Passengers on a Melbourne tram took a stand against a disheveled, barefoot man who verbally abused a woman on Thursday afternoon.
Passenger Jessica-Lee Perry told the Daily Mail that Sarah Goussé was minding her own business when a ‘drunk, horrid man’ sat down in front of her.
‘He was shouting and pointing, calling her horrible names and rambling,’ Ms Perry said. ‘He just started going off.’
She posted a video of the incident on her Facebook page, revealing that the man’s rage was apparently sparked by the fact that Ms Goussé was reading ‘The Heart Goes Last’ by feminist author Margaret Atwood.
‘It was intense,’ Ms Goussé told the Daily Mail. ‘I was sitting down reading my book when this man – who seemed a little worse for wear – came and sat down right opposite me.
‘There were so many spare seats so that made me feel uncomfortable. Then he started talking about me to another lady about what books someone should read.
‘And he was just ranting about how I thought I was better than him for reading that feminist book…He said that we send men like him to jail all the time. He called me a bitch about five times.
‘I was trying to ignore it because he was very close to me so I was fearful of speaking back too much…A woman can’t even read a book by herself without getting harassed. It was so surreal.’
Sarah Goussé was reading a Margaret Atwood book when a man began to verbally abuse her
‘You think you’re superior to me because you’re a f***ing woman?’ the man then yells at an older woman, who had come to Ms Goussé’s defense.
‘No, I think we’re superior to you because you’re a horrible person,’ the woman retorts. ‘It’s got nothing to do with our gender. You are just pathetic.’
Ms Perry asks, ‘Is he giving you sh*t for reading that book?’ to which Ms Goussé nods and shows the camera a book by Margaret Atwood.
‘All you women are f***ing bitches,’ the man yells. ‘You think you’re f**ing better than everyone else don’t you? You’ve got no f***ing self-respect.’
Ms Goussé said that although the whole situation was ‘very scary and unpredictable, and just came out of nowhere’, the other women made her feel safe.
‘That older woman was a badass,’ she said. ‘And Jessica was immensely helpful and supportive. I moved next to her, because it was really scary when he was right in front of me. Safety in numbers, I guess.’
A ‘badass’ older woman defended Ms Goussé when the man approached the front of the bus
In the video, the driver can be heard asking if the girls needed assistance and asked the man to stop using ‘that language’, to which the man replied: ‘I’ll use that language if I want to use that language.’
‘I’m just going to speak my truth,’ the man shouts, before Ms Goussé interjects that calling women ‘bitches’ just because they are reading a book is not ‘speaking his truth’.
The man continued shouting: ‘I don’t deserve to be arrested for insulting a female. Apparently you can be put in jail for insulting a female these days. You’re so f***ing haughty.
‘You’ve got no f***ing idea what’s going on. You’re so haughty. You are a haughty person,’ the man calls out, before standing up and announce that he had ‘better get off the tram’.
The man, who is barefoot and carrying a plastic bag, yelled at passengers as he left the tram
Before the tram goes the man gives the woman the finger, and she responds with a peace sign
‘Good idea mate,’ the driver can be heard saying as the mans steps onto the street in his bare feet.
He then approaches the window of the tram and gives the middle finger to the women still on board, repeatedly yelling, ‘Screw you, you bloody female. Stupid bloody female.’
At the end of the video, Ms Perry responds to his rude gesture with a peace sign, and suggests that he get some shoes.
Ms Perry said of the incident, ‘It was all pretty nonsensical to be honest…It was weird. The book started it, but it seemed like he just wanted an excuse to go psycho. He was getting right up in her face.’
Jessica-Lee Perry (pictured) filmed the incident and defended Ms Goussé against verbal abuse
She said that yelling and abuse went on for quite some time, and called the experience ‘pretty awful’.
‘People were very supportive,’ Ms Perry said. ‘Even though people weren’t really chiming in to much, the two larger men sitting near us kept telling him to pipe down, and giving us supporting looks.
‘Most people on the tram who didn’t get off were being sympathetic, I just don’t think they wanted to get too involved.’