Woman shuts down ‘misogynistic’ man who approached her group: ‘I don’t tolerate men like this’

It's 2022 but men are still invading the personal space of women, seemingly oblivious to boundaries. However, one woman started the New Year refusing to cede any space to misogynistic men. TikTok user Janice (@janicek19_) posted a video showing her refusing to pay attention to a visibly drunk man who was clearly invading her personal space and even blowing kisses to her and her friends. Janice had no time for the misogynistic man and let him know about it. "Get the f*ck out of my face," she told him plainly. The video went viral on TikTok, garnering more than 6.7 million views and 1.6 million likes. The incident happened on New Year's Eve when Janice and her friends were out.

“Not tolerating misogynistic men 2022,” Janice captioned the video. The video showed a brief encounter between the seemingly drunk man and a group of her friends. It showed the man harassing them and standing very close to them. He gets creepily close to Janice's face while muttering unintelligibly at them. Even as the man continues mumbling, she looks at the camera and calmly says, "I don’t tolerate men like this.” She then turns to him and tells him to stay away from her forcefully. Janice later clarified in a comment that he had “walked up to us, said something inappropriate, and then acted like my response wasn’t valid.” 

Janice later posted another video of the man harassing them with him saying, “Love you girl,” and reaching towards Janice and her friends. Many TikTok users were creeped out by his behavior. “I can totally relate to this! It’s true, if I don’t acknowledge you, please don’t approach me. I’m protecting my peace and my energy,” wrote one user. Many pointed out the entitlement and audacity of the man to get offended after she told him off for invading her personal space and harassing her. "The look he gave you like YOU were the one to overstep,” commented one person. Another user weighed in on the issue in the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic, “Before COVID this would have already been disrespectful, but during COVID it’s straight-up unacceptable.” In the comments section, Janice wrote, "We should always move with good intentions and if you're going to say something rude, I'm going to tell you to leave."

Public sexual harassment is a massive problem with an estimated 90% of women being affected by the age of 19, according to the nonprofit Stop Street Harassment. The UK government is considering passing a hate crime legislation criminalizing public sexual harassment following a years-long campaign by women’s rights organizations and lawyers. As per the proposed bill, making lewd comments, pressing against someone in a sexual way on public transport, cornering someone, catcalling and persistent sexual propositioning could all be covered by the law, reported The Guardian.

“The principle behind what I drafted is about the fundamental right that women and girls have equal access to public spaces,” said Dexter Dias, a human rights lawyer. “This is about sexual offenses and intrusion and is about the rights of women and girls to have full access to civil society and public spaces. I didn’t know that it had become so normalized and that it’s become regarded as a normal part of the experience of being a young woman in Britain today,” he said. “That is morally wrong. We’re going to make it a criminal offense and change this now.”