Limiting women’s ability to be in public, street harassment is a serious human rights issue that lingers and haunts the lives of many innocent civilians all over the world. Street harassment is defined as “any action or comment between strangers in public places that is disrespectful, unwelcome, threatening and/or harassing and is motivated by gender or sexual orientation or gender expression.” According to stopstreetharassment.org, nearly 90% of all women have experienced street harassment by the age of 19. Wanting to show how women undergo daily street harassment, Shoshana Roberts, a 24 year old actress in New York City, conducted a hidden camera social experiment revealing exactly what women encounter.

Roberts implemented the experiment in NYC and walked for 10 hrs, receiving over 100 comments. Recording everything, she edited the video to about 2 minutes and posted it on YouTube. After the publication, the video began trending, especially on social media. The majority of women knew exactly what she was going through, while some men believed this experiment was biased and unfair. They also believed that women should “just deal with it” and “get over it” seeing as it’s “not a big deal” and that the women are “asking for it.” After the many criticism Roberts received for the experiment, she defended herself by saying that this is a huge deal and that women are afraid to go out because of harassment.

To assess this experiment further, a New Zealand model recreated the test trying to see whether the men there would respond the same way or not. After walking for 10 hrs, the model was approached only twice, both by men. One man was asking for directions, and the other asked her if she was Italian. Though many argue that the model looked very different from Roberts because they have  complete different body types, and she didn’t wear tight clothes. Others criticize the experiment because of the area she was in. Many are saying that race and class plays a huge role in this experiment, which wasn’t what it was targeting.

Getting a male perspective of this, I asked Justin La Veglia, a senior at Millennium Brooklyn High School, what his reaction towards the videos were, he responded by saying that the video that was recorded in New York was “prejudice, because the areas she [Roberts] went through were not good areas. She went to areas such as Harlem that are poor and consist of mainly black and Hispanic people .” When asking how he felt about street harassment in general he said that it’s “disrespectful toward women.” He then continued, saying “women have a say now, it’s not something they should deal with. Times have changed, women have a voice, if they don’t feel respected by someone, they should fight for themselves. It might seem scary at first but they have to. They are strong.”

Sarah Carrillo, another senior at Millennium Brooklyn High School expressed her feelings on getting called and commented on the streets. She said, “At first I feel like I’m doing something wrong, like I’m showing too much skin or walking weird or doing something provocative. But it’s those men who are gross and disgusting, not me.”

Women are being harassed on the street all the time by strange men. Not only is it insulting and rude, it is profane and is an issue that needs to end. Everyone has the right to walk down the street feeling confident without being threatened by anyone. Regardless of what race, gender, class, or educational level, no one should feel disrespected in any way.