I visited NYC for the first time a few days ago. I’m a 17 yr old from Pittsburgh, PA, and I had never really experienced street harassment. Rarely, someone will honk at you, a rouge boy will yell but Pittsburghers don’t really talk on the street, it’s frowned upon, yelling gets you glares.
NYC was…. appalling. Guys will yell nasty things, a homeless man got close enough to me to whisper “youre pretty as fuck” and then I quickly walked away before he could continue. Older men came up to me telling me I was beautiful, and would not go away when I clearly said fuck off. I was standing with my mother in Times Square, and a man got in kissing distance said, “Hey pretty lady lemme talk”
I said fuck off, my mother said fuck off, and he told me that if I just get in his car, give him my number, I could be a model. Oddly enough it was the stares that were the worst. Men of all ages would just stare keep making eye contact, doing all sorts of shit with their eyes.
The most terrifying instance was the subway at night. No, it wasnt the boy who leered at me and whispered nasty things, it was the old white man, old enough to be my grandpa.
I was standing on the R train with my mother and he started staring at me then moving closer. My gut told me I needed to move, now. I moved away and he followed and began whistling this weird little tune and got louder and followed me. He walked past, up and down me, nodding and laughing and whistling. I wish I had the words to describe the vibe. This guy was rapist serial killer crazy, the kind of eyes you have nightmares, gave me the kind of gut feeling that something will go wrong. Terribly wrong. He kept getting closer, leering whistling and laughing. Finally his N train came. He saw I wasn’t getting on, got off whistled one last time and laughed. He walked away towards me, but by the grace of god, got on another train. I can’t describe the terror. I wish I had a video of this man. I honestly thought that was it.
– LP
Location: NYC
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