Archives for June 2013

UPDATE: The person mentioned in the blog post below that I wrote yesterday ended up reading it and I am happy to say I misunderstood her response. She grew up in that area and faced street harassment and laughed because she couldn’t believe I was only walking alone for a few minutes before I was harassed. She apologized for how her response came across and said, “I understand why you continue to fight this cause and I am proud to see you stand up for others to make a change.”

And for me, her response makes all the difference!!! I am glad to have one more ally in this work to make public places safer for everyone.

Normally, I try to be a bit detached and objective when I write on this blog, but today I’m mad and hurt and that is going to come out in this post, I’m sure. I know a lot of people appreciate being able to share a story on this blog and find validation for their experiences, and that is what I’m doing today, too.

I was in Tennessee this weekend with my domestic partner for his grandpa’s 90th birthday. We had our dogs with us on the trip and before our long drive home, I took the dogs for a walk.

Within two minutes, a car full of guys yelled out the window, “Yeah, baby” at me. I looked up and just got a glimpse of white skin as they drove away. I didn’t get a chance to say a word. Not a minute later, another group of guys in a car drove toward me and I saw the passenger rolling down his window. They were gone before he could say anything.

Right then my partner texted me to see how we were doing and I told him I just got street harassed. He was worried and asked if I was okay. I said yes I was fine, just angry and I wasn’t going to let these harassers dictate where I walked.

So my dogs and I carried on. I tweeted what had happened and got some nice/supportive tweets back. Thankfully, I didn’t hear/see any other harassers during our walk.

The story doesn’t end there.

Later, someone in my my partner’s family came up to me. Laughing, she said, “I heard some rednecks yelled, ‘Yeah Baby,’ at you earlier.”

Going stiff, I said, “I don’t know if they were ‘rednecks,’ but yes, I was street harassed today.” I felt offended. I would hope that had it been a more severe form of street harassment, she wouldn’t have laughed, but I don’t know.

It is hurtful and astounding to me that any woman could be so callous about this issue and would actually laugh after finding out I was street harassed. I am still really upset 24 hours later.

My experience yesterday reminds me just how much work there is to do, including in my own family network, to make people aware of why this issue matters and why we, as a society, need to do something.

In a diverse part of town, near a diverse private university neighborhood, I was crossing a street and a couple of college-age looking guys yelled, “You faggot.”

I am a woman who is transgender and I felt really offended. First, I am a woman and the gender respective insult would have been “Dyke.”

Another time I was riding the subway. It was crowded and a guy was groping me from behind. Even though we bumped into each other beyond the moving of the train, he was doing more than what gravity and the movement of the train would naturally do.

In both these incidents I wasn’t wearing anything that would typically be provocative or revealing. I was dressed in pants and a plain top.

– Elizabeth G.

Location: Washington, D.C.

Share your street harassment story for the blog.

I have never been the kind of girl that other women envy. I have never had a curvaceous figure, or particularly attractive looks. This is why I was so shocked when I was first harassed on the street. I was trick-or-treating with two of my female friends at the age of 15. It was about 9 o’clock, but we were in a quiet, mainly suburban area, and we weren’t worried about getting lost. We crossed a major street and walked in between a drugstore and an auto repair shop. We were headed to one of my friends’ houses, only a few blocks away. Since it was Halloween, we had all dressed up, me as the paper bag princess, and my friends as an angel and a Harry Potter character, respectively.

High on sugar and excitement, I didn’t notice the catcalls that were coming from the auto shop until my friend pointed them out. The men of the shop were smoking on the stoop, and a few of them had stood up and started to move towards us.

They said things like, “Hey there, pretty baby”, “Why don’t you come on over here and sit with me,” and the worst, “You sexy-a** bitches better get over here.”

We were all freaked out. Luckily, the men were most likely drunk, because they didn’t run after us as we hurried to the next street over, which was better lit and populated. My friend called her boyfriend to come and walk with us, and we stayed on the stoop of a well-lit house that was holding a sober party until he came to get us.

That night sticks with me, even now, because of the way that other people have responded when I told them about it. My male friends said that we should have known better, that wearing costumes is asking for attention.

That truly disgusted me. Is it really so acceptable for women to be harassed because they are celebrating a holiday?

My female friends and family said that we were stupid to be out that late, that we should have had a guy with us, and that we shouldn’t have called attention to ourselves. This made me feel even worse.

Is it really necessary in these modern times to have a watch-dog or guard on hand to prevent harassment?

– Anonymous

Location: Houston, Texas

Share your street harassment story for the blog.

Quick news hit about street harassment in India via The Times of India:

“Girls suffer sexual harassment at almost all public places in the state capital. A majority of men, irrespective of their age do it for fun. This startling fact came out during the course of a survey conducted recently. A survey carried out by a group of students of National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal, also revealed no one present around helps a victim in case she needs help at the time of incident. Worse still, when a victim goes to register a complaint, the police lob awkward questions her way…

A group of NLIU students carried out a project on sexual harassment in the city while doing an internship at Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) recently….

Around 80 girl students of prestigious government educational institutes of the city, including Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology ( MANIT), Gandhi Medical College ( GMC), Institute for Excellence in Higher Education (IEHE) and Nutan girls PG College were asked to fill up a questionnaire for the purpose.

Based on the same, it came to light that close to 50% girls suffered sexual harassment at least once in every ten visits to their school or college. Girls also said they feel insecure irrespective of clothes they wear or the time they move out.