all over your chest, grabbing your ass, your ‘junk’ etc;) there’s just really nothing you can do about it.
Is hitting on someone sexist?
LOL, i love it….i think it was a great experiment. And one thing i must agree with. I don’t think most of men would have “gladly accommodated” her. Most of guys get real shocked when a girl offers things. Or suspect there is something else to the story.
I especially loved when she was staring at a guy on a bride..who was smoking. It was hilarious.
I would have been interested in a bit more of a discussion on the reactions of men. I think it is fair to say that most of the men if not all were confused more than anything else. I would have loved some follow up conversation and explanation on why they picked the particular clips they chose in putting together this piece, I think it is fair to infer that there was follow up with the men in the clips since for all the non blurred faces releases had to have been signed. I would also have loved to see… Read more »
I agree about following up with the guys she talked to. Supposedly as men we don’t understand how it feels to be harassed with such commentary and attention but while filming this video there’s not much focus on how those guys felt.
At face value this video is not much more than click bait under under the disguise of activism.
People are forgetting a very vital thing…
Men ARE RAISED TO NEVER SHOW THEIR TRUE FEAR. It’s one of the most important and highly regarded gender roles of men to be stoic. My poker face will hide more fear than the average woman feels (I have an anxiety disorder), you will not see my anxiety very easy or my fear but it’s there.
This was a pointless waste of time, most of those men didn’t mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had to edit out about 70% of their footage of men accepting her propositions or happily engaging with her “harassment”.
@ Leon D,
I was thinking the same thing!!!!!
If this were here in America, I know 50% of the men would not have bypassed some free sex. I loved the guy with the umbrella (“OK I need to go to the bank first.”).
Megan is right! This is not about criminal and rapists… u think all those guys whistling at us on the street and making comments on our outfits are all criminals/rapists?… It might as well be your “very respectable” brothers, dad, uncle, son, etc. U totally missed the point. Sexism is everywhere and totally different from “being a sexual offender”. And by the way, the woman here does not direct the harassment towards a certain type of men, the “bad ones” (which she should maybe? wow, might as well do the Dexter thing! *ironic*), she just does it towards all men… Read more »
@ Mi
Sexism is not everywhere. That’s like me saying racism is everywhere and all white folks are racist.
You want to paint with a broad brush. All this results in is you throwing the baby out with the bath water.
“Sexism is not everywhere.”… says ze man.
Truth is, you have no clue my friend what it is to walk on the street “daring” to wear a skirt during summer… (u can make judgment/assumptions on the “correct length of the skirt” all you want here)
And u are making parallels with racism that are not related to my previous comment at all.
Whether u want it or not, whether you see it or not, or whether u refuse to acknowledge it or not, yes, sexism is everywhere and obviously u don’t have to suffer it every day.
I didn’t find this intelligent, funny or useful. It makes a mockery of harassment, turns it into a joke. If anything, it is a step backwards. If the intended target was men that harass, I don’t think they will get the point. They would probably think, “Yeah, I’d go home with her.” If the target was women and men that don’t harass, but need to take a stand against it, a more powerful clip would have been women being harassed and the impact it makes on them. If the target was women that have been harassed and you wanted a… Read more »
@ Mike I’ve been street harassed by women too. Not to the same extent as I’ve heard some women explain, but my experience is what made it more difficult to understand their experience. When a woman talked about street harassment, I was like oh yeah, I know it happened to me. These guys probably didn’t go around harassing women. Some of them were maybe never harassed by women, but now that they have been when they hear a woman talking about street harassment, they can say I know that happened to me and I thought it was no big deal.… Read more »
The ironic part of this is that if she happened to come across some jerk who does this , she just reinforced his twisted views that women really like it when you yell this shit out to them. He’s probably thinking that she’s just being honest with him and the others are all pretending to be annoyed.
