Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
Someone leaned out of a car window to call me a slut. I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt on a 70-degree day in New York City. I was mostly baffled.
– anonymous
Location: New York City, NY
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.
I get harassed so frequently walking down the major streets of Georgetown in DC (M Street, Wisconsin Avenue) that I started using the C&O Canal to get around during lunch breaks and to head home after work. It’s been a great relief from harassment for the most part, but when I have to cross over and pass M Street the same old mess happens!
I got off the canal at 32nd so I could pick up lunch from Booeymonger. As I crossed M Street, some old man leaned into my space and said “Your boyfriend’s a lucky man,” or some garbage that started with “Your boyfriend…”.
Most of the harassment stories I’ve submitted have involved men of my own race (black) harassing me in the most vulgar and obnoxious ways. I’m used to my being a minority making me invisible in mostly-white settings like Georgetown, so getting harassed by an older white man threw me off guard a little. I have been harassed by white men in the past, but it’s a rare experience. I didn’t have a comeback ready like I normally would’ve in any other situation.
“Uh, I don’t have a boyfriend,” I said, in a lame attempt to tell this guy off. “And it’s none of your damn business whether I do or not!” Of course, this old fool has a big old grin on his face, so my retort didn’t faze him.
I hate being thrown off guard like that. Harassment comes when you never expect it.
– Tired of Being Harassed
Location: M & 33rd Street, Georgetown, DC
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.
I was walking back to my car after a night class when a group of about five young men started following me. They were talking to each other, but intentionally kept the volume loud enough so I could hear clearly (they were several meters behind me). They spent several minutes commenting on my skirt, which they deemed slutty, before the conversation turned to how much they enjoyed “gang-raping sluts”. When I got back to my car, I locked it right away and drove home. This isn’t the first or last time I’ve been harassed on campus, but it’s definitely the scariest example.
In the end, I decided not to report because the response to sexual violence around here is worse than useless. A serial groper last year prompted an email telling women to “be careful”, an offer for a women’s self-defense class, and plenty of jokes around campus. RCMP believes that the same man was flashing and assaulting women as early as 2004, and his behavior was still escalating several months later. AFAIK he’s still not been caught. Doesn’t exactly make me feel safe, or give me much confidence in the authorities’ abilities to deal with sexual violence.
– anonymous
Location: Vancouver Island University, Vancouver, Canada
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.
I was walking alone near the cultural center in Denver, Colorado in the early afternoon. While crossing the street, a man at least twice my age (I was 18 at the time) said something like, “Hey baby, why don’t you come home with me?” I was offended, but ignored him and kept walking. Nothing came of it.
– anonymous
Location: Denver, CO
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.
So today I’m coming home at midday on the tube, wearing the sexiest outfit ever of jeans, trainers and long sleeved shirt, minding my own business – reading and listening to my headphones.
A bunch of five boys get on my carriage, probably about 18, all making a row and making sure everyone hears how ‘cool’ they are throughout the carriage. I’m aware they’re looking over and trying to get my attention so I continue reading and don’t make eye contact. As more people get off the carriage, I’m now the only person in that section of seating with them. They now start making loud comments about the girls they went out with last week, in graphic detail. Smooth. Clearly annoyed that I’m not paying any attention, they move on to making direct comments about me amongst themselves: “Can’t stop reading, look”; “It smells a bit musty in here” (and then, when I get up to get off at my stop, “Ugh – it smells worse now” (laughter)). Seriously – at 18?! This is akin to those boys who used to complain that it smelled ‘fishy’ whenever a girl walked past when we were in middle school. Unfortunately they get off at the same stop as me, so I pointedly walk past very briskly with my head high and looking straight ahead – cue more looks of consternation that I’m not interested in whatever they’re doing or saying.
I have to say there was some slight satisfaction in how thoroughly pissed off they were about a girl ignoring their desperate pleas for attention.
– Jen
Location: London, UK
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.