A standard meme or trope that’s emerged recently is the phenomenon where a woman will comment on something negative that men have done, and a chorus of male voices will respond to her immediately with assurances that they, personally, would never do such a thing.  “Not all men!”  or even #notallmen is the name of this phenomenon.  There was an element of #notallmen in men’s rush to publicly respond to the video, but there was also, I think, an element of genuine surprise. After all, how would you know that harassment happens if you never experience it?

In cities, we’re so conditioned to mind our own business; to do otherwise invites interaction with crazy strangers that could derail your day or even endanger your safety. There’s also a certain amount of self-blinkering that goes on; we filter experience subconsciously all the time so that we’re not overwhelmed with stimuli. But if there’s one unmitigatedly positive thing about this video, it’s that it seems to have made men genuinely aware of what a woman’s experience is like, and how it differs from theirs.  Some measurable number of men now know that  “good morning” can seem, in the context of a constant stream of unsolicited comments and attempts to start conversations, less like a pleasantry and more like an insult. Regardless of the video’s other failings, that’s a really good thing.