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When Shoshana Roberts went on a ten-hour walk through New
York City she elicited dozens of catcalls. She was assailed with abusive
remarks and abusive gestures.
I posted about the ensuing controversy here.
Now, a resourceful New Zealand newspaper has replicated the
experiment in Auckland. It asked a model named Nicola Simpson to walk around
the city unaccompanied in order to see whether her mere presence would provoke
the same reaction. Link here.
Simpson had lived in New York City, so she was aware of the
fact that men in the Big Apple are obnoxious and abusive. To say that they have
no manners is an understatement. Many of them do not even try.
In Auckland, however, men exhibit far better manners.
Simpson only had a couple of uncomfortable encounters and one of the men
apologized immediately for being rude.
What is the moral of the story?
Surely, men in New Zealand have better manners. They have
not overcome their tendencies to be gentlemen and to treat women like ladies.
But, the recourse to good manners only works when everyone
has the same manners. In a multicultural world—recall the Tower of Babel—where people
value diversity, different people are supposed to have different manners. What
is good behavior in my neighborhood might be boorish in yours. What is boorish
in my neighborhood might be normal in yours.
How are you to know?
Ultimately, you can’t.
Worse yet, different sets of manners mean that some people
will be inclined to see what they can get away with. If you hang out in a
neighborhood where you do not know the rules people will find it easier to
convince you that you must respect their bad behavior because it is part of
their culture.
For all I know the men in the Shoshana Roberts’ New York
video thought they were being charming and cool. Of course, they were not. But,
according to the rules of multiculturalism, who are we to judge?
The men in the Auckland video were far better behaved.
Apparently, multiculturalism has not made it to New Zealand.
6 comments:
I am not sure why New York City is supposed to represent every other community in the US. My experience has been that many of the New Yorkers, and this include both men and women, I have meet are rude, crude, expect everything for nothing, and generally lack any semblance of manners. In many cases they are so disconnected with humanity that they feel nothing for someone being mugged. I suspect that is why so many of them want the government to take care of the charity they should be accomplishing. As Rose kennedy once said after she allowed some people to stay on Hammersmith Farms, "Get those filthy people off of my property! (SIC)
Inevitably I see many NYC residents in Florida and a significant number treat people who work in the many businesses and attractions available like slaves to be treated with distain, especially in south Florida where many of them come to spend the winter, try to corrupt the state's government and feel rich.
The only place that comes close is New Jersey to exhibit the utter distain they exhibit to people outside their very small area of existence and an outsized idea of influence. I have travelled all over this country and many places in the world and there are few place that can match NYC for its total disregard for other human beings though they are quite good at talking and feeling good about their caring. As in all things the people who talk about tolerance are the most intolerant. The people who talk about racism and sexism are almost always the epitome of racism and sexism. They just keep reddening what the different "isms" are in this considered opinion. What is that nice little phrase that many New Yorkers call a large part of the country? Oh, would that be "flyover country?" This in it self is the real definition of NYC and its self importance.
I have to say this does not define many of those I have met from Brooklyn.
Perhaps the men recognize the woman as a stranger, not part of the neighborhood, and not due a neighbor's respect. Perhaps they are responding as they've been taught by Feminists--she's strong, nothing we can say can harm her, she's ignoring us anyway, and she likely hates us for being men. Perhaps living in NYC requires one to develop a hard shell?
Perhaps the men recognize the woman as a stranger, not part of the neighborhood, and not due a neighbor's respect. Perhaps they are responding as they've been taught by Feminists--she's strong, nothing we can say can harm her, she's ignoring us anyway, and she likely hates us for being men. Perhaps living in NYC requires one to develop a hard shell?
Interesting point... a woman who does not belong will not receive the same respect as a woman who belongs to the neighborhood. Of course, in NYC there is so much diversity that no one knows who belongs to what.
It is good to know "Walking from A to B" isn't crappy for all young women everywhere.
So I accept no conclusions about universality of city rudeness to women in general, but in the first NY video, although stone cold in personality, she was showing off her curves more prominently.
A more serious experiment would repeat with a variety of women, a variety of times of day, different clothing, etc.
It may be some women will get more unwanted attention than others no matter where she is.
Of course, if you're a femininist, a single harrassed woman somewhere, dressed however she likes, is proof that all men are pigs, and they don't have to cooperate with social order until every last pig is castrated.
Oh, wait, that was the new Senator from Iowa, Joni Ernst, about what she's going to to do congress.
Good analysis, AO. You're quite right about the curves in NYC, and you are also right that if they wanted to do a serious study they would send out different women, dressed differently into different neighborhoods... and perhaps at different times. And unfortunately, the purpose of the experiment was to demonstrate that all men are catcallers and worse... thus, they were happy, as you suggest, to have only enough evidence to prove their point.
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