Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for 2011

Foul mouth on the train in Scotland and no one did anything

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I was sitting on a train, minding my own business, when a young kid (age about 14/15) got on and sat on the luggage rack beside me.

He was quiet for a while but I knew he was looking at me, up and down, and I became a bit uncomfortable. He then started talking to me, I ignored him, and the words which came out of his mouth were foul. He said things like, “I wonder how soft your p* is” and things which were very very very sexually explicit. I was actually mortified and almost shaking.

There were people on the train, seats in front of me, two women, seat a few up, young healthy business-like men, and I am 100% sure they all heard him. No-one did anything. Not a single person stood up and told him to F Off.. so I endured what seemed like hours (but were in fact a few minutes) of total verbal abuse. I had it in my head that if he tried to touch me I’d stick my pen through his eyeball. But that wasn’t his game.

Eventually we pulled into a station and a guard – who had been sitting 8 seats away – stood up and put ‘the lad’ off the train, all nicey nicey, gently gently. I had no idea he was even there. It was a ‘come on now laddie.. off you go’… touchy feely thing and the boy just grinned..

The ‘guard’ never once spoke to me, never intervened, before, during or after – zilch. When I got off the train I was still shaking. I actually – at 9 am in the morning – walked into a shop and bought a bottle of wine and plastic cups, went into the toilets at work and poured myself a large glass.

I think you’re just not expecting to be assaulted so publically and for no-one to do anything about it. As this site says – I am someones sister, mother, aunty & girlfriend and if communities can’t or won’t do anything to protect their own, who will?

p.s. I was on my way to help with a charity which helps vulnerable adults in the community – sick isn’t it??

– AM

Location: Stirling Train, Scotland, United Kingdom

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14 block stalker

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I grew up in Queens, NY, and I have a lot of street harassment stories. The most recent one happened one or two summers ago and was so frightening that it still scares me when I think about what could have happened.

I was walking on Avenue B from 14th Street. At one point I passed this big dude who made a comment; I thought nothing of it and passed on. But after a block or two I noticed that, even though I was wearing my ipod headphones, I could hear someone murmuring something. It was the dude and he kept saying “So sexy….so sexy.”

I turned off my ipod but kept the headphones in and kept walking. It was about 3 pm and a nice day with lots of people out. I didn’t want to duck into a store and let him know he’d won (stupid, I know, looking back) so I kept walking, but noticed that I could see his reflection in shop windows that I passed.

Finally, after about 14 blocks of his following me I picked up my phone, turned the corner at E. Houston and called someone. I probably should have called the cops, but I wasn’t thinking straight at that point. I watched him pass me and keep walking. I stood on that corner until all I could see of him was a blue dot representing his full ensemble of blue shirt and pants.

Looking back I would have called the cops once I reached that corner. Looking back, I wouldn’t have even waited until E. Houston and would have ducked into a hair salon or something. Thank goodness it ended the way it did.

– Anonymous

Location: New York City

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The tide is turning!

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In the last chapter of my book, I wrote about the need for governments, major organizations and media groups to pay attention to street harassment and address it as a form of gender violence that impedes equality.

I would never have guessed that so soon after I turned in my manuscript 15 months ago,  I would already see that starting to be fulfilled.

First, last fall, there was the launch of the United Nations’ Safe Cities Programme (which is the first by the UN to truly address street harassment) and the New York City Council’s first-ever hearing on street harassment. Those were huge developments and I know will influence what other organizations and local governments do about the issue.

And while there has been a definitive growing number of media outlets addressing street harassment, I am overcome with happiness and relief to find such well-respected, influential, and impressive groups like BBC  News and ACLU addressing street harassment – and in one day no less.

I think the tide is turning!

I hope you’ll read both articles, they’re great.

I have so much hope right now.

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“That it happens so much that women and girls just ‘deal with it’ is the most troubling thing”

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About a month ago, i went to visit my friend, who’s a student at Manchester university. We got harassed every single night we went out that week (and once during the day when we were out shopping – a drunk guy staggered over to us and tried to kiss my friend).

The event that sticks in my mind the most is this one: we were returning from a night out – it was about 2 am. We had to catch a bus back to the halls of residence from the town centre. This guy started following us – he looked like he was about 30, and i’m pretty sure he was drunk.

He started yelling really offensive stuff at us (“One of you bitches come over here and give me head”, for example – and no doubt the fact that i can remember it shows how disturbed i was by it), but we just tried to ignore him. Then he got on the same bus that we caught, sitting a couple of seats behind us – fortunately there were quite a few other people on the bus, so he piped down. I’ll admit, i was sort of scared to get off the bus when we reached our stop, in case he started following us again, but fortunately he didn’t.

Like i said, we were getting yelled at every night we went out. But the worse thing about it is, when i spoke to my friend about it, she just said “Yeah, you get a lot of it in Manchester – you just get used to it after a while, and don’t go out by yourself at night.”

The very fact that it happens so much that women and girls just ‘deal with it’ is the most troubling thing.

–  Emily

Location: Manchester city centre, United Kingdom

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Whistling quickly turns into groping

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I was followed as I ignored the whistling from a guy. Then the guy ran after me quickly and grabbed me on my bottom!!! I felt disgusted and I shouted ‘you idiot’ as I was speechless.

– I

Location: Birmingham, United Kingdom

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