Why would you ever assume a woman is only talking to you because she is terrified not to talk to you? While there may be a few women out there for whom this is true, I can promise you - the vast majority are not. If they seem interested in talking with you, it's because they are actually interested in talking with you, not because they are terrified but unable to show any sign of their fear. I don't have to project fear onto them in order to make sure we're all okay. That's neurotic.

This comment explains it really well:

"This is going to be long, but you asked for it.

As far as my judgement goes, aside from the creepy dude following her and a few of the men who were quite lewd, I did not find the majority of the clips threatening, menacing or negative in a general sense.

Well the reason is simple why you didn't find this threatening; you have never experienced this. You are a man. I don't blame you for not understanding something you will most probably never experience. But you're still human, and humans can have empathy. So try and exercise yours for a bit.

Life is different for a woman. The woman in that video got over a hundred catcalls just for walking down the street. Have you ever been catcalled? Have you ever felt threatened or intimidated, because someone kept following you and asking for your number? And when you didn't give it to them, and rejected them, they got violent with you? Started touching you, pushing you, until you feared for your life?

My guess is, no. You never have. Because men don't get harassed on the street for being men (with the exceptions of minorities such as gay men and transmen). But women do. These people in the video that try and engage with her, you might think they're just friendly hello's - but friendly hello's are only friendly if they greet everyone. They didn't. They singled her out because she was a woman. They wanted her attention, they had an ulterior motive. And once they get a positive reaction (they will think anything is positive so long as she responds), they will continue to badger the woman with questions, remarks and retorts.

Why do these men say hello to her, and not everyone else walking down the street? Because she's a woman, and they think she is attractive. Toxic masculinity is heavily associated with a man's sexuality, and treating women like sexual objects that are there to please their eyes. You see it often with a group of men, who will say sexist remarks like "I'd tap that!" when a woman walks by, just so they can look cool in front of their peers. Catcalling an attractive woman simply makes them feel more like a man. They think they're entitled to a woman's attention, especially if she's wearing something that accentuates her body, because after all, she was asking for it then, no? And so, they do it a fuck lot.

These men, once they say something to get her attention, expect her to react to it, so they can escalate. And they ALWAYS escalate. Escalate can mean anything from asking for their number, to grabbing their wrists, to yelling vulgar slurs. Do you sincerely think, that if a man said "Good day to you!" or "You look beautiful," and the woman had responded by saying "Good day to you too," or "Thank you," the man would have stopped at that? No. They never do. Watch this video to see how the harassment continues once the woman 'politely' answers and declines their invitations.

Since you have never experienced this, and it is difficult for you to place yourself into the mindset that a woman has (who has much more to fear from men, than you do), let's put it this way. Imagine you're on your way to work, and you get on the train, bus, or subway. Once you get out, and try to find the exit, you see a man standing there, handing out fliers. Geez, one of those annoying people again, you might think. Best to avoid them and not make eye-contact, right? Because, when you make eye-contact, they most certainly will hand you a flier, no? So you keep your head down and try to walk past them so you can get to the exit. But unfortunately, the man isn't having none of that, and you were the closest person, so he approaches you.

"Hey there sir, would you like to come to our Halloween party?"

You briskly shake your head, and say, "No thanks." You try to sidestep him.

The man follows your steps, and shoves the flier in front of you. "It will be a huge event, there's even a prize for the best costume!" You don't fucking care about Halloween costumes, and just want to get out of there. So you say, "I'm not interested." But the man is still holding his flier in front of you. Why isn't he leaving you alone, and why does he keep getting closer to you!? You wish dearly he'd just leave you the fuck alone, and get the hell away from you because you value your personal space.

Eventually the man finds a new target to bother, and leaves you alone.

The key difference in this example of the flier man, and men catcalling women - is that the man with the flier has no personal interest in you, and will approach anyone near enough. The catcalling men will only approach women, and they will NOT leave them alone even after a polite thanks, but no thanks. Can you imagine how awful it would have been if the man with the fliers would follow you around? If he were standing so close to you, his skin is brushing up against yours? And what if he were to suddenly get angry for you ignoring him? "Just take the damn flier, it's just a flier!" (i.e. "It's just a compliment, bitch!") And what if he gets violent? Grabbing your wrist so you can't go anywhere? You'd feel uncomfortable, alarmed, and just want them to leave you alone, right?

Still don't get why those remarks she gets several times a day just walking down the street are harassment? Have you ever been to Paris? Rome? Any other tourist-y city? Well, they have these scam artists preying on tourists at popular sites. One such scam is tying a bracelet around someone's arm/finger/whatever, and then demanding they pay for it. Watch this video to see it in action. The scam artist approached someone with an ulterior motive (wanting to get money out of them), and once the person gave ANY indication that the scam artist wasn't a ghost (eye contact, "no thanks" etc.), the scam artist had the green go and tied the bracelet around this man's finger. Now he's trapped. You most definitely agree this is harassment, no? Imagine if every time you walked somewhere, these scam artists were waiting for you on every corner of the street. You try your best to avoid eye-contact with them, to ignore them when they try and engage with you, and walk past them. You are constantly bombarded with greetings, people following you, people eventually name-calling you for ignoring them etc. etc. ... This is, by the by, harassment.

So then why do men who constantly harass women for their attention get a pass for saying "They're just innocent remarks, they're not threatening, they're compliments!"

It doesn't matter what has been said, the point is, these men think it's okay to call out at a woman passing by. And once they get a response, they will further engage her when she clearly wants to be left alone. These situations escalate, and almost any woman can tell you a tale of when she was harassed that one time by a guy who just wouldn't leave her the fuck alone.

Life in public is different for a woman - she has to constantly be on guard whenever a man catcalls her. She doesn't know if this man meant a friendly hello, or if this man is going to pursue her till her car and switch over into physical sexual harassment. Because her experience dictates; men who catcall her want her body, and they can be a threat to herself if she rejects them (this is why many women will hand out their phone number so that the man will finally leave her alone).

These women get scared (because many escalate with angry remarks, and at worst, get violent) whenever someone approaches them like that. They don't know if they can make it out unharmed, because they don't know if this person will stop if they are rejected. So what do many countless women do when they're out in public? They try to make it seem they either can't hear you, or they are too busy to notice you.

Next time you're out in public, especially on a bus, train or subway, watch the women around you. Watch how many of them wear earbuds, or are reading a book, or are fooling around on their phone. They don't just do this because they're bored - they do this so that they won't get approached by men."