A 23-year-old woman is speaking out about the sexual harassment and unavoidable “male gaze” she endures at her job.
Warehouse worker Fena Reti shared some of her “extremely uncomfortable” experiences, stemming from the way she dresses, in a series of TikTok videos last week.
It all started when one leering male co-worker prompted Reti, who often wears leggings to keep cool and comfortable, to return to work in an oversized sweats ensemble.
“A coworker I just met made me feel extremely uncomfortable for wearing leggings,” Reti wrote in a TikTok clip posted last Thursday. “So today I dressed up how I usually do to feel safe from the male gaze.”
Showing off her more frumpy garb, the caption updated: “When he saw me, he stopped me and said: ‘Can I just say that, no matter how pretty you are, you look like s- -t today.’ ”
The original clip now has more than 1.2 million views, and nearly 3,200 comments, many of which backed the disturbed woman.
“We just want to exist without being harassed,” wrote one of Reti’s supporters.
Fellow warehouse employees also shared similar experiences.
“Warehouse worker here. I literally changed my wardrobe and buy only extremely oversized clothes for work to avoid men comments EVERY. SINGLE. DAY,” one commented, to which Reti responded directly: “SAME! I spent so much money on oversized clothing. I even changed the way I walk to look unfeminine.”
To dissuade male co-workers from commenting on her body, she tried wearing oversized sweats instead, prompting one colleague to let her know she looked “like s - - t” that day. TikTok/@fena_retiBut not all of the remarks submitted by other users were positive. In a pair of follow-up videos, she exposed a few of her detractors.
“I made a video yesterday about sexual harassment at my workplace. People said I should report it. This comment might help you see how easily victims are believed,” Reti said in her update, shared on Friday.
That dubious comment, from @bewatermyfri3nd, was: “Sure that happened.”
On Monday, Reti returned to further address her critics, including @kingjames_xi, who asked, “Who tf wears leggings to work?”
Reti responded live while dressed in a pullover fleece sweater beneath her hi-vis orange safety vest, leggings and tall socks. In her retort, she asked, “What about this screams sexy to you?”
“What about this screams that I want you to talk to me about my body?” Fena Reti said of her leggings and pullover ensemble. TikTok/@fena_retiShe continued, “What about this screams that I want you to talk to me about my body?” and later added, “I walk around like a boy so men don’t realize I’m a girl and come and hit on me … I’ve done everything in my power to look as unattractive as possible.”
She goes on to point out that while warehouse policy dictates that all workers wear long-legged bottoms for protection during their arduous and often hazardous shifts, men are permitted to wear shorts without consequence, while she “sweat[s] like a pig” in pants, “because no girl is ever going to make a guy uncomfortable about the clothes that he wears.”
This week, Reti confessed that a meeting with the warehouse’s human resources staff left her “sobbing” as she alleged a yearslong pattern of abuse by male co-workers — and it wasn’t the first time she had cried at HR’s desk “for the exact same reason,” she revealed to the Independent.
She also asked managers to address the company’s sexual harassment policies in their weekly newsletter to staff, to reiterate “what is and what isn’t appropriate behavior at the workplace.”
Reti also said she was “shocked and heartbroken” at the number of women who exposed their own struggles with sexual harassment after watching her videos.
“In the comments, so many women going through exactly the same thing. I felt less alone,” she said, then added that she also feels a “sense of responsibility” to continue to speak out on their behalf. “And I also hope to encourage other women to report issues of harassment.”
