Although catcalling and other forms of street harassment have been common problems women have had to deal with for untold decades, it’s only in surprisingly recent times that it’s been a matter of widespread public discussion.
This seemed to emerge in the wake of the 2014 viral video “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman,” in which a woman silently walks the streets while passing men catcall her.
And while it may seem like a no-brainer to mind our own business and leave people alone, some recent TikTok videos have made it clear that the problem has hardly gone away.
But particularly in the case of one Arizona woman, it’s not going to go on without any efforts to do something about it.
Be advised that the full video contains explicit language
On May 19, a woman named Ellie who goes by @fragglemodels on Tiktok posted a recording of an encounter she had in Tempe, Arizona.
Although it only shows the sidewalk and one of her bike’s wheels at first, the first few seconds of the clip display a message instructing viewers to wait until the end.
Indeed, she would soon reveal the face of the man she’s talking to “in case this is somebody’s dad or husband.”
Once this message disappears, Ellie asks the man why he’s whistling at her, to which he replies “’cause you’re fine.”
She tells him to stop and further asks if he pulled into the nearby parking lot just to do that, which he confirms. Again, she tells him not to, which prompts him to ask what’s wrong with his behavior.
Aside from the clear difference in age between them, Ellie said, “You’re completely disrespecting my boundaries.”
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Apparently unwilling to address the matter of Ellie’s boundaries, the man then disputes that the difference in age is inappropriate and figures she’s above the age of consent.
This leads Ellie to tell him that’s she’s 17, which he makes clear that he doesn’t believe.
Although Ellie reveals in her bio that she is indeed actually 19, that bio also says “but 17 for creeps.”
But of course, that matter is all beside Ellie’s point, which she reiterates as “You don’t just pull into [expletive] parking lots and yell at these girls.”
Ellie said that she posted this TikTok with the goal of having it spread far enough that his family can catch wind of it and hold him accountable.
In the separate clip where she clarified this, she also revealed that sexual harassment is a personal matter to her because she experienced childhood assault from her grandfather (who is now on a registry) that her immediate family knew about and did not act against.
In her words, “Sometimes people don’t know that there’s a predator in plain sight and so my goal is just to inspire people to speak up for themselves and hopefully, get these people in some trouble.”