Woman confronts man after he repeatedly invades her personal space: ‘Normalise checking men’

‘I’m so proud of her,’ one viewer wrote

Woman goes viral after confronting man invading her personal space (TikTok / @haleymcquinn_)

A woman is being applauded for standing up for herself after her friend filmed the moment she confronted a man who refused to respect her personal space while sitting at a bar.

On Tuesday, Haley Mcquinn, who goes by the username @Haleymcquinn_on TikTok, uploaded a video of her friend Calla, who she tagged as @Callalatrice, standing up to a man who refused to stop touching her.

In the clip, which Mcquinn captioned: “Watch my friend tell this guy off because he kept touching her” and “normalise checking men,” Calla can be seen sitting with her back to the man as he tries to lean his arm on the back of her chair, repeatedly touching her as a result, and prompting her to initially glare at him.

In response to Calla’s reaction, the man can be heard sarcastically exclaiming: “Oh, s***! I touched her again!”

Later in the video, at which point the man can still be seen resting his arm on the back of Calla’s chair while he tries to talk to the woman’s friend, he attempts to defend himself after she calls him out again for failing to respect her boundaries.

“I’m talking to her, I’m talking to her,” the man repeatedly tells Calla, referring to the friend sitting beside her, to which she points out that he is talking to her friend about her, which he denies.

While the conversation is difficult to decipher at times, Calla’s friend then confirms the man was talking about her, at which point Calla confronts the man about his inability to respect her space.

“You were talking to her about me and talking about my trauma because, yes, for the last f***ing 30 years of my life [men] don’t know how to keep space,” she can be heard telling him. “They touch you inappropriately, they talk to you inappropriately, and they be in your motherf***ing space inappropriately.”

The video, which has since been viewed more than 1.2m times on TikTok, has prompted an outpouring of supportive comments, with many viewers applauding Calla for her handling of the situation.

“Yes ma’am. He’s too close. If you’re not comfortable, you’re not comfortable. End of discussion,” one person commented.

Another said: “It’s called having boundaries. Good for her standing up to him.”

“Triggered. When they gaslight you and try to make you feel like you’re overreacting for normally reacting to their disrespect,” someone else wrote.

In a follow-up video shared on her own TikTok, Calla uploaded a clip of herself watching the interaction with the man, which she captioned: “So obtuse… obviously can’t read facial expressions or body language.”

The additional video also prompted a range of encouraging comments, with one describing Calla as a “bada**,” while another viewer referred to her decision to confront the man as “queen” behaviour.

The Independent has contacted Calla for comment.