A Los Angeles woman is sharing her experience of simply trying to exist on public transportation but ultimately getting harassed by aggressive men who refused to take no for an answer.
Adina (@adinaaaa18) and her roommate were on their way back from a concert when she says a group of men immediately started catcalling them and saying inappropriate things as waited for the Metro. The two moved to a different part of the platform, but one of the men followed and kept trying to hit on them.
Unbothered by their rejection, he brought one of the other men with him and the two kept pestering the women, even after they claimed to be 16 (Adina later explained that she’s actually 18).
Every aggressive bit of interaction from the men will sound familiar to women who have dealt with being harassed by strange men in public spaces. They acted like Adina was rude for not wanting to talk to them, blamed her and her friend for being “half-dressed” and then not wanting their attention, and called her the aggressive one for standing up for herself.
They also accused her of not liking Black people, as both of the men captured on video were Black.
“I’m sorry, you expect me to put up with your shit right now?” she asked at one point.
“Yes,” the man replied. “We didn’t do nothing to you. We just complimented you, saying you were beautiful women. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.”
“And I said I’m not in the mood, so please don’t,” Adina replied.
In a follow-up video, Adina explained she got aggressive back at the men because, in addition to following and verbally harassing them, when the women tried to ignore the men, one told his friend that he would hit her if she continued not responding.
She also claimed that she and her roommate went all the way to the end of the subway after the men chose a train car, but all four ran over and followed them into the last car and continued harassing them.
For the most part, Adina said no one on the train or the platform stepped in to help despite how loud the interactions were. One man wound up offering her his sweatshirt, and several approached the women after the men finally left to see what was going on or say they had stopped themselves from jumping in.
“Where was that when they were in person, harassing me?” she asked. “You could have spoken up, you could have said something.”
Some commenters echoed Adina’s sentiments about how common experiencing this type of unwanted attention and inappropriate behavior is for women, while others tried to find ways to dismiss her experience.
“They really feel like because we’re OUTSIDE that we owe them a conversation,” @andwhataboutitbby wrote.
“Good for you for sticking up for yourself. It’s such a scary and difficult thing to either be nice and try to stay away so they don’t use force and standing your ground so they f off,” added @renmags.
User @gotanyspecials agreed with Adina’s frustrations over the lack of support from the people watching everything play out, suggesting, “The worst thing is there are other people around who do nothing, say nothing and offer no help.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @adinaaaa18 via TikTok comment.
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