For a while, some Internet-dwellers have been enthralled by the concept of harassing women in public, videotaping it, and putting the footage on YouTube as documentation of their hilarious and funny and very clever prankster mentality. Remember how much fun everyone (i.e., everyone but the women who were used as unconsenting flesh-props) (i.e., no one but the two doofuses doing the harassing and their foolish friend who operated the camera) had with the kissing "experiment" and with "literally sweeping women off their feet" prank?


The newest — and probably the most disturbing — video to capitalize on this trend is titled "Naked Guy Picking Up Girls." It's pretty much just that: the video consists of clips of a naked Norwegian man who goes by the handle of "Freddy Fairhair" approaching women and asking for their phone numbers. Sometimes he goes as far as to point out his erection. (To one woman he says, "I'm actually standing here having a boner. I'm having a boner. You turn me on. Is it visible?" To another: "I'm getting a boner right now.")


Multiple times, he demands that the women he's heckling embrace him and proceeds to press his strange naked flesh against them. In response, the women laugh uncomfortably, curse the gods that this unclothed menace was not appeased by the offering of a phone number, and pray that the unwanted contact ends with a naked hug. In the most ghastly instance of this, Freddy informs a woman sitting on a picnic blanket that he has a boner while he looms over her; he then crouches down to embrace her, putting his erect penis near her face in the process.

Most of the feedback on YouTube is (of course) positive. One of the top comments reads:

as an american who's grown up in a country where sex is still a taboo subject. i think its really awesome that this type of behavior done in a friendly way in other more open minded parts of the world is a hit. try THAT in the states, an country founded by weirdo puritans, and become a registered sex offender for life.

Yes, only a Puritan would think that it's unacceptable for a naked man to approach a woman and say "Look at my boner" and then proceed to embrace her without her permission. All of the most sex-positive societies cherish sexual harassment and intimidation as a God-given right.

Several of the commenters laud Freddy's confidence: "picking up girls LIKE A BOSS!" writes one sad denizen of the 'net's darkest depths. But Freddy Fairhair isn't "picking up girls" in this video: what he's doing is intimidating women into placating him, in hopes that he'll leave them alone. Although he claims that strutting around naked and accosting women has made him feel "free," what he did wasn't simply a liberating celebration of the human form. It was far too aggressive to be that.


It's likely that the women laughed at his antics because they were too uncomfortable to react in any other way — not because they thought he was funny or interesting or charming. It certainly seems that way from their body language: most of the women in this clip are furiously avoiding eye contact, which makes sense. If a man were to approach me, remove his pants, and then demand my phone number, I'd probably think he was insane and try to diffuse the situation without angering him.

One of Freddy's "prank" victims extends a piece of paper with her number on it like a protective barrier; another mumbles, "You can have my number if you want" while looking pointedly over his shoulder. That's not picking up women "LIKE A BOSS" — it's picking up women "LIKE A BIG, TERRIFYING BULLY WHO HAS ABSOLUTELY NO CONSIDERATION OR SELF AWARENESS."


"Newest sketchy pick-up video is basically sexual harassment" [The Daily Dot]