NEW YORK — A woman walked around New York City for 10 hours, and a hidden camera recorded every step and every word spoken to her by the men she passed. The man carrying the backpack was West Michigan native, Rob Bliss.
The video was posted on YouTube on Tuesday by Hollaback, a non-profit devoted to ending street harassment in cities around the world. Bliss, who has put together many viral events in the Grand Rapids area (including the Zombie Walk, the Grand Rapids Lip Dub, and more) reached out to the group after being inspired by the experiences of his girlfriend.
In the video, actress Shoshana Robertswalks silently across several neighborhoods throughout the city, and is approached and harassed by strangers.
At one point in the video, Roberts is followed for more than five minutes by a stranger. Later in the video, she is berated by a stranger trying to give her his phone number.
At the end of the video, the filmmaker reveals that in the 10 hours of shooting, Roberts was subjected to more than 100 instances of verbal street harassment.
“This doesn’t include the countless winks, whistles, etc,” the filmmaker said.
Hollaback calls on women across the world to record incidents of street harassment and share them publicly to bring both awareness to the issue, but also to bring it to an end.
