Shoshana Roberts and director Rob Bliss have started an Internet firestorm with their Street Harassment Video, also being called the Catcall Video.
The YouTube piece shows actress Shoshana Roberts walking through New York City for 10 hours. That’s all, but it still shocked many as Roberts received over 100 catcalls from random men over the course of her walk.
Shoshana appeared on 360 with Anderson Cooper to talk about the project, made in collaboration with non-profit Hollaback . She explained that this video didn’t show anything unusual, that street harassment is a daily experience.
“It is all day long, it is everyday… that’s a typical day.”
Aside from the constant shouts Roberts received, one man actually followed her in silence for about five minutes. His goals and motives are unknown.
Anderson Cooper’s response was shock, but the guys at Fox News’ The Five did not see anything wrong. The show’s host Eric Bolling explained.
“Look, I’m not going to condone it, but I will tell you nothing was disrespectful there. There were a lot of people there saying ‘God bless,’ ‘you look fantastic,’ very complimentary. She may not have wanted it, but I find it hard to find what she called verbal harassment going on.”
The host added, “Somebody’s acknowledging you for being beautiful. You should say thank you more.”
Greg Gutfield also had some criticism for Shoshana Roberts’ behavior while quietly walking down the street, saying that it’s just “classist” and would be different in a bar.
“She is finding fault with men in the street saying hello to her which may in fact be their only way of contacting women.”
Cohost Bob Beckel went one step further to say, “She got 100 catcalls, let me add 101. Damn, baby, you’re a piece of woman.”
Fox News isn’t alone in criticizing Roberts’ video.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , SNL comedian Michael Che went on a sarcastic tirade on Instagram.
“I wanna apologize to all the women that I’ve harrassed [sic] with statements like ‘Hi’ or ‘Have a nice day’ or ‘Youre [sic] beautiful’… The closest thing I’ve experienced is maybe when a girl recognizes me from tv and they say things like, ‘Ahhhh! Oh my God! SNL SNL SNL!!’”
Even Slate Magazine went after Shoshana Roberts’ video, although for a completely different reason — because it was racist.
In an article titled The Problem With That Catcalling Video , the author says that the video shows a disproportionate amount of black and latino men.
“The video also unintentionally makes another point: that harassers are mostly black and Latino, and hanging out on the streets in midday in clothes that suggest they are not on their lunch break.”
The video’s creators insist that Shoshana was harassed by men of all races and that it was simply an editing problem that misrepresented the catcallers.
Shoshana Roberts has also heard from the Internet community, which has posted a number of death threats.
The full video of Shoshana Roberts’ walk can be found here .
[Image Credit: Fox News]