This is silly….it doesn’t scare, insult, or intimidate men….probably offends a few, but most are either flattered or amused….just because she’s doing what some men do to women does not carry the same weight….she needs to find another way
You are right, it doesn’t carry the same weight or intimidation level- men are not constantly worried that some small female could overtake and rape them. It does however have an interesting effect regarding discomfort. You can see in the video that many of these men are slightly taken aback, and a little uncomfortable. Now they need the next part of the discussion- “imagine a world where you are told to avoid getting raped. Imagine this person can overpower you. And they feel perfectly comfortable walking up to you and making sexual comments when you have in no way shape… Read more »
Now I don’t mean to say that every street harrasser is a rapist, but if you are constantly trying to watch out for yourself- you are left to interpret on the fly whether or not this person (or group of people) is a danger to you.
Pam, your opinion is one of sexism towards men. Your fear that someone who may be physically larger than you equates to threat of rape is purely in the eye of the beholder. I could be walking down the street and get stabbed by a physically smaller women. Should I therefore be weary of being assaulted by all women who approach me? I don’t want to be over bearish about this, and I apologise profoundly if you have ever been assaulted/raped at the hand of a vile human, but please don’t see it as men oppressing women. It is a… Read more »
It isn’t sexist, it is what women are trained to do. You have to be looking out for yourself constantly, because if something bad happens to you, you will get blamed for it. I would love it if I could trust every person I meet, but as I type that I can hear my mother, father, friends, teachers, and coaches warnings about always been on the look out and to always be aware because you never know when someone could try to take advantage you. Also, thank you for the information about the prison rape frequency, as it was something… Read more »
Sure it’s sexist. Sexual abuse and violence is perpetrated by both genders.
It’s racist to single out one race for committing a crime committed by all races, even if they happen to be recorded committing it at greater rates than other races.
So let’s be consistent and call a similar mentality along gendered lines sexist.
Women are trained to FEEL much weaker than they are. All these scare tactics about rape elevates the fear so much that it gives huge amounts of power to harassers. Yeah the threat is very real but the fear of it does so much damage on it’s own. Men don’t feel it as much because largely men are told to man up and ignore their fear. They’re less fearful of women but even a lot of men are ignorant as to how much at risk they are from violence from other men AND women so they won’t fear it as… Read more »
I’m sort of getting tired of these ‘advocates’ who insist on taking on the 99% of men who DON’T verbally assault women based on the 1% (or less) of men who do and some how feel ‘morally superior’ for the experience!
@bobbt, I could not agree more. Only a minority of men are criminals and rapists. Yet, in similar fashion we keep hearing how men (all men) are out here harassing and showing disrespect towards women. If women really respected themselves, they would stop going around shagging some of the most pathetic and disgusting men on earth. It is these men who are the ones doing evil and disrespectful things to women. But, women just keep fucking them AND making excuses as to why they continue to do so. Time for women to start taking responsibility for their own conduct and… Read more »
I understand you fellas’ feelings, but the fact of the matter is that street harassment of women does come predominately from men. I’m disgusted by harassment as well. Instead of focusing your anger towards women, you would be better off focusing that anger towards the men who do harass. Once we completely marginalize the harassers, we can start being annoyed by the role reversals. We have to eradicate the harassers first, though.
Let’s get on that good work first.
Once we completely marginalize the harassers, we can start being annoyed by the role reversals.
That still begs the question of how are mass sweeping efforts like this going to marginalize the harassers? At best most of the guys being harassed will just get a lesson in how women feel but that won’t do much good for guys that already don’t engage in that behavior.
@ Christian Coleman @ Danny
Isn’t she a harasser? Why isn’t she being marginalized then? Sorry, forgot we’re only supposed to marginalize the men who do it.
Yes she is a harasser and quite frankly isn’t really any better than the other harassers. If they were all actors on a PSA it’d be different. It’d be just as stupid for me to go grabbing women’s tits because I’ve had women grab my manboobs before without my consent to try prove harassment of men exists too.
Whoa Christian! I don’t feel any “anger” toward women (Even ones who do these stunts). Maybe just annoyance. If anything I’ve lived my life with a sense of duty to watch out for women (you know , that chivalry stuff that gets frowned upon by some feminist). It’s part of my D.N.A.. In over 35 years in heavy construction, I can honestly say it’s very rare that I heard any sort of verbal harassment spoken toward any female passerby. If this did happen, me and most all the guys I work with would tell the ‘talking asshole’ to ‘Shut the… Read more »
I get harassed on the street by men every time I take my dog out for a walk. Men feel the right to come up to me and say whatever they want, you are beautiful or even words of hate like “don’t look at me I will shoot you in the face…” I have heard it all and it happens 89% of the time I leave my house. I am shocked and dismayed to see people blaming the women for this behavior.
