A man who said he was "shocked" and "flabbergasted" after witnessing a woman being catcalled by a construction worker apologized on "behalf of the male species" in a viral TikTok video.
According to a 2018 study on sexual harassment and assault, 81% of women and 43% of men have reported some form of sexual harassment.
Verbal sexual harassment was the most common form of harassment, with 77% of women and 34% of men reporting incidents of being subjected to verbal sexual harassment–which includes catcalls and lewd noises and calling people “honey,” “sweetie” or “baby.”
TikToker Louie–a.k.a. @louietomassi–recorded a video after seeing men at a constructions site catcalling a woman who was minding her own business.
He recalled:
"So I'm walking out of work past a construction site, There's this girl walking in front of me."
"I'm just minding my own business ... all of sudden, one of the construction workers whistles and catcalls her."
“I looked at him, and I said, ‘Are you deada**?’”
Louie admitted:
“I didn’t realize that was a real thing that happened in real life."
He went on to say what he witnessed was something he thought only happened in the movies.
He said:
"I have so many questions."
"First of all, what did you think was going to happen?"
"You thought whistling at a girl, who is minding her own business was going to be like, 'OMG, that's the one. That's the one for me.'"
"When you're sitting on a cooler, hunched over, looking greasy as hell."
He then posited:
"Second question. I wanna know your success rate."
"When does that work? When does that ever work?"
He concluded the clip by saying:
"On behalf of the male species, I want to apologize.”
Women who were subjected to similar harassment weighed in on the all-too-familiar circumstance.
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On a side note, some users were amused by his choice of words in describing his reaction to seeing the objectionable behavior.
Others were simultaneously distracted by one of his striking features.
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His eyes didn't exonerate him from accusations of ignorance, however.
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In response to some of the criticism, he responded:
“Not some of y’all attacking me about an action that I am calling out as gross and weird behavior … I’m on your side about it damn 😭"
We got your good intentions, Louie.
Maybe next time just believe people—especially women and marginalized people—when they call out the harassment they face daily.
