'I'm Just Asking Her If Her Toes Are Long': Woman Documents How She Saved This Girl From A Random Creep, Receives Praise Online

Just a few days ago, TikTok user Nab recorded her incredibly heroic deed. Nab was about to get in her car but she saw a girl who appeared to be in need of help. It was already dark outside and the girl looked very uncomfortable talking to a "creepy" man, so Nab decided to intervene.

She turned the camera to show the girl is being talked to by a man dressed all in black, with a black hoodie, black pants, and black face mask, and approached them.

Sadly, situations like these are common. In January 2018, a nonprofit called Stop Street Harassment launched an online survey to find out more about the prevalence of sexual harassment. It discovered that 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime.

The survey included a larger, more nationally representative sample of men and women ages 18 and above than earlier polls. It also involved a broader definition of sexual harassment that included the "continuum of experiences" that women face, said Anita Raj, director of the Center on Gender Equity and Health at the University of California, San Diego, who analyzed the results of the new survey.

That included verbal forms of sexual harassment, like being catcalled or whistled at or getting unwanted comments of a sexual nature. It also included physical harassment, cyber harassment, and sexual assaults.

The results, released in a report, showed that 77 percent of women had experienced verbal sexual harassment, while 51 percent had been sexually touched without their permission.

About 41 percent said they had been sexually harassed online, and 27 percent claimed they had survived sexual assault.

The research also looked into locations where people experienced harassment. 66 percent of women said they'd been sexually harassed in public spaces. "The public forums are where you see the more chronic experiences of sexual harassment," Raj said. These include verbal harassment and physical harassment, for example, touching and groping.

Most women (and men) first experience sexual harassment pretty early in life, during preteen or teenage years. "That's really disconcerting," Raj said.

Also disconcerting is the fact that most victims don't report their experiences. "People don't even mention it to friends, families." This allows sexual harassment to thrive on the silence of women, granting impunity to perpetrators, Michele Decker, director of the women's health and rights program at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, added.

"Sexual harassment until more recently has been viewed as part and parcel of what people experienced," Decker, who wasn't personally involved in the survey, said. As a result, public health researchers don't really monitor it. "It's often been dismissed, because it's considered not as egregious as sexual assault or rape."

Rape and sexual violence are closely monitored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. As a result, public health agencies and health workers are more aware of their prevalence and have been able to take steps to help victims and offer programs aimed at preventing sexual violence.

But the report showed that sexual harassment is also worth monitoring, Decker said. "We want to know that we're responding to things that are prevalent and common, and this is showing that sexual harassment is really prevalent."

The coronavirus is causing its share of additional problems too. UN Women reported that calls to helplines have increased five-fold in some countries as rates of reported intimate partner violence increase because of the pandemic. Restricted movement, social isolation, and economic insecurity are increasing women’s vulnerability to violence in the home around the world.

But there is some good news too. By September 2020, 48 countries had integrated prevention and response to violence against women and girls into COVID-19 response plans, and 121 countries had adopted measures to strengthen services for women survivors of violence during the global crisis. However, experts say that more efforts are urgently needed.

Let's hope lawmakers see Nab's TikTok. It would definitely inspire them.