The Five Steps To Outing Yourself As A Faux Ally
Guys — it’s not about you.
A popular TikToker recently videoed himself coming to the aid of a young woman who was being harassed in a store and couldn’t shake the person off. Seeing her distress, he deployed the age-old ‘friend’ trick of pretending to know her and then escorting her to safety. The young woman seemed to play along, and all was well.
*Caveat — I have no idea whether this was staged, a big PR exercise, or a genuine event, and this isn’t my focus. We also don’t know that the harassing creep didn’t go off and do the exact same thing to another woman, but that’s a separate issue.
There was lots of chat about the incident on social media, calling the guy a hero and an ally. I know nothing about him, but what I did see were several women — including me — observing that not all women would respond the same way.
“Am I the only one thinking that she could have been rescued by another creepy guy? Thank goodness the situation was different.”
“I’d think they were working together and I was really in trouble now.”
“I have told several men to back off before, that I know were likely genuine and trying to be helpful. It was late and I didn’t know them.”
