In a taxicab, my friend and I were discussing our experiences with street harassment and sexual harassment. I had finished sharing one of mine right when we reached our stop. Before we could get out, the driver turned around and said to me, “Well maybe you shouldn’t dress like a skank.”
At the time, we both just laughed it off. But I wish I had tried to convince him that what I wore or looked like was not the point (and indeed, like many women, I been harassed in skirts and also in sweats).
– Anonymous
Location: Union Station, Washington, DC
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Val says
How infuriating. I would have refused to pay until he apologized.
Margaret says
That is disgusting! I would strongly urge you to report him to his cab company.
Desdemona says
As women, we have to stop laughing off men calling us derogatory terms such as skank. If that cab driver had called a black man a derogatory term or racial epithet, you would have had Al Sharpton down there causing a scene. Calling a woman a skank, ho, etc is the same as calling a black the n-word, an Hispanic the s-word and gays the f-word. Call them on it. Raise hell with their employer or the Taxi and Limo Commission. Teach them a lesson because the next time they may get a very angry husband or boyfriend who will want to knock their lights out. You’re doing a public service when you call them on it, really.
Ellema says
I’d have to disagree with Desdemona… calling a woman a skank is nothing like calling a black person the n-word or a hispanic the s-word and frankly that is a very offensive comparison. It’s not even comparable to calling a homosexual the f-word.
Calling a woman a skank is a personal insult. Same as calling someone stupid or ugly. It’s offensive but only really to you and is a sort of temporary thing. By insulting someone on their race you are insulting ALL the people in that race. By calling one person a skank he was not insulting all women. You can argue he was because it’s all women who dress like she did but that’s the same situation as calling someone stupid – you may be insulting everyone who has said the same/similar thing but it still at its core a personal insult.
He was in the wrong and shouldn’t think her dress sense should determine such a label and women shouldn’t feel limited and in fear of what reaction their clothing might provoke but it is nowhere NEAR comparable to insulting something as permanent and huge as someones race so don’t try to say it is.
Clarice says
I was furious when I read this story. What right did that taxi driver have to comment on what you were wearing? What a cheek! I wouldn’t have laughed it off, I would have called him out on it then report him. What a sexist jerk.
Annie says
I’m pro-confrontation, and if I had my feminist thinking ready, I definitely would not have paid him.
Unfortunately, my feminist thinking isn’t always ready, and if I’m not in the right “mood” (maybe I’m too happy at the time), I guess I will not always respond in the way I think is best.
I think if I’m already angry (which I frequently am walking around the city, because of street harassment), I may respond better.
Maybe it would take more “practice” of responses to be ready more frequently. I wish we didn’t have to deal with it at all! But if we have to deal with it, I guess it takes effort. And again, walking outside shouldn’t take this much effort.
(I’m seriously thinking of moving to the suburbs because of street harassment in the city, and how much I hate it, and how I have no way to “ignore” it or “brush it off” as it seems many women do…. or do they? Or do they just pretend to?) (In the suburbs, I would drive more and not be walking outside as much, and if the suburbs are rich enough, in my area, most people are respectful of women and street harassment is infrequent.)
Thank you for writing, as it tells me it does bother some women even if they “laugh it off”