Double standard: Reverse sexual harassment social experiment goes viral
A new social experiment highlighting the difference between men and women being sexually harassed in public has gone viral.
YouTube sensation Joey Salads has exposed how it’s considered socially acceptable for a woman to sexually harass a man.
The shocking footage shows how people are willing to look the other way if the sexual harassment is directed towards a male, even if it is unwanted and aggressive.
Salads, a New York native, teamed up for the experiment with his female friend Lexi to see how the general public would react to him being sexually harassed by her in comparison to him outwardly sexually harassing her.
The results were shocking and unexpected.
The shocking footage shows that onlookers would immediately come to Lexi's aid, however, when the roles were reversed people ridiculed Salads labeling him a “pansy” and “crazy” by members of the public even after they had witnessed him begging Lexi to “leave him alone”.
The footage was filmed by the pair inside a mall, in front of the unsuspecting public.
At the start of the footage, Lexi can be seen grabbing Joey and touching him inappropriately in front of a woman sitting on a bench.
“Stop touching me! Stop touching my butt,” he tells his female filming companion, but instead of offering help, the stranger berates him.
“Don't be such a pansy,” she says.
Salads then goes on in the footage to explain to the woman that he doesn’t want to be intimate with Lexi but the woman encourages him.
“You should want to. She is a hot girl,” the woman insists.
Later on in the video another man also sees Lexi's persistent come-ons to Joey and stops to see what is happening between the two.
“Bro you are crazy. Have you seen that?” he says pointing to Lexi.
“I think she is fine. Man, you're crazy.”
Salads muses that when Lexi was sexually harassing him people either ignored it or made fun of him for not returning his affections to the brunette.
However, when the roles are reversed the reaction from the mall-goers is very different.
When Joey gropes Lexi and makes sexually explicit statements to her people immediately, come to her aid.
A group of women who witness the behavior run to her defence and even hit Salads with their shopping bags.
While one of the women walks Lexi away from Salads, two other women give him a ‘talking to’ about his behavior.
“What are you doing? Just stop. That's not OK!” one girl yells.
Salads then tries to explain that Lexi is his girlfriend, but both of the women agree that it doesn't matter.
News break – February 4
