‘335 days’: Italian woman’s ‘sad’ realisation after moving to Australia

A 23-year-old expat has shared a “sad” realisation about her home country after moving across the world last year.

An Italian woman has shared a “sad” realisation about her home country after moving across the world to Melbourne last year.

In a video on TikTok, Saret Mac said that in the 335 days she’d lived in Australia, she hadn’t been catcalled once while out for a run – a stark contrast to her experiences of street harassment back home.

“My smile while getting back home in Australia after a run, without being catcalled …,” the 23-year-old captioned the below video.

“In 11 months, it has never happened. It’s crazy, but it’s sad at the same time.

“In Italy it is so normal to be catcalled in the street, at any time, anywhere, no matter what you are wearing.

“This is something I really love about this country. I have always felt so safe.

“I hope one day I will be able to stay the same thing about Italy as well.”

According to the latest figures from Italy’s Interior Ministry, reported incidents of sexual harassment – a classification catcalling falls under – increased from 18,671 in 2021 to 18,724 in 2022. They further jumped to 19,538 incidents in 2023.

Saret Mac said the hadn’t been catcalled once while out for a run. Picture: TikTok/@saret.mac

The 23-year-old moved to Melbourne last year. Picture: TikTok/@saret.mac

But Australian women in the comments were quick to point out to Ms Mac that her experience here was the exception – not the rule.

Research conducted by The Australia Institute in 2015 showed that 87 per cent of young women have experienced street harassment at least once in their life, many as early as when they were in primary school.

More recently, news.com.au’s Great Aussie Debate survey of more than 50,000 people in 2023 found that 40 per cent of female respondents did not feel safe walking alone at night – out of fear they would encounter street harassment, or worse.

“Unfortunately, there are still a lot of men who catcall in Australia as well,” one woman wrote under the video, noting it had never happened more than when she was wearing her school uniform.

“Can’t relate,” another woman said.

“My girlfriend got catcalled 10 times more since we (moved) to Australia,” one man commented.

Kic co-founder Laura Henshaw recounted her own street harassment experience last year. Picture: TikTok

'We should feel safe and comfortable running at any hour but the reality is we don't.' Picture: TikTok

Laura Henshaw, the co-founder of the wildly successful health and wellness app Kic, went viral on social media last year when she recounted being catcalled four times during a single morning walk down a busy Melbourne road.

“The first time they said something, it just pissed me off. I feel like they almost thought it was a compliment,” Ms Henshaw told news.com.au at the time of the men, who had yelled from their car that she was a “sexy baby”.

“But as they kept going, I felt really unsafe. I just think it’s so unfair that I can be out in the morning walking on a busy street and because of these men wanting to slow down and make comments to me, they took that feeling away and thought it was funny …(Women) should feel safe and comfortable running at any hour but the reality is, we don’t.”

Past research has found 87 per cent of Australian women have experienced some form of street harassment during their lifetime. Picture: NewsWire/Nadir Kinani

University of Melbourne Associate Professor of Criminology, Bianca Fileborn, said there was “a misconception that this behaviour isn’t a big deal, that it’s trivial”.

“You know, it’s often dismissed as (the men) were flirting or it was just a joke and that kind of thing,” Professor Fileborn told news.com.au.

“But the research is really clear that experiencing street harassment can be quite significantly impactful and harmful. It’s associated with things like increased rates of anxiety and depression, feeling fearful or afraid in public spaces.”

Prof Fileborn said it could mean some people stop going out at night, walk with their keys in their hand or constantly be on guard while out and about.