Canadian Journalist Joanna Chiu tweeted a series of tweets about a teenager facing harassment at a flight to put light on the issues of woman harassment. She narrated the ordeal in a series of tweets of how she saved the teenager girl.
Journalist Joanna was on a flight to Vancouver when she noticed something unusual. The plane was empty and a man sitting behind her was having a conversation with a teenager and was trying to get comfortable with her. She felt something fishy and even dropped the plan of taking the nap.
The man then leaned to the girl and asked for a dirty picture and upon hearing she rage whispered and the man didn’t respond back and went to use the bathroom. Another woman sitting behind the girl was hearing the conversation and observing what was happening. When the man was gone, she told Joanna that “she had the right to change seats and that she was just behind her if she needed any help”. The journalist then informed the flight attendant and the “head of the flight service (a woman) asked the man to move.” When the man began swearing at Joanna, the flight attendant said, “I’m the boss, this is really serious and we could land the plane.”
Eventually, the man moved to a different seat and the flight attendants filed a report on the information given by the girl. In the series, if tweets she also added “But none of the male passengers seemed to show they noticed what was going on. Maybe fellow women are more likely to pick up on warning signs early on in the conversation because we used to be teenage girls too?” But none of the male passengers seemed to show they noticed what was going on. Maybe fellow women are more likely to pick up on warning signs early on in the conversation because we used to be teenage girls too?” Joanna also wrote about similar experiences she encountered while traveling alone for the first time. She further writes, “I’m sure the young woman he targeted will be CEO someday or some other position of influence. She was in the middle of studying when he started harassing her. It’s sad these experiences are extremely common.”
The series if tweets of the journalist went viral on social media and also led to the women narrating their similar incidents. The courage of the journalist was highly lauded by the netizens and the conversation aroused on how to intervene in such incidents safely on public places.
Check the series of tweets here:
Thread about airplane creeps: I’m on a plane from a late-evening stopover from and was very tired and had a row to myself to sleep but couldn’t avoid noticing what was going on in the row behind me.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
A man appearing in his late thirties was obviously delighted to be seated next to a teenager separated from the rest of her family. He started off by asking about her career plans and laughed when she said she wanted to be CEO and kept giving her ridiculous advice.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
She was friendly and he seemed to take that as a welcome cue to get very familiar and started teasing her and kept saying that he wanted to take her out to eat, which she was ignoring. At this point I had to stay awake in case anything went further than that.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
It did, and as soon as he asked for a “dirty” photo while leaning close to her I turned around and rage-whispered exactly what I thought of that and he didn’t say anything back and went off to use the washroom.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
Another woman seated behind him was listening and monitoring too and while the man was gone she let the teen know that she had the right to change seats and that she was just behind her if she needed any help. I went to get a flight attendant and informed her of what was going on
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
They checked other witness accounts and the head of the flight service (a woman) asked the man to move. He resisted then started swearing at me and asked to talk to the boss and the head flight attendant said “I’m the boss, this is really serious and we could land the plane.”
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
He moved. The attendants checked in with the young woman and wrote up a report. They handled the situation well as far as I could tell, and it’s good to know other adult women passengers on the plane were paying attention and taking action while trying not to embarrass the teen.
— Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) March 25, 2019
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