Where is anybody *blaming* women for this? All we’re saying is, we don’t do it therefore it isn’t our fault. By all means get pissed at the men who harrass. I’m sick of being caught in your ideological crossfire. Collective guilt is a bullshit concept. And yes, this woman IS a harrasser. Just because she films it and claims it’s for a “good cause” doesn’t make it any less harassing behavior.
Holy crap Sara! “Don’t look at me or I’ll shoot you in the face”? That goes Way beyond annoying harassment. Sounds like you’re dealing with ‘Gang-Bangers’. Yeah, I’m sure even Ms.”Whisky in a Teacup” there wouldn’t bother with them!
@ Christian Coleman “nstead of focusing your anger towards women, you would be better off focusing that anger towards the men who do harass. Why not focus your anger on the WOMAN who is actually harassing men in this instance we’re discussing? “Once we completely marginalize the harassers, we can start being annoyed by the role reversals. We have to eradicate the harassers first, though.” Is that only in cases where women are disadvantaged? What about the sentencing disparity and disparity in prison populations? If I’m on a jury, should I say I’m voting innocent even though I think he’s… Read more »
There’s a bit of a gap between “guys who engage in street harrassment” and “criminals and rapists.” If you have to resort to that argument, it means you know better, you just want to pretend it’s not a problem.
There’s a bit of a gap between “guys who engage in street harassment” and the vast majority of men. The men who engage in that sort of harassment are already looked down upon by their peers. The thing is though, they don’t care. That’s why they do what they do. They don’t care what anyone thinks, especially the women they bother. I hate to say it, but the best option is to ignore it and move on with your lives. Obviously, when verbal harassment even approaches physical harassment that’s the time to take direct action to stop the behavior. I’m… Read more »
Is it my duty to eliminate criminals? No!
Why should I waste my time trying to police the 5-10% of men who are out here engaging in this sort of thing? Really.
Jules, you can speak for yourself but not all women. I get harassed on the street by men every time I take my dog out for a walk. Men feel the right to come up to me and say whatever they want, you are beautiful or even words of hate like “don’t look at me I will shoot you in the face…” I have heard it all and it happens 89% of the time I leave my house. I am shocked and dismayed to see people blaming the women for this behavior. You obviously have personal issues w/ women…especially by… Read more »
@ Sara Deegan
“don’t look at me”
I’m not excusing his behavior, but isn’t “looking” at someone something women would call street harassment or objectification?
Amen Sara! I could have wrote the same text when I was living in Canada. I just have one advice: Move to Sweden!! 🙂
It’s funny how good qualities/behaviours can’t be the unique preserve of men.
Bad things, though? Oh yeah, rape is “something men do to women”. Makes perfect sense.
Oh, so when I walk home I encounter only that 1% of men on a daily basis?
Yes it’s possible. What are the attributes of these men? What portion of men on your path home do it, and what is their socioeconomic status like? Are you in a city or rural area?
The reason I ask is because I can walk a certain path and have a high likelihood of violence if that path is along the shady areas of town so the bad people might be 1% of the population but they can congregate in certain areas making it maybe 25% of the people there.
And how about on a very crowded commercial street, on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Montreal, Canada…? You still get those “heeeeey! hello sexyyyyy! Nice ass! What’s u doin’ toniiiight?”
Yes it also happens in those places at that specific time of day! Sorry but there’s no scientific/statistic explanation possible here.
Clearly you’ve never been a female on frat row near a university. Less than 1%? A young lady in a college town walking by herself may hear 10+ in the walk back to her apartment from campus.
This also applies here:
“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
― Elie Wiesel
“Clearly you’ve never been a female on frat row near a university. Less than 1%? A young lady in a college town walking by herself may hear 10+ in the walk back to her apartment from campus. ” What portion hear it though? You can have a huge amount of people in a city and 1% of them can do a hell of a lot of harassing. The local university 1 hour away is in a city of 120,000, with 5000 students I think. If only some of the females (60% or so of of the total uni population I… Read more »