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This has come up on twitter a bunch and I've said pretty much the same as you. Well said. I feel as though there's a lot of dancing around truths. Let's understand a few things:Historically and socially speaking, hasn't it always been the guy goes and speaks to the female most times?
i don't see any instance where this "chick" is 'feeling herself a bit much"
she didn't do anything to give off that vibe. she didn't give anyone the feeling that it was ok to approach or harass her
Trying to initiate a conversation with a stranger that you find attractive on a respective level usually always starts with simple manners, "hello, how are you?" From the female a simple, "no not interested" or "I'm well" and keep it moving is really all it takes. It's simple etiquette. Misinterpreting non-invasive greetings for harassment isn't going to get this cause any positive attention. Especially since remaining silent is a rude response to a respectful greeting.
Are there inappropriate advances in the video? Yes.
Is this video the best way to showcase this? No.
Additionally, your not going to find support on this issue when someone essentially has a problem with being told that they look nice too much. Comparatively you have the digital age of ego self masturbation where people do so much to receive a 'like' on a multitude of different social media platforms and don't know how to handle the pseudo-celeb attention that comes with that in real life.
Is this an issue for women? Yes, but with a caveat of women having to accept that social norm of when a man finds a woman attractive, most times he's is going to speak. The line of whether the words spoken are subjectively appropriate or not is too slippery of a slope to get a universal standard behind.
1) Street harassment is a real and problematic issue that many women face regularly. I don't think any woman deserves to have to deal with someone they don't want to...
2) We as men, for the most part, have no clue what women want to deal with us and what women do not. The status quo is, has been, and will likely continue to be that for there to be any sort of courting interaction btwn genders a man not only should but MUST initiate. I'm not going to drum up any artificial statistics but I would posit that women will make a first move of some sort less than 5% of the time, irregardless of the forum. Whether it be in public, private, appropriate or inappropriate. The burden, and yes it is a burden, lies with men. If a man lives his life without ever taking a chance and opening his mouth he's most likely going to live one hell of a lonely life.
3) From the time we're young men being the initiators is perpetuated by men AND women. Think back to your very first interactions with the opposite sex. Maybe in Kindergarten where you mustered up the courage to give a Valentine's day candy to the cute girl who sits across from you. We are literally bred to be the aggressors from day one. Women know this. They expect it. They play on it. Often. Go to any bar anywhere and you will find women who are waiting to be approached. Where can I go to wait to be approached other than the strip club?
4) The hardest truth to accept is that you have to take the good with the bad. As long as the onus is on men to approach, there will be the ******** who can't take no for an answer. You can extricate them from the whole, thus having your cake and eating it too. Good guys will approach. Bad guys will approach. That's life. I think we all have to do as much as we can to try to keep the bad apples from being abusive and creating hostile situations, but for that to happen we have to be open and honest and dialogue. Using a broad brush to paint all unwanted interactions as street harassment isn't being open or honest. It's being accusatory and reactionary. You can clearly see in this video multiple instances of interactions that are hardly harassment. And I know quite a few women who do appreciate when a man approaches respectfully. The women who don't want to be approached at all do not speak for all women.
There's more I have to say on the topic but I don't want to spend too much time slacking at work. But think about this, if there were even a 25% chance that an attractive woman walking down the street, or anywhere in fact, would stop you as a man and try to talk to you, would you be less likely to be cat calling every attractive woman you see? I think so. We all know its a slim chance of success when we holla. But we also know that it's next to none if we don't. Therein lies the problem. So unless we intend to curtail ALL social interaction between men and women in public (which despite their rhetoric, women do not want), this is the reality we have to deal with. Sucks for women, but it is what it is.