Girls are encouraging one another to put on 'subway shirts' on public transport to defend their summer season appears to be like from the eyes of 'unusual males'

• On TikTok, some girls are posting about carrying giant T-shirts that they name “subway shirts.” 
• The shirts are worn with the aim of stopping catcalling whereas commuting. 
• Leaving the home with a “subway shirt” has been a “rule” that some say they’ve lived by for years. 

As summer season approaches, with all its guarantees of brilliant, sunny, sweaty climate, some girls are taking to TikTok to challenge a warning for others to guard themselves on public transport. 

The time period “subway shirt” is gaining traction on TikTok, the place girls are filming themselves carrying outsized T-shirts over their strappy summer season tops for security whereas commuting.

“In any other case generally known as an outfit dampener, it is an outsized tshirt we put on over our cute outfits so unusual males do not hassle you on the practice,” one TikToker wrote in a video posted on April 15, which has obtained 2.6 million views. 

The idea appears to have first emerged on TikTok in 2022 when a number of girls filmed themselves placing an overshirt on to go outdoors regardless of the extraordinary summer season climate. It is picked up steam in current months, and movies posted in April and Might have obtained tens of millions of cumulative views.  

Some TikTokers described it as a “rule” they’ve lived by for years to assist them really feel extra secure, as a result of harassment being a “large drawback” within the cities the place they dwell. 

In a single video posted on Might 24, one person stated that she nonetheless skilled catcalling although she wears a big overshirt more often than not whereas commuting. 

“I believe at this level, guys will catcall at something,” she stated. 

A number of commenters responded to the movies by saying they associated to feeling unsafe in public areas, significantly in the course of the summer season, and that they imagine it is a disgrace girls are going to those lengths to guard themselves.

“It is so exhausting being on guard on a regular basis for simply current in a female physique,” one person wrote. 

In a 2014 survey of two,000 Individuals carried out by the nonprofit group Cease Road Harassment, 65% of girls stated that they had skilled sexual harassment.

As Insider beforehand reported, girls are more and more utilizing TikTok to doc road harassment in real-time. Going viral with such posts has usually resulted in renewed harassment in on-line areas, which some girls stated created a “retraumatizing” impact.

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