NY Woman Defends Her Facebook Shaming of a Catcaller

Christen Brandt shared the negative responses she received on Facebook.

ByABC News
February 5, 2016, 3:46 PM
Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, N.Y. shared an incident of harassment on Jan. 28, 2016
Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, N.Y. shared an incident of harassment on Jan. 28, 2016
Courtesy Katie Riley

— -- A New York woman is defending herself against Internet users who’re slamming her for shaming a catcaller on Facebook.

Now, Christen Brandt, 27, has created a webpage solely to address the negative reactions.

"When I hit about 15 or 20,000 ‘likes’ as the story started getting picked up, that’s when I started getting an influx of messages," Brandt of Brooklyn, New York, told ABC News today. "I had endless messages from men saying, 'This isn’t a problem. Sit down, shut up, stop talking.' I wanted to be able to physically show people that this is the response you get when you stand up for yourself."

PHOTO: Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.
Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.

Brandt last week described an incident in which a man commenting on her body and followed her through New York City's 34th Street subway station.

"This is what I was wearing this morning as I made my way through a crowded 34th Street subway station, and a man passing by me said, 'Damn, you have some great legs,'" Brandt wrote in her post.

She posted the story on her Facebook page along with a photo of what she was wearing during the encounter: a jacket, scarf and a pair of boots.

PHOTO: Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.
Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.

"The intent behind the original post is to start the conversation," Brandt said. "My experience in itself was not the worst experience, but it is an example of how ridiculously normal this is."

Brandt's post received over 96,000 “shares” and both the positive and negative responses came rolling in, she said.

PHOTO: Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.
Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.

And while she admits that her inbox was filled with "60 percent positive feedback," Brandt said the hateful responses were a prime example of what she was fighting against in the first place.

"I was told, 'You're [getting] a compliment. You should take it as such. You should smile and keep walking,'" Brandt recalls of messages she's received. "When someone starts following you, that’s not a compliment."

PHOTO: Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.
Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.

Brandt created a domain Wednesday called christensinbox.com, where she shares the continual slamming from Internet users, as well as the positive, uplifting messages that were sent to her as a result of her original Facebook post.

She even responds to the messages, while taking it all in good stride.

PHOTO: Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.
Christen Brandt, 27, of Brooklyn, New York shared the negative responses she received after her Facebook post went viral.

"I thought, 'I'm going to wrap it up with a bow tie of sarcasm and let you take it and draw your own conclusions from that,'" she said.

"Men don’t see the extent of online harassment or catcalling," she added. "For the most part, they are not victims of it. I wanted to show them, ‘Yes, this happens, yes, people get harnessed online for having an opinion.’ I think this can be a very powerful thing."