Concert-Goer Pulls Dancing Woman’s Hair For Blocking Her View During A Show
The seated versus standing debate rages on.
Artie Medvedev | Shutterstock There are plenty of debates out there regarding concert etiquette. None of them remain quite as hotly contested as whether you should remain seated or if it’s alright to stand, though. One pair of concert-goers called the proper etiquette into question after a nasty interaction caused them to go viral on the internet.
One concert-goer pulled another’s hair because she blocked her view.
X user, author, and “news contributor” Oli London shared a video clip on the social media platform that has now surpassed 10.7 million views.
In the video, a group of concert-goers appears to be seated on a balcony. Two women at the front of the crowd were standing, while everyone else was seated (except for a little girl, whose height was negligible). Of the two women, the one who was closer to the camera and wearing a white blazer seemed to be blocking the view of another woman a few rows back, who was coincidentally also dressed in a white blazer.
The confrontation between the two started when the seated woman pointedly jabbed the standing woman in her back. The standing woman reacted by turning around to look at the other woman and saying something inaudible to her before turning back around.
As this didn’t seem to be enough to faze the standing woman, the one who was seated then grabbed her ponytail and yanked on it. At this point, a woman wearing black who was clearly accompanying the standing woman turned around and got into a brief argument with the seated woman before the woman with the ponytail turned her friend back around.
The seated woman proceeded to poke the woman who was standing and dancing several more times before she turned around and began swatting at her hand. For a moment, it appeared that the two might get into a physical altercation. Then the woman who was with the standing woman turned her back around, and two other women walked over from another section to calm the seated woman.
Despite her rude behavior, many people in the comments sided with the woman who was seated.
For most concert-goers poking another person in the back repeatedly and pulling on their ponytail would be unthinkable, no matter how badly they were blocking the view. However, X users seemed to think she was in the right.
“Is it okay to pull her hair?” one asked. “No. Is it rude to stand up like this when [the] majority of people are all sitting down at a concert? Yes. This looks to be in some type of smaller auditorium, not a giant Post Malone concert where everyone is standing. She was rude for standing also.”
“The person in the front is in the wrong clearly since it seems everyone else is sitting down except her — which blocks people’s view from behind,” another said. “But the lady in the back could have just tapped her instead of shoving her to tell her you’re blocking my view.”
Is it okay to stand at a concert when everyone else is seated?
Elizabeth Blair covered a somewhat similar situation for NPR in which an Adele fan named Juan Lastra was called out for standing at her concert when everyone behind him was seated. Adele questioned what was going on when Lastra was asked to sit down by a security guard.
She shut down the security guard and other upset concert-goers quickly when she said, “They won’t bother you, my darling. Enjoy the show.” It seems Adele is pro-standing at concerts, or at least pro-enjoying yourself.
While this debate will likely continue to rage for years, it’s important to note that everyone has a solid argument in this situation. The women both paid for tickets and deserved to enjoy the concert the way they wished to. However, rude behavior that borders on physical assault is never acceptable.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
