Archives for June 2012

I was in a nightclub, enjoying myself, minding my own business, watching the act, when a drunk guy comes up and starts talking to me, asking if I like the music (why else would I be there?), saying he’s from England (I think that was supposed to be impressive), etc. I was nice at first- nodded but didn’t really acknowledge him. So then he decided to go with a different approach- “Nice tits.”

I’ve never actually been so blatantly disrespected before, and certainly not to my face like that. I was in shock, but somehow managed to turn to him, look him right in the eyes, and say, “Yours are pretty nice too.”

He didn’t understand at first, but as I watched the meaning of my words make their way into his thick skull his face changed into one of surprise, and he stumbled away. He left very shortly after.

– Anonymous

Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

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Walking home from doing charity work the other night, within a block, three people harassed me: someone honked, another whistled (several times because I ignored him), and another yelling “pussy.”

Until recently this was a decent area to walk.

But the following day between Elm Street and Crystal Park area, four more people harassed me while I was riding my bike. Two referenced my “pussy” (do they think they are going to be able to pick up someone that way? Felt like keying his shiny red truck), and two others yelled/honked.

I do not know what to do. Whether you ignore them or say something back, it just gets worse. I have reported it before when it happened on the bus, but nothing was done about it. I was told, “They do not mean any harm”…but don’t they???

Male friends have been with me when this stuff happens, and they claim they do not hear it, or that they did not notice it (if it was someone sizing me up).

I would like to set up a stand at the Farmer’s Market distributing information for stopstreetharrassment.com, but without the funds what can I do besides leave materials on bulletin boards?

– Anonymous

Location: 101 E Main St, Urbana, IL

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It’s not often that I get a sense of compete self-satisfaction and empowerment while attempting to tackle street harassment. The other week, however, my friend and I did.

The two of us were planning the best route to a mutual friend’s flat for a get-together that would allow us to travel as a pair. Funnily enough, this was an attempt to avoid any form of street harassment that we were almost expecting to encounter if travelling separately. Unfortunately, my friend had to get two buses on her own in order to meet me half-way, and guess what?

Hello street harassment!

She had decided to sit on the bottom deck of the bus and had chosen a window seat. Apparently this was an invitation for a creep to choose the empty seat next to her. He then proceeded to move in closer to her, squashing her against the side of the bus. If this was not uncomfortable enough for my friend, he then began verbally intruding on her,

‘Hey? Hey? Hey? Why didn’t you call me back?’

Of course, my friend ignored him. She had never met this man before and made it patently obvious she was uncomfortable through her body language and by not responding to his peculiar questions. This man may have been on drugs due to his odd behaviour, but he had still taken the decision to bother my friend over everyone else on the bus.

My friend carried on ignoring him when he finally said, ‘Have you had the baby yet, you slut?’

And nobody on the bus bothered to step in and defend my friend. Not one bystander told this man to back off. As you can imagine, my friend was incensed. This complete stranger had threatened her sense of safety in public and publicly humiliated her. Her sense of safety is already threatened simply because the notion that as a woman, her choice to be in public will most probably result in some form of normalised and socially accepted gender-based street harassment*. This disgusting creep kindly reinforced that notion for her.

Thankfully, the next bus my friend had to catch was creep-free and I met her on it further along the line.

When we reached our bus stop destination, we began to walk down the street towards our friend’s flat.

Lo-and-behold, there was my friend’s harasser on that very same street. He matched her physical description of him and it made sense he would be in the same area as us due to the bus service my friend had first encountered him on. The most telling sign was that he began verbally accosting her again.

Now I have a very low tolerance for bulls**t, and street harassment bulls**t is one kind of bulls**t I will DEFINITELY NOT tolerate.

I turned round to this utter creep and I told him that was he was doing was street harassment. I told him not to harass women. And I pointed my finger at him like he was a naughty child and managed to keep my voice steady despite wanting to freak out.

And it was a success!

He stopped what he was doing through the shock of being tackled for his inappropriate behaviour and my friend and I walked away.

We checked behind us once more to see if the creep as following us but I spotted him in the same place he was standing where I told him off. The shock must have frozen him! I turned to my friend and said, “I suppose this is what real female empowerment feels like.”

* This also counts for LGBQT individuals.

– Franny

Location: Edinburgh

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.