While I was still living in NYC I had a vision that I would capture footage of the street harassment that I experienced in Brooklyn on a daily basis by wearing a small video camera clipped to my shirt. Of course, I never did acquire that magical camera, (Cat Cam, it would be called), and the vision remained stored in my mind for future execution. My Brooklyn based besty found this video, and forwarded it to me under the subject, “Cat Cam Impostor.”

It is a pleasure to know that someone was more proactive than I was in executing this vision, though never comforting to know that it’s still a necessary project. This video by Vocativ interviews a few women who speak about their experiences with street harassment, and even captures some on street footage of one woman’s experience.

“[Street harassment] absolutely speaks to a power dynamic that is askew in this society.”

“Cat-calling is an All American past time. I remember songs from the Fifties and Sixties that I’ve seen archived. Street harassment is about ownership. It’s about the idea that women’s bodies and very presence in space, is not for us.”

 

I had hoped to document how street harassment in the South compares to New York, however the car culture in North Carolina has drastically diminished the street harassment that I regularly experience (thankfully!) Although driving is a cross-class-spectrum activity here in the South (due to the lack of good public transport and the sheer dispersed nature of the land) there is still an undeniable class divide that occurs anytime you juxtapose car culture and public transportation. This video fails to document the many different facets of this dangerous practice, and the positives and negatives of how to react to these scenarios. Cat Cam: there is still more work to be done!

 

-Caterina Gironda, Southern Editor