In the last month, Tik Tok flooded with videos of women detailing their assaults in broad daylight in New York City .
On March 25th, popular Tik Toker, Halley Kate Mcgookin, a fashion-influencer based in NYC, posted a video to Tik Tok detailing her experience of being sucker punched in the face on the street.
The video, which has garnered nearly 50 million views, was met with shock but prompted many other women to share their stories, including one student from Parsons, who said she had been punched outside of one of her school buildings near the West Village campus.
Female students at Hunter College had strong opinions on the subject, but weren’t necessarily surprised by the assaults.
“Not gonna lie the whole thing is quite tragic,” said Ariana McNab, a Media Studies major.
She said she doesn’t know what’s causing this uptick in violence against women, and felt unsafe in public because of it.
McNab wondered whether the growth of online podcasts, where men give each other dating advice, had anything to do with the increase in random assaults.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric based on toxic masculinity and basically saying anything to feminine threatens manhood,” McNab said, describing the videos she has seen online.
Other students said they are taking precautionary measures.
Levia Zhou, a senior Education and Chinese language major who walks home from school, has decided to not walk home alone anymore.
“I was just scared so I made my friend walk me home, who knows if this person punching people is in my neighborhood or not,” she said.
Though the incident reports on social media seemed to be dying down, the lingering fear for young women haven’t subsided.
“People tell girls to keep their head on a swivel, you know, every girl I know carries mace or some sort of weapon” says junior Sydney Hargrove. “We get told to be careful and not be out alone at night, but now we’re getting attacked in broad daylight, so women are backed into a corner.”
The New York Police Department said they will continue to remain resilient in their efforts to stop violent criminals, ensuring the safety of our communities, according to a statement posted on their X social media account. https://x.com/NYPDnews/status/1773191476937113654
