Creepy Man Gets Seated Next To A Teen On A Plane, Luckily Another Passenger Overhears His Harassment
Recently, Canadian journalist Joanna Chiu told her 45K Twitter followers about the time she witnessed a man making sexual advances towards a teen girl on a plane. Chiu was on a flight from Toronto to Vancouver when she heard a passenger behind her complaining about having to sit in the middle seat. However, the complaints stopped when a teenage girl traveling separately from her family sat next to him.
Image credits: joannachiu
“I thought it was strange that suddenly he seemed very happy to be where he was in the middle seat, and it seemed like it was because a teenage girl had come up and sat beside him in a window seat,” Chiu told CBC. “He kept asking about her school, what she was studying, what she wanted to be when she was older. It definitely raised some flags, so I started listening pretty carefully.”
It soon got to a point where the creep was asking her out and even though the girl was ignoring him, it was pretty obvious that he was determined to keep going. Luckily, with the help of other passengers and crew members, Chiu stopped the predator. Continue scrolling to read how everything unfolded in the journalist’s own words.
More info: Twitter
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Image credits: joannachiu
Chiu also added a link to a piece by The New York Times that teaches bystanders to intervene. This allows everyone to stop harassment, instead of offering people just the two of either harasser or victim. And even though bystander training is still relatively rare in the corporate world, it has been proven effective on college campuses, in the military, and by nonprofits.
Interestingly, most trainers don’t advise confronting the harasser in the heat of the moment, because that may escalate the situation and put the bystander in jeopardy. If comfortable doing so, they suggest, a bystander can use a phrase like, “That joke wasn’t funny.” Another option of disrupting the situation is by loudly dropping a book or asking the victim to come to the conference room.
A crucial element, according to researchers, is for bystanders to talk to targets of harassment. Not only could they feel isolated, but observers also might have gotten the right idea about the interaction. They could say something like, “I noticed that happened. Are you O.K. with that?”
“So many victims blame themselves, so a bystander saying, ‘This isn’t your fault, you didn’t do anything wrong,’ is really, really important,” said Sharyn Potter, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire who runs a research group there for sexual violence prevention.
However, it’s worth mentioning that while training protects companies from lawsuits, it can also reinforce gender stereotypes, at least in the short term. Primarily because it usually portrays men as powerful and sexually insatiable and women as vulnerable. Thus, women might find themselves in a difficult position in terms of feeling confident and empowered in the workplace.
Other women came forward with similar stories
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I’m a 14 year old girl, and I’ve been in several uncomfortable situations with older men via social media, in public, and even at my summer job. It’s ridiculous that we can’t even fly on planes without worrying. Props to those women for helping the girl, though!
As a society we tell women from a very young age that they have to be polite, that their comfort is unimportant. Creeps like this take advantage. We need to be alert to situations like this and have the courage to intervene. But we also need to tell children, and girls especially, YOU DONT HAVE TO BE POLITE WHEN YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE. Some random person comes up to you and starts chatting and your spidey-sense goes off? You don't owe them a conversation, you don't have to tell them your name, you can say you don't want to talk. It might be rude, bout you probably feel uncomfortable for a reason, and your safety matters.
More importantly, we need to train our sons to both not have the attitude that they have carte blanche to hit on any woman or especially any girl; and to be aware of what the things men say to women are perceived by the woman—-the creepy stuff , and especially the things that could escalate. They should learn to read body language or just to ask the woman when the creep can’t hear and, failing that, to simply make it known someone’s listening and ready to intervene.
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When I was 17 I was at a mall with a group of friends doing some holiday shopping. The mall we were at happened to be by a US Naval base so there were always guys there in uniform walking around. I was with a friend and suddenly we were being followed by two guys who would not get the clue we weren't interested. We even held hands and pretended we were a couple, only to get MORE attention from them. They finally got the hint when one of our guy friends saw what was happening, walked up behind us, kissed me on the cheek and started walking holding our hands. I will never be able to thank James enough for that; at 17 years old he saw something and he intervened. These men who claim to be oblivious need to just open their eyes! If they were raised to respect women, they know the signs because it's what they were taught NOT to do!!!
I’m a 14 year old girl, and I’ve been in several uncomfortable situations with older men via social media, in public, and even at my summer job. It’s ridiculous that we can’t even fly on planes without worrying. Props to those women for helping the girl, though!
As a society we tell women from a very young age that they have to be polite, that their comfort is unimportant. Creeps like this take advantage. We need to be alert to situations like this and have the courage to intervene. But we also need to tell children, and girls especially, YOU DONT HAVE TO BE POLITE WHEN YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE. Some random person comes up to you and starts chatting and your spidey-sense goes off? You don't owe them a conversation, you don't have to tell them your name, you can say you don't want to talk. It might be rude, bout you probably feel uncomfortable for a reason, and your safety matters.
More importantly, we need to train our sons to both not have the attitude that they have carte blanche to hit on any woman or especially any girl; and to be aware of what the things men say to women are perceived by the woman—-the creepy stuff , and especially the things that could escalate. They should learn to read body language or just to ask the woman when the creep can’t hear and, failing that, to simply make it known someone’s listening and ready to intervene.
Load More Replies... When I was 17 I was at a mall with a group of friends doing some holiday shopping. The mall we were at happened to be by a US Naval base so there were always guys there in uniform walking around. I was with a friend and suddenly we were being followed by two guys who would not get the clue we weren't interested. We even held hands and pretended we were a couple, only to get MORE attention from them. They finally got the hint when one of our guy friends saw what was happening, walked up behind us, kissed me on the cheek and started walking holding our hands. I will never be able to thank James enough for that; at 17 years old he saw something and he intervened. These men who claim to be oblivious need to just open their eyes! If they were raised to respect women, they know the signs because it's what they were taught NOT to do!!!
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