I’ve been asked by Jerry Liu, the maker of the “Cute Lines for Cute Girls” video featured 2 weeks ago, to ask what readers’ reactions are to the above video.
As explained by the makers of this one (Simple Pickup), “all the faces, we interacted with, which aren’t blurred were given consent forms because their reactions were too funny.”
What do you think?
Related Posts:
- “Cute Lines for Cute Girls”: Street Harassment Framed as Fun
- Korean Poster: ETIQUETTE FOR MEN AT NIGHT
- Quick Hit: Living as a female smoker in Korea
- Victim Blaming: Why “she should have just moved” isn’t a solution to harassment on public transport
- Groping in Korea: Just How Bad Is It?
- Korean Boys: “Wearing Hot Pants Says Something About You”
- Sexual Assault on Subway Caught on Camera
- Seniors Routinely Sexually Harass Juniors during “Membership Training”?
- Slutwalk Korea (잡년행진): 2011; Follow-up Report; 2012
The Grand Narrative 
Honestly, when I saw the pickup lines video, I was really unsettled. But as a woman who has been street harassed, I see no problem with this one. The women who didn’t want their faces in the videos were blurred out and the others were asked for consent. This video is lighthearted fun, and I could even see the pickup lines video being not a problem if he allowed the women the option to remain anonymous or not. The things they say and do are not of malicious intent, nor are they rude or offensive. If anyone still gets offended by this, they need to take a break from the tumblr feminism and learn to laugh a little. We should not victimize ourselves and demonize men who have done nothing harmful. I wouldn’t honestly be to pleased if this happened to me, but I wouldn’t feel violated or offended. Maybe in the right mood, I would even find it cute. Who knows, maybe it could even brighten up someone else’s day? I think it’s cool that he wanted our opinions on this as well! That shows that he respects other people’s input and that’s great! Rather than just stubbornly carry on with what he was doing, he stopped to consider the feelings of others.
TL;DR version: I can see nothing wrong with it as it’s not offensive or invasive. It’s harmless and with the right attitude, maybe a little cute. The anonymity thing was a nice touch and he should carry on using it in the future. Just say and do things with good intentions and you don’t have anything to worry about!
LikeLike
Usually your TL;DR “abstract” goes on top. ;-)
LikeLike
Maybe I’m not getting the joke here . . .? Regarding the pant dropping, all the women behave exactly as you would expect – They politely ignore it entirely or briefly acknowledge it and move on. Past high school, somebody having their clothing forcibly removed by someone else isn’t usually considered the height of humor, nor the fault of the person who had their pants taken down anyway. It’s really not at all surprising that a woman who was willing to give out her phone number before would continue to do so after . . . and the women who don’t give their numbers never seemed particularly inclined to give out their number from the first. So essentially, the act of “pantsing” is irrelevant to the interaction.
The interactions themselves were actually more problematic to me by far. One or two of the women were receptive and seemed to be enjoying the conversation, but most of the women were merely polite. Some of them were clearly uncomfortable, and obviously trying to end the conversation. I was particularly upset when one of the “comedians” started to take a woman arm in arm – he has to manipulate her arm to do so, and isn’t very cooperative which seems to me that she’s not at all happy.
I’m a little confused – were the women whose faces were blurred given consent forms, but didn’t agree? Not given consent forms, therefore not shown? It seems obvious that the women whose faces were shown had given written consent, but the rest of the women . . .? Either way, using their sections because they were “too funny” seems to me to negate the whole idea of gaining consent in the first place. Clearly, their actual consent didn’t matter that much to the people filming, and I find that disturbing.
LikeLike
The humor isn’t my taste. I find the video childish and a little tacky, but otherwise harmless. The women that wanted to be shown in the video consented, and those that didn’t,weren’t. Otherwise, it doesn’t seem too remarkable.
LikeLike
It’s obviously more ethical in terms of privacy and publishing since they have their faces blurred or permission.
The pants dropping is obviously supposed to put the man in an artificial position of weakness (similar to a funny pickup line, but more extreme) to then allow a way in. This may or may not work once, but doing this repeatedly in the UK would probably get you an ASBO. Admittedly that also shows the problem with ASBOs, but you probably shouldn’t go around town (effectively) dropping your pants in front of random women, even if you are wearing underwear.
LikeLike
Harassment? Wow you feminists are absolutely insane
LikeLike
. . . evidence? citation?
LikeLike
LikeLike