Last night Channel 4’s premier investigative documentary series, Dispatches, left some viewers feeling ‘physically sick’ with Undercover::a[Sexual Harassment]{href='https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/in-the-news/sexual-harassment-pandemic-impact/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'} – The Truth.
It felt particularly topical because, while many have had their eyes opened to the endemic of sexual violence in recent years, following the gruesome high profile murders of several women, visible campaigns like the Mayor of London’s Have A Word campaign and #16DaysOfActivism and hard won changes to legislation, the reality for those of us who actually experiencing sexual harassment – the shame, the frustration, the complete lack of control but also the relentless normality of it all – is difficult to explain for those who don’t.
So the chilling footage from the Dispatches documentary, which shows undercover journalist Ellie Flynn posing as a drunk clubber separated from her friends on a busy weekend in Leeds before she’s followed back to her hotel room by a stranger who she’s not engaged with at all, seems like it would be a good tool for imparting what the encounters are actually like, right?
‘The thing about a journalist doing it is that we know they are going out looking for "content" to fit a brief, would have stayed out all night until someone made a move, and if no one did, they would have gone out the next night,’ wrote one Twitter user.
‘It's clearly not a realistic representation.’
‘#dispatches #ellieflynn journalist or wannabe actress…’, said another. ‘#merseysidepolice said it was not contacted by the journalist regarding the incident, and have themselves contacted the programme makers for more details.
‘Like did this actually happen or just set up for a TV show?’
I’d like to take this opportunity point out the notable absence of flying cars, talking animals, or any kind of fanciful make-believe-ery in the documentary. On the contrary, it’s familiarity is bleakest bit.
The Merseyside Police have issued a statement on their Twitter account, saying ‘We are aware of the Dispatches programme – Undercover: Sexual Harassment – The Truth, that aired last night (Monday 12th December) whereby a female reporter alleges that she was subject to sexual harassment in the city centre and was followed back to her hotel room by a man.’
Why are people – specifically, why are men - so reluctant to accept that sexual harassment is such a massive problem, a national crisis which affects all women from every walk of life, even when it’s presented to them in black and white? How can the Merseyside Police Force use language like ‘alleges she was subject to sexual harassment’ when the footage, and her protestations, are clear as day? Why is it easier to believe the predatory man was a plant or an actor, than just taking a look around on an average Friday night and seeing it for themselves?
Cast your mind back to 2014 and you might remember a viral video called ’10 Hours of Walking In NYC.’ In it, a woman, filmed by a hidden camera of a friend walking in front her and wearing ‘jeans and a crew neck jumper’ (not that that should have mattered, it goes without saying), walked silently around town and was relentlessly shouted at, insulted by and at one point followed for five minutes by strangers she hadn’t even made eye contact with. The video spawned plenty of similar videos of women conducting the experiment in their home towns– but the derision by some sections of the internet was much the same.
One video by YouTuber Karim Jovian recreated the experiment by getting his friend – note, he had to reach out to a female friend because obviously, the experiment wouldn’t work if he’d filmed himself – to head out for five hours silent walking wearing a hijab, seemingly to prove the point that if women dressed more modestly, they wouldn’t be cat called.
Another, entitled ’10 Hours of walking in NYC as a man’ has been cited as satire, but the supposed humour is muddied by the fact the creator, Funny or Die, and all the comments on the video (of which there are thousands) seem to be merely mocking the original woman’s experience by comparing it to utterly ridiculous occurrences like being chased down the road while a stranger tries to force a high-paying, popular job role on you.
‘As a white male I can confirm that his happens,’ mocked one. ‘I was crowned king in 7 different cities of 5 different countries just waiting for the bus. Also, usually I don't have cash on me, I just steal 25 cents of every dollar the next nearby woman has.’
This patently isn’t a regular occurrence for @RandomInternetBloke77, but it should not be hard to accept that cat calling, verbal abuse and unwanted touching IS very much a real life, daily experience for most women.
Underneath the Dispatches trailer on Twitter, one well-meaning dad has written, ‘I'm saving this on my planner, when my 2 girls are old enough to watch this and understand it, I'm going to show it to them, this is important for them to see and understand the danger that's out there #C4SexualHarrassment.’
But many were quick to point out that his intentions were ill-directed, with one woman replying, ‘Sir, your daughters aren’t the ones who need to see this. They will learn this lesson before you think this video is age appropriate to show them, because that’s how it goes. But please show it to all the men in your life, ASAP.’
Feminist activists have long been shouting about the importance of teaching our sons not to perpetrate, instead of teaching our daughters how to avoid violence, and this could be the most powerful tool in minimising the pattern of harassment in future generations, theUK’s leading charity for Girls and Young Women, Girlguiding, in partnership with ChildWise, has found than only around 30% of girls are learning about consent in school.
The recent study has found that there is a chronic lack of RSE (Relationship and Sex education) being delivered in schools, but at the same time over half of teenaged girls are experiencing sexual harassment before the age of 18, with 29% reporting their first experience of it was between the ages of just 11 and 12.
We blame victims of sexual harassment and assault for being too drunk, for not wearing enough clothes, for not being clear enough. As one commenter so nicely proves my point, ‘Not once did she tell him no, stop following me, and when she finally did (in the hotel room) he just got up and left. Can women not say no anymore? Then the over acting of how scared she was the next day was so over the top. Do better 👍.’
But when teenagers and children are experiencing the same, how can we still use the same victim blaming tactics? And how can we foster a society where women and girls feel empowered to say ‘no’ – let alone where boys actually understand what it means – if we’re not teaching this stuff at the very most basic level of their education?
One women on Twitter pointed out, ‘What saddened (but perhaps did not surprise) me is that in the control group of men who were so shocked & appalled, not one said: 'I am aware now. I will actively watch, and when I see it happening, I will call it out.'
The lessons have been given time and time again. If not in schools, then they are in every Friday or Saturday night out if you just take a moment to look around you. And if not there, they’re given in the footage painstakingly, and at no small personal safety risk, gathered by the likes of Channel 4 and Ellie Flynn in her brave undercover reporting.
So what will it take to learn them?