Photo: @lving.transparently / TikTok
She believed that she was protecting herself from harm. However, others think that she took it too far.
By Megan Quinn — Written on Apr 08, 2023
While walking by themselves at night, every woman has likely had the same fear cross her mind of being approached and assaulted by someone who can easily overpower her.
According to a study from the Office for National Statistics, four in five women report feeling unsafe while walking alone after dark.
One of those women is Danielle Mitchell, a social media influencer promoting female empowerment. After being approached by a man one night in a parking lot, she repeatedly hollered at him to stay away. She decided to share her experience on TikTok. Unfortunately, she did not receive the response that she was anticipating.
The woman yelled at a man who attempted to approach her and her son in a parking lot from 30 feet away.
In a TikTok video viewed over 2 million times, Mitchell reveals the encounter that left her “shaking.”
She reports that although the situation turned out to be “fine” she wants to advise other women what to do should the same thing happen to them. She claims that she learned what to do by reading a book.
One evening while Mitchell was alone with her young son in a parking lot, she was approached by a man. “He said, ‘Excuse me, miss,’” she says. “I don’t know why in the h–l he was approaching me, or what he was trying to do.”
Mitchell alleges that the man was at least 30 feet away from her but she took it upon herself to ensure that that’s how far as he got.
“I literally yelled at him and I said, ‘do not approach me!’” she says. The man was taken aback and appeared to be confused as Mitchell continued to holler at him. At this point, she shares that the perplexed man began “cussing” and yelling back, asking Mitchell what her problem was. However, he did not get any closer to her.
“He crossed a couple of cars down from my car and he didn’t come anywhere near me,” she says.
As the man walked to his own car, Mitchell continued to yell at him, “you do not approach women in a parking lot!” “No male should ever approach a woman in a parking lot. EVER,” she claims.
“If a male does approach you, you need to turn around and use the strongest voice that you can possibly use with him,” Mitchell urges other women. “Don’t be polite, they need to screw off.” While the social media influencer certainly expected other women to praise her for her actions, her PSA backfired, with many people believing that she was the one in the wrong.
Most people dubbed Mitchell’s reaction as 'over the top' and unnecessary.
Many TikTok users pointed out that the man likely did not want to hurt her, and was possibly trying to get her attention about something else.
“The guy probably walked off with the 20-dollar bill that you dropped,” one TikTok user commented.
“Those with ill intent aren’t announcing themselves loudly in public from 30 feet away,” another user noted.
Other men took it upon themselves to respond to Mitchell’s video, explaining that they have been in similar situations and meant no harm. One man named Ezret revealed that the same thing has happened to him before, calling it one of the most uncomfortable and awkward things he has ever experienced.
While shopping at a Walmart, he noticed that the woman in front of him at the checkout line had dropped her credit card. When he approached the woman to alert her, he says that she repeated “no thank you!” as he attempted to give her back the card.
“Come approach me again and I’ll call the cops,” she threatened. Her card was picked up and stolen by a stranger shortly after Ezret backed off.
In a follow-up video, Mitchell attempted to defend her reaction.
She addresses the comments she received pointing out that the man’s actions were not dangerous. “So let me ask you this,” she addresses her followers.
“What does a ‘criminal’ look like? At what point do you choose to defend yourself?” she asks. “Do you wait until somebody with an orange jumpsuit approaches you?”
Mitchell suggests whatever a woman’s threshold may be, not to wait until the last second to do something about it.
“And as a woman, never underestimate your instincts,” she adds. Although we’ll never know what the man was approaching Mitchell about, we know for sure none of her male followers will be coming in close proximity to her in public anytime soon.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.