A woman has gone viral on TikTok for her response to getting "catcalled" in New York City.
TikTok user Beki - who goes by the handle @rebekahlindsayyyy on the social media platform - posted a video of herself walking in NYC.
On her stroll, a man tells her: "I hope you have a good day at work, miss." She pretends to not hear him and says: "What?"
The man repeats his initial statement and then she responds: "Oh, I thought you were begging for money or something." As she walks off, his friends can be heard laughing in the background.
Check out her TikTok below:Beki captioned the video: "Gotta protect yourself on the streets of NY." She has garnered a lot of attention from users on the platform. The video has been viewed over 4.8 million times and currently has 876.6K likes.
After posting the video on the social media platform, users loved Beki's excellently timed clap back and quickly flooded her comment section with praise.
One person said: "This is iconic."
While another added: "She knows how to NY."
Kyle Prue, a TikToker known for his series of videos on things you can say to "upset" men, was tagged in a comment that said: "I don’t know you but I’m proud of you."
One person explained why it's still catcalling - even if he was being nice: "Everyone read the room, he wouldn’t be saying that to an old man walking by. it’s catcalling cause he’s [trying] to get the attention of a young lady."
While this lighthearted video made many people laugh, it also brought attention to an important issue known as street harassment.
According to a study done by Stop Street Harassment, 99% of women have reported experiencing harassment on the street in their lifetime. This study deemed behaviors such as leering, honking, whistling, and verbal harassment as examples of street harassment - alongside more dangerous ones, like being followed, assaulted, or physically touched.
So heads up, next time you consider catcalling a woman, just remember these points: they probably don't want to be spoken to and they might film the moment and go viral.
