Steve Santagati, author of best-selling book the MANual, told CNN Saturday that the recent video produced by Hollaback to draw attention to the reality of street harassment “speaks for itself,” in that there is “nothing more” than a woman loves than compliments.
“The bottom line is this, ladies. You would not care if all these guys were hot.
He brazenly continued, "They would be bolstering your self-esteem – bolstering your ego. There is nothing more than a woman loves to hear is how pretty she is. Now, this particular video speaks for itself.”
Santagati went on to express his skepticism of the video’s authenticity:
“But I’m also very suspicious because this was put together by an ad agency to go viral. So how do we know some of those guys weren’t planted?”
Joining the self-proclaimed male expert was female stand up comedian Amanda Seales, who had a sharply different take on the video.
“This is not complementary, which is funny because I think guys think that by letting you know that they would be interested in sleeping with you, that that is a compliment. And, actually, it’s really just objectifying me when I’m trying to walk in my daily life.”
She noted how she has an entire 15-minute comedy set dedicated to catcalling itself.
In response to Santagati’s suspicions that aspects of the video were staged, Seales fired, “It doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter because, even if they were planted, this is actually very accurate for New York City specifically. But what’s funny is, you’re saying that you know how men think. But your comment was actually about how women think – that women want to hear compliments from men all day.
“You are wrong.”
If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the controversial video-gone-viral: