One of my bus stops is on a major street in my suburban town. One afternoon while waiting for a bus to get to an evening class, I got honked at, as usually happens when I sit at that stop for more than a few minutes. And then I got honked at again. And again. And whistled at. One man actually started pulling over.
My bus didn’t show up, so for half an hour I had to sit there while every five minutes or so I had a man tell me what he thought of me.
After the half hour I decided to walk to my connecting bus, hoping I could at least be only a little late to class. The walk took another half hour, along the same road, and the honking and whistling continued.
Each one grated on me more and more as I felt less and less like a human being and more like something to be stared at and told what these strangers thought of my body, expressing their clear interest in me not as a person but as a thing to excite them.
I was so worn down by the time I got to the stop to catch the next bus that I couldn’t face any more time in public. I called my boyfriend, walked to the nearest fast food restaurant, waited for him to take me home. I felt disheveled and powerless.
I couldn’t leave my own home to go take a class without being made aware that I was something designed to sexually please strange men.
When I posted to facebook about this happening, one “friend” made a joke about not knowing it was me. Another told me I’d miss it when I was older.
I think I might have given up on men as decent people at all if my boyfriend and his father hadn’t talked to me and expressed their anger at my being harassed every time I leave the house. They hadn’t believed how bad it could be until I called them in tears one too many times, nerves wrecked from being yelled at, whistled at, honked at, and having men try to get me in their cars as I try to go about my day.
– Anonymous
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California
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beckie says
I am so sorry about the comments on Facebook and the actual harassment. Glad your boyfriend was more sensitive. It is an outrage, that it zapped so much out of you that you missed your class. Thanks for sharing here. Here no one will make fun of you. We get it. It happens to us too and was us down.