Archives for October 2012

I was returning to work from lunch a few days ago, and I saw this man turn his head to look at the butt of the woman who was walking in front of me. Then he started looking at her legs.

I looked right him and said, “Ugh, that’s ignorant!”

The guy gave a look of surprise, but other than that there was little reaction and he kept on walking.

The guy had no shame at all.

– Anonymous

Location: 14th Street NW & I Street NW, Washington, DC

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The other day I saw ahead of me a girl walking by a guy sitting on a bicycle, and as she passed he seemed to turn toward her, but she didn’t acknowledge him, she just kept walking briskly. He yelled after her, “I love you!” and as I got closer to him I heard him say, “And that ass too.”

As I passed him I said to him, “Bad manners!” He proceeded to yell at me as I kept walking, screaming at me that wasn’t talking to me, letting out a string of obscenities, calling me all kinds of misogynistic names and threatening to pull my hair. All this because I said he had bad manners.

To be honest, I thought it was pretty funny, because now anyone walking by was looking at him as a crazy person screaming on the street, hanging around on his bike outside the NYU dormitories (he was clearly way too old to be a student).

I have told a few men that they have bad manners when I’ve either witnessed or been the target of street harassment. Some have said, “I love you too,” some get angry and spit venom, some are fly-by harassing and already walking away so I have no idea how they react.

Is it effective? I have no idea. But at least they get to know what it’s like to be evaluated by a stranger on the street for one second.

– Athena

Location: 14th Street near 3rd Ave, Manhattan, NY

Donate to help fund a national study on street harassment.

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.

As a college athlete I spent a great deal of my time in work-out gear, which could constitute anything from spandex shorts and tight tanks to baggy sweats and hoodies. These outfits were function, not fashion, they allowed me to move, to be warm, to preform. But thorough out my 4 years at an urban university, and despite what I perceived as purely functional attire, I was harassed on multiple occasions. Most incidences I let roll off my back, telling myself that these hurtful perceptions were unfounded and that my body was what I made of it, a tool, and a finely tuned athletic instrument.

It wasn’t until fall semester of my senior year while waiting on a trolley platform in the middle of a busy intersection that I was truly shaken by an event. It was chilly and I was dressed in baggy men’s sweats, headed home after a long day full of classes and at least 2 workouts, when I felt that heavy and hostile feeling of being watched. I looked around to find a man staring me down from inside his sedan while waiting for the light to change. It took me a moment to realize what was happening, but when I did I instantly felt a simultaneous rush of disgust and anger flood me. He was masturbating, staring me down, and I soon realized as he rolled his car forward, following as I walked away on the platform. He was trying to get me to watch. The light changed and he drove off before anything more could happen but it left my skin crawling.

I’ve been making art about this and other similar situations ever since.

– Anonymous

Location: Philadelphia, PA

Donate to help fund a national study on street harassment.

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.

This is not a specific story. I just wanted to say thank you for this blog, it has helped me so much to read the stories and the tips for how to deal with street harassment. I can not even start to count how many times I’ve been harassed in public – called to, asked rude questions, being followed, grabbed, molested, more than once masturbated at, getting dry humped, everything by men I didn’t know.

I never said anything, I am shy and I was scared, surprised that this would even happen to me, not knowing what to say. I always just did my best to ignore them, and walked away. And I also thought that this was somehow a good strategy, that it was safest, that maybe all they wanted was to provoke and get some kind of response, and that it would be better to just leave it all. I have accepted that this is something that happens a lot, and that there is nothing I can do to change it.

Then I read other stories and that (unless it seems unsafe) you should say something back and show them that it is not ok.

And it is true.

Since I met my girlfriend, it’s different when we are out together. We do get harassed for being lesbians, but I still get the comments directed only to me (she never gets street harassed, I really don’t know why it’s such a difference), and she is always calling them out on it, for us and for me. It feels so good when she does that, to see their jeers wiped away from their faces.

I still have to get up the courage to be able to do this myself, but I do because I know now, that just being quiet and walking away is not the best option for me. I stood up and told a man he had crossed the line in a subway recently, when he asked if, “I didn’t just dream about cock.”

I can’t begin to say how great it is with initiatives like these. Thank you for helping me finally be able to say no.

– Anonymous