Fears for actress, 24, who featured in New York catcalling video after she received rape threats over video exposing harassment

  • A hidden camera video showing actress Shoshan Roberts receiving comments from men on the street has been viewed over 11.8million times
  • Men tell her 'What's up, Beautiful?' and 'Smile!' - and one man just walks silently right next to her for several minutes
  • Rape threats have since been directed toward Roberts
  • She has said filming the video brought up memories of her own sexual assaults

A video recording the comments a woman hears as she walks around the nation's biggest city is a testament to the pervasiveness of street harassment women face, its creators said Wednesday. 

The video, shot over 10 hours one day in neighborhoods all over the borough and edited down to a 2-minute final product, has set off a storm of outrage since it was released Tuesday. 

Rape threats have since been directed toward Shosana Roberts, the woman in the video, according to multiple reports

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Unwanted attention: Shoshana Roberts appeared in the original video, which showed the catcalling she experienced over a ten-hour period on the streets of New York

Unwanted attention: Shoshana Roberts, who appeared in the video showing the catcalling she experienced over a ten-hour period, has since been subject to rape threats online 

Experiment: Roberts was reportedly subject to 108 instances of catcalling during the filming of the video 

Experiment: Roberts was reportedly subject to 108 instances of catcalling during the filming of the video 

Traumatic: Roberts has said filming the video brought up her memories of sexual assaults 

Traumatic: Roberts has said filming the video brought up her memories of sexual assaults 

In the video, the comments come continuously as Roberts walks through the streets of Manhattan - 'What's up, Beautiful?' and 'Smile!' - and there's even a stretch when a man just silently walks right next to her for several minutes.

The footage, which was shot and edited by Rob Bliss, was captured by a camera Bliss had in his backpack as he walked several feet of front of Roberts, who was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and walked silently along. 

As of this writing, the video has already been viewed 12.3million times and there are over 59,000 comments on YouTube. 

Speaking about the experience of making the video, Roberts told The Post 'I felt like crying and I have occurrences in my past of sexual assault, so I wasn’t even aware necessarily of all the times people were saying things to me. I was just going over in my head and reliving, unfortunately, these memories while I was walking. I wanted to break down in tears.' 

'I’m pretty sure I cried that night,' she also told the newspaper. 'I put on music. I took deep breaths. I hugged my boyfriend. I called my mom — I think that was right after the video. 

'I called my mom just so I could hear that she loves me and that I was putting myself forward as a face for this cause because it’s something I really believe in and I needed to hear that she was proud of me, which she is.'

Hidden camera: The footage was captured by a camera Rob Bliss had in his backpack as he walked several feet of front of Roberts, who walked silently along

Hidden camera: The footage was captured by a camera Rob Bliss had in his backpack as he walked several feet of front of Roberts, who walked silently along

Stalked: One man walked next to Roberts for five minutes as she walked through New York City

Stalked: One man walked next to Roberts for five minutes as she walked through New York City

Emily May, executive director of Hollaback!, the anti-street harassment organization that put out the video, told The Washington Post 'It’s hitting a nerve. Certainly, people are coming out of the woodwork and saying some really offensive and misogynist things.

'We’ve had a number of rape threats and violent threats against Shoshana and we’re pulling those down as quickly as possible, but they exist. That’s scary and I think what they’re trying to do is scare her and scare us into not speaking out about this. And both of us are saying no, we need to talk about this because if we don’t talk about this, if we don’t get this story out, then none of this is going to change.'

Bliss told The Post 'I’m getting some blowback, but not nearly as bad as Shoshana. Right now she’s getting a lot of threats and things like that and it’s just so sad. It’s like the video is now being echoed in real life.'

At no point did Roberts make eye contact with any of the men she passed or talk to any of them. That didn't stop the comments from coming. 

When she didn't respond, one man told her, 'Somebody's acknowledging you for being beautiful. You should say thank you more!'  

Everyday: Roberts said the number of comments she received on the streets the day the video was shot was nothing out of the ordinary for her

Everyday: Roberts said the number of comments the day the video was shot was nothing out of the ordinary for her

Stares: At no point did Roberts make eye contact with any of the men she passed or talk to any of them - but that didn't stop the comments from coming

Stares: At no point did Roberts make eye contact with any of the men she passed or talk to any of them - but that didn't stop the comments from coming

May told the Associated Press 'This is having a very serious impact on the way we live our lives.'

Roberts said the number of comments the day the video was shot was nothing out of the ordinary for her.

'The frequency is something alarming,' she told the wire service. 

Martha Sauder, walking on a Manhattan street on Wednesday, agreed that street harassment is a problem and said it happens to her frequently.

'It's inappropriate. It's like an invasion of your space,' she told the AP. 'I'd like it to stop.'

The video also has faced some online criticisms, among them that the men shown all seem to be minorities. Bliss and Roberts emphasized that the comments came from all racial groups, and Bliss said some interactions that were filmed couldn't be used for reasons like the audio was disrupted by passing sirens.

'My experience, what we documented, it was from everybody,' Roberts told the AP.

Another criticism was that some men's comments seemed innocuous: 'Good morning,' 'Have a nice day.'

Some men could have been 'genuinely being nice, Gerard Burke, a Brooklyn resident who readily acknowledged street harassment exists and has seen it happen to women in his family, told the AP. He said he thought the video shed light on a bigger problem, 'but some people just genuinely want to say hello.'

That's the problem with street harassment, May told the wire service, because when there's a fear that a simple good morning could escalate into sexual comments or actions, there's a reluctance to engage at all.

 

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