The epidemic of subway sexual harassment and assault in New York City (and elsewhere) has long been a disgusting and frightening problem.
It may seem, to some men reading this, the issue increased in severity in recent years. But, it hasn't.
All that's happened is women began documenting the assaults and harassment on their phones, so the horrible stories have appeared with greater frequency online.
For far too long (as with many cases of sexual assault and harassment), without concrete proof, legal action was rarely taken, women's stories were ignored or the women simply chose not to say anything, knowing there would be little effect.
I've lived in New York my whole life and nearly every close female friend of mine has dealt with groping on the subway at some point. I am not exaggerating. It's monstrous.
But now, with cameras on everyone's phones and social platforms for drawing attention to these incidents, the stories regarding the harassment and assault proliferated online, and something is starting to be done about it.
These days, stories of men tormenting women by masturbating in front of them on the subway are nearly constant.
In many of these cases, women freeze, shocked, frightened and confused by what is happening.
But in the most recent of these stories, a woman spotted a man allegedly touching himself on a crowded subway and confronted him in front of everyone.
Deanna G Carter was riding the number 2 train when she noticed the man allegedly fondling himself. She immediately began filming and went off on him, yelling,
What are you doing? You're over here rubbing your dick. What the fuck are you doing?
He sits, terrified, as she absolutely lays into him. He does not defend himself, and he does not confirm or deny what he was or was not doing; he just sits there with his backpack over his lap, mortified.
Now, it must be said we only have this video to go off, which doesn't actually document the alleged behavior.
But considering that sexual harassment and assault prey on silence and shame and fear, it's immensely satisfying to watch this woman get in the alleged masturbator's face like she does.
Eventually, Deanne Carter forces the man to get off the train at the next stop or else, she says, she'll beat the shit out of him.
I am inclined to believe her.
The video has more than two million views by the time of this writing, but the man in question has yet to be identified.
Citations: Woman goes off on alleged 'perv' fondling himself on subway (New York Post), Infamous Subway Masturbator Arrested Yet Again (Gothamist), Passenger Filmed Possibly Masturbating On Crowded NYC Subway (Huffington Post), MTA was useless in helping woman stalked by masturbating creep on subway: victim (New York Daily News), Man arrested after woman films him masturbating on Manhattan subway: police (PIX11), A Guy Jerked Off To Me In The Subway, And NYPD Didn't Do A Thing (Jezebel), New Jersey man, 20, busted after commuter photographs him masturbating on subway (New York Daily News)
