Music fans attend day 2 of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California. Photo / Getty
Music fans attend day 2 of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California. Photo / Getty
Teen Vogue editor Vera Papisova went to Coachella to talk about sexual harassment at the musical festival and says that during the 10 hours she was reporting the story, she was groped 22 times.
Papisova interviewed women at the festival for her Teen Vogue piece, and she says she spoke to 54 of whom also said they were also groped and harassed according to DailyMail.
Teen Vogue Wellness Editor Vera Papisova poses with the award for Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage at the 28th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Photo / Getty
She described the Instagram perfect music festival as having a not-so-nice flip side after she says she was "repeatedly violated by strangers".
"One guy followed me across the field to the Mojave stage, where I was meeting a friend to see FIDLAR. When my friend left to see another band, I stayed behind, and this guy came up behind me and whispered, 'You're a goddess' and then rubbed his hands on my hips and butt," she writes in her essay.
She adds: "This is why I usually wear a backpack in concert settings — it forces distance between the stranger behind me and my body."
Papisova then describes a man touching her bare stomach.
"When I was waiting in line for a sweet potato taco on Sunday, a man poked me in the stomach and asked me if I do Pilates. I said no, and then he asked, 'What's the secret behind that six-pack?' and rubbed my bare stomach with his hand."
She says during Saturday, she was trying to take a photo and someone behind her grabbed her "butt with both hands".
Festivalgoer attends day 2 of Coachella Valley Music Arts Festival. Photo / Getty
"I didn't see who it was, and I felt so uncomfortable that I gave up my front row spot and moved to the back of the crowd where I would have more space behind me. I never got the picture."
Papisova said the over five dozen women that said they were either groped or harassed and had similar accounts to her own.
"Of course sexual harassment happens here," Ana, 19, told Papisova. "It happens to us at all concerts. At Coachella it is so many people that men will get away with touching you, and they think we don't notice. It happened to me many times already, and I notice every time."
"It never goes further than a touch on my butt or my back, but it's not an okay place to be touched," said June, 20. "Would you do that to a coworker? Or another guy? Then don't do that to me. This is my third day, and it's probably happened to me 40 times this weekend."
"In a really big crowd, you want to have a good time, and you want to dance," said Phoebe, 20. "It's just really uncomfortable to feel someone right behind you, touching you or rubbing you. It happened to me a lot at Post Malone."
"Just the way people touch me when you're walking through a crowd. Why are you touching me there? We're trying to have fun and fit in here,' said Reagan, 16. "It's scary, and you can't trust the random people around you to help you. And with those bigger men, it's just harder and it's scarier to say something to them because they might get angry and violent. Like if you're not nice, they might hurt you."
Lais Ribeiro and Romee Strijd wearing during day 1 of the 2018 Coachella Valley Music Arts Festival Weekend 1 on April 13, 2018 in Indio, California. Photo / Getty
"Reagan's experience was similar to my experience as well: The night before I had been called a 'heinous bitch' by a guy whom I'd declined to kiss on Saturday in the VIP section," Papisova said.
Not everyone however, agreed with Papisova's take on the issue of the rampant groping and sexual harassment at a festival known for it's music, drug use, and freewheeling atmosphere.
One person on Twitter responded to her article, and said the environment is simply made for that kind of behavior: 'So things worked out for you to be able to write an outraged story about yourself, AND you did Coachella. Victim branding is a very fortunate job arc, although it's terrible that a woman gets ''groped'' that many times in an environment that seems ripe for groping.
Another Twitter user, whose handle is PA Soccer Mom tweeted at her about her own tweet that she didn't use drugs and wore "clothes".
"Maybe you did but everyone else in attendance didn't; that's what its know for. As a woman, I steer clear of situations like that. I'd also love to see a picture of your Coachella outfit."
