Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for August 2010

Blocking the view of oglers

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This happened in Delhi. Yesterday evening, I was at a take away place and I had ordered something and was waiting for my order to come through. This young girl about 13 or so walks in and orders some take away food at the counter and stands back waiting for her order to be ready. There’s this group of men in their early thirties were waiting there too. This kid is hardly 13 and has no breasts to speak of and she’s wearing jeans and a long shirt below her hips with an open collar. This dirty group of young men stared openly at the kid’s chest. Made me feel creepy. Think about it, she’s just a kid! It made me very angry, but I couldn’t do much, so I moved myself and positioned myself in front of the kid so the other guys couldn’t ogle at her, as in I came in their line of vision. I cannot go all around town slapping people. That was the best I could do at that moment. What is the world coming to? Everybody has kids who are 12 or 13 at one point of time in life! Sickening!

– Tbg

Location: Delhi, India

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.

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Harassed by Dillard’s employees

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Saturday afternoon on July 31,2010, I was returning home from the grocery store. After getting off at the bus stop, I was harassed by 2 Dillard’s employees, in deliver truck #7010, who slowed their vehicle down and honked at me. The men continued to harass me by leaning out the window of the truck and making “kissing” noises and gestures at me. I was in tears by the time I made it home.

I was dressed conservatively in a big t-shirt and yoga pants. The sexual nature of the harassment was unwanted and caused me fear. It is called street harassment and is a bulling tactic employed by men towards women they do not know.

Street harassment and the fear of sexual assault make girls and women feel unwelcome and unsafe in public at least sometimes, especially when they are alone. It causes them to be in public less often than they would otherwise and to be on guard while there.

Please help stop this practice by making Dillard’s take responsibility of their employees and raising public awareness of this growing problem.

– Nadja

Location: Dallas, TX

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.

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Barcelona beach creeper

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I was alone at a nude beach that was nearly empty. I was swimming naked, always close to the beach to take care of my stuff there.

I was there for some time and it was simply great because I had the beach just for myself, the first time since I’m in Barce. After being there for 20 minutes a guy came to the beach, sat down some meters away from my clothes and watched me. I tried to ignore him but I just couldnt relax. It was horrible because I wanted to be alone, not observed but I couldnt swim away because he couldve stolen my stuff so I stayed close there.

I feeled caught in the water because i never wanted to get out, naked, while he was observing me. Horrible!
After ten minutes feeling more than uncomfortable I went out of the water, weared my clothes on without drying myself before and went home crying. I didnt dare it to shout at him or to do something else because I was naked (rather half naked because I was in my wet clothes without underwear).

– HW

Location: Barcelona, Spain

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.

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“Avoiding my silent cry for support”

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While walking to the train the other day, I noticed a group of young men ahead of me who were standing off to one side of the sidewalk. At this point, there was plenty of room for me to walk by, but once they spotted me approaching, they seemed to all exchange a look and moved to spread themselves across the width of the sidewalk, blocking my path. Once I reached them, I had to attempt to weave my way through. While I was doing this, they started at various volumes to say nasty things to me, some leaning close to hiss in my ear, and one grabbed my butt.

I quickly got past them and continued to hurry to my train stop. The whole experience was infuriating on so many levels. I wanted to lash out at them and to defend myself, but being outnumbered, I felt powerless and concerned for my safety not knowing what else they would do seeing as, clearly, they had no respect for me or my body. Even more frustrating, I was on a busy street and there were plenty of people around. NONE of them responded to the situation or tried to help. Some looked in my direction, but when I met their gaze, they quickly averted their eyes, avoiding my silent cry for support.

It’s incidents like this that have infected my daily life. They have become contributing factors when I’m making decisions about what to wear, if I’ll go somewhere, which route I’ll take, what time of day I’ll be out, etc. I feel as though the right to walk freely in public spaces is one I’ve been denied.

– anonymous

Location: Chicago

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.

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Weekly Round Up: August 1, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

10 Street Harassment Tweets from the Week:

  • Mdotwrites Just had a street harassment moment on Rhode Is. + 3rd. I felt Like Oprah in Color Purple right before she goes to jail.
  • ethuiel Is barking the new catcall? Twice or thrice I would shrug, but this is confusing – I thought “woof” applied to dogs, not girls?
  • lpipes just angrily confronted a man who was following me down the street taking pics of me #HARASSMENT/STALKING
  • mmmbutters @blondemonde someone catcalled me from a PROFESSIONAL truck, so I called the number & told their boss.
  • tromano #1 reason I do not miss living in nyc? continuous sexual harassment on the street. continuous http://hollabacknyc.blogspot.com/
  • RENEGADE_C Working downtown equals street harassment. #LeaveMeTheFuckAlone
  • ShelbyKnox Reps from @ihollaback talking about street harassment. Male rep: ” I lived in a different city than female friends…it was a power dynamic”
  • Hkearl Connections between street harassment and sex work http://tinyurl.com/26f7b36
  • KiangaEllis @iHollaback I’m different since reading about you. I believe together we can change the culture. Women will go froth harassment free
  • Chris__Richards Washington ladies: Does DC have the worst street harassment in America? Seems insanely over the top here.

Resource of the Week:

  • The website “A Woman in Cairo” (focuses on public sexual harassment in Cairo)
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