Viral Video of Harassed Drunk Girl Was Totally Fake—Can We Stop Now?

You may have watched this viral video
featuring a young actress roaming the streets of Los Angeles
pretending to be drunk and getting aggressively hit on by male
strangers eager to take advantage of her. Based on this, you may
have concluded that the world is a sad, fundamentally unsafe place
for women.

You were duped! The video is fake. The scenario was staged; the
men were told by the video’s producers to behave that way,
according to
LA Weekly.

Of course it’s true that some men do treat women unkindly, or
are rude to them in public, or are even willing to harm them. In
the same vein, Hollaback!’s viral street harassment video
demonstrated that some men say creepy things to complete strangers
on the streets of New York City.

But
we should be more careful about interpreting every anecdotal
story of someone being mean to someone else as cause for necessary
and immediate action to prevent a widespread social ill. Sober
statistical analysis is the best vehicle for attacking big
problems, not shock and awe. For instance, even though these videos
seem to portray an America that is very much a sexually hostile
place for women everywhere, rape has actually decreased by more
than 50 percent in recent years,
according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National
Network).

It’s important not to exaggerate our problems—or become
convinced that our problems
require draconian solutions—because of false—or in this case,
staged—observations.