Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
My worst harrasment in the street was when this young guy was trying to talk to me i ignored him and he ran over and touched my ass!!!! omg!! i put down my books! i was gonna kill this kid! his punk ass ran!!! stop street harrasment this is insane!! there isnt one day i can go out without getting any
– JessMarii
Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.
My worst harrasment in the street was when this young guy was trying to talk to me i ignored him and he ran over and touched my ass!!!! omg!! i put down my books! i was gonna kill this kid! his punk ass ran!!! stop street harrasment this is insane!! there isnt one day i can go out without getting any
– JessMarii
Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.
Several years ago, I was walking to a meet and friend, and a young man (early to mid 20s) slowed down a made a vulguar remark, circled around the block and parked his car to watch me cross the street of an intersection. Without making eye contact, I crossed the street. Once I made it to the next block, he called out “hey”. I looked backed and said “no”, in a calm voice. This went on twice. After the third time, he proceeded to curse at me and called me a “stupid bitch” several times and threatened to “beat my ass if I ever came around his neighborhood again”.
I stopped right there and turned around and gave him the “OK” sign and told him to come on and do it. So we had a strange quiet stare-off for about 15 seconds, with him looking extremely shocked and confused that I wasn’t rattled by his threats. He finally sped off in a huff.
– anonymous
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.
Samantha Krotzer wrote a great street harassment opinion piece for The Temple News Online. She discusses how much she dislikes men’s “catcalls.”
“It was at that moment I decided this: I have had it. I am a female, not a feline, and the “catcalls” men make are offensive and a form of sexual harassment.”
She talks about what’s behind their actions.
“What they say is meaningless,” said Laura Levitt, director of the women’s studies program at Temple. “They use the power of the anonymous guy to make comments to you.”
Of course, not all men disrespect women in this manner, but Levitt said some men feel they have a heterosexual masculinity privilege that gives them the right to say offensive things to women.
“It is some sort of entitlement for men,” Levitt said. “It is really not OK.”
Krotzer experiments with catcalling at men to show how stupid it is.
“As men walked by, I held nothing back. I whistled at a middle-aged man, made indecent grunts at teenage boys and even snuck in a “nice butt” to a man in a business suit.
Guess how many positive reactions I received. Zero. Instead, I received looks that screamed, “Are you insane?” And a couple of men even told me I was being rude and immature.”
And she shares some ideas for how women can take back some of the power harassing men try to take from them.
For example, after a man catcalled her, she asked him where he was going to take her for dinner (since he must just be simply enamored with her to harass her on the street). He was surprised, stuttered for a few minutes, then said “Olive Garden.” He clearly wasn’t expecting to take her anywhere.
One of Krotzer’s friends says it’s safer to stand up to harassers by ignoring them. Levitt suggests whistling in the faces of men who harass you. Krotzer closes by saying, “Maybe blowing a whistle in these guys’ faces will help them realize how annoying their comments are.”
Have you tried any unusual tactics to challenge harassing men?
The high speeds they traveled have caused some people to denounce their actions (and question the dispatcher who knew they were driving at an extremely fast speed and did not tell them to stop), but others are hailing them as heroes for providing the woman with a safe place after being attacked and for doing all they could to ensure her attacker would be caught.
With all of the depressing stories on this blog, I think it’s nice to know there are guys out there who not only won’t take advantage of a somewhat vulnerable and unknown woman but also will help bring justice against a would-be assaulter.
Thoughts?
(My thanks to daily reader mrh for the story tip)