01 December 2023 , 15:43
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A video showing a man leering at an attractive woman has bizarrely gained lots of praise across social media.
In the short clip, the woman is seeing standing just inside a tailor's shop at night with the door open to the outside. A male passerby can then be seen standing just outside smoking a cigarette and seemingly admiring her as she wears a tight-fitting beige pinstripe suit.
The woman in question was in fact Italian influencer Barbara Gambatesa, who has 3.7 million followers and was filming a video of her donning her graduation outfit. The clip was originally posted on her TikTok account before being shared on X (formerly Twitter).
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Yet in a strange outcome, instead of being called out for his blatantly creepy actions, the man was instead complimented on his apparent restraint and 'perfect' behaviour. An X user shared the video and commented: "Perfect. He looked. He admired. He stole one more look, then simply went about his business. That’s how you look at a beautiful person."
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This particular post was viewed more than 30 million times and with plenty of support for the unidentified man. One person replied: "He just looked at her with admiration, without disturbing or harassing her.”
While another added: “I know someone is going to ruin the moment and call him a perv when truly he did everything right,” and someone else wrote: "Every man has been in this position before." Others believed the man deserved respect for not harassing her, calling it a "respectful stare", and also a prime example of not crossing the boundaries of someone you are attracted to.
However, not everyone was in agreement - as one observed: "He creepily paced and stared at her debating if he should harass her or not, let’s not get it twisted.” While one woman vented: “Praising a man for looking at a woman’s butt and not harassing her? When has society’s standards become this low?"
Psychologist Carly Dober criticised celebrating behaviour like this and branded it a big problem in culture, reinforcing the misguided idea that women owe men something. She told the New York Post: "While restraint or holding back might be being celebrated by some men, that attitude might reinforce the belief that women are solely there to be accessed for pleasure by men, or to get attention from men and that they are being the ‘bigger person’ in not going out of their way to hit on women.
"Culturally, some men still also think that women wearing particular clothes or presenting themselves in certain ways still demands attention from the opposite sex. This is still something that needs to change.”