“I hate how NORMAL it is, how it is part of my environment, like the weather”

I am 31 years old. For the past 13 years of my life I have endured street harassment from male strangers whenever I am in public alone. Over the years it adds up to hundreds upon hundreds of men who believe they have the right to do it and enjoy it.

One of the more memorable incidents was being followed closely by a group of four men in the middle of the day. They were loudly making sexual comments about my body. They kept following me until I angrily turned around and told them to fuck off.

I kept walking, shaking with rage and went into a book store to calm down a little and center myself again. Five minutes later one of them appears at the door of the shop, threatening to beat me. I refused to pay him attention so he walked up to me in the store and circled around me, telling me to “get my boyfriend down here” so he can beat him. At this point the shop owner told him to get out or she would call the police. He eventually left.

Male strangers have come up to me on the street asking to fuck me. If I stand up for myself and tell them where to go, there are two reactions. 1) They either hurl abuse at me, calling me a bitch or a cunt, or 2) they find it amusing that I am angry.

I have large breasts and at times of desperation I have thought of binding them. Summer is the worst. I now refuse to wear short skirts no matter what the weather. One of the last times I wore a short skirt in summeran old man came up to me on the street and whispered in my ear, “You looking good babydoll”.

I loudly told him he was a piece of shit for harassing women like that.

His response? “Why did you wear that skirt then?”

I don’t quite know how to deal with it anymore. So many days I will leave the house happy and then it happens and I want to scream or cry but I can’t do anything and I feel choked with rage.

I hate how NORMAL it is, how it is part of my environment, like the weather, and I feel powerless to change it. I want to be able to leave my house without men treating me as a piece of meat, as a collection of body parts. I want to been treated as person not a body.

– Emma

Location: Launceston, Australia

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