Archives for July 2014

7/22/14. Today I was walking a few blocks to the grocery store after getting off from work. I heard a ʺWhoooooo!ʺ as I walked past a parked car on the left of me. I turned around and saw two young men sitting in the front seats of a car looking at me. I’ve been harassed many times before but never felt as safe responding as I did today, as it was daylight and there were other people around. I gave them a look, yelled back, ʺDon’t harass me!ʺ and kept walking.

A few seconds later I heard a car about to drive past me, and a ʺSorry!ʺ called out. I said thanks to the man in the passenger seat who apologized, and he told me to have a good day and I reciprocated.

As I shopped for my groceries, I was shaking a bit. I am proud of myself for responding to my harasser, and glad that I had said something short to say that got the point across that his actions were not acceptable. I am so happy he said sorry and turned his interaction with me around. His sincere apology makes me wonder if I could have handled the situation in an even better way, but I think I did a good job for my first firm response to a street harasser! Stopstreetharassment.com, thank you so much for your help in preparing me for this incident and giving me the confidence to execute my response.

– Anna H

Location: University Village, Seattle, WA

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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more ideas

I was walking home after work yesterday. My journey always takes me through a small square with a few shops and a pub. Outside the pub was a group of about 6 or 7 men. I hadn’t noticed them at all when they started calling out “”titties”” and “”hot titties”” and other offensive sexual remarks in a very aggressive manner. I looked around and could see they were staring at me. I walked away at first but it made me so angry that I decided to confront them about it. All they did was to deny they were talking about me but every time I walked away they started shouting it again and were always looking at me when they did so. I told them I found it offensive and abusive. There must have been a part of them that recognised they had done something wrong because they denied it.

After the confrontation I felt incredibly vulnerable and shaken. I couldn’t stop myself from crying even while I bought my dinner in the shop. When I got home I called the police to ask if it was possible to report it as a crime, was it even a crime to begin with? I was given a crime reference number and two police officers were sent round to see me. They took as much detail as possible although they warned me that there might not be anything they could do. But they did say they would go round to the pub and talk to them if they were still there or even talk to the pub owner.

After seeing the video of the woman who secretly videoed her street harasser and posted it on the internet I tried to do the same thing. However in my shaken state I only took their picture but it did allow me to show this to the police. They told me that this behaviour used to be illegal but wasn’t any longer but in some cases they could be charged with anti-social behaviour.

I am not by nature a confrontational person, so for me, going up to a group of middle aged men was very intimidating and left me more shaken and upset than perhaps I would have been if I’d just walked by. However I would have been more frustrated with myself had I tried to ignore them and not stand up for myself. I just felt this knot of injustice in my stomach at the way they felt they had the right to speak to people like that. At how they targeted a woman on her own, probably assuming I would try and just walk away from them.

I am not ashamed to say that had it been the middle of the night without anyone else around my self preservation would have kicked