Gabriella Ferlita
There’s nothing worse than feeling absolutely bomb in your favourite outfit but not feeling comfortable enough to wear it out in public in case you’re the recipient of unwanted attention.
Well, one woman decided to take those worries and throw them out the window as she strutted her stuff in the outfit of her choice - but captured the moment that some men failed to keep their eyes to themselves. You can see her calling out the men here:
The video that Emily - who goes as @emilythebearrr on TikTok - posted showed her simply walking down the street alone with bounds of confidence after she decided not to ‘put a jacket on’.
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She wrote in the video: “This is why I put a jacket on whenever I’m alone,” as two men were shown appearing to watch her every move.
In response to this, viewers have praised her for sharing an insight into the kind of situations that women often have to grapple with when they are by themselves.
One person rightly pointed out: “The point is she doesn’t feel safe wearing this stuff when she’s alone,” while another alarmingly asked whether Emily had a way to protect herself.
“Do you have Pepper spray? You should probably have pepper spray,” one person commented, while another said, “[this is] my literal fear.”
“Girl you slayed that outfit,” someone else wrote in response to the negative reception. “Don’t listen to everyone in the comments. You do what you’re comfortable with.”
“The problem is that she is not dressed up for those men,” someone else correctly explained. “She is dressed up for herself. If you don’t like it, move on.”
In fact, the discourse around some people believing that women should dress or act a certain way is due to a long-standing ideology, as plus-size activist Lindsay McGlone previously told us.
“Men have a belief that is deeply rooted that women are to appease a male's appetite,” Lindsay explained.
The idea that a woman could go against this ideology by dressing for themselves rather than ‘appeasing men’s appetites’ can be shocking, hence why many of the men captured in the video appeared to look at the woman while she was dressed up, rather than mind their own business and move along.
What’s even more shocking, however, is the discourse beneath the video, with some commenters telling Emily that she should 'expect' staring, rather than encouraging the men not to stare.
One person summed it up: "Honestly In nyc you can be wearing this or sweats and same reactions from dudes.. so the the “you just want attention” comments aren’t super valid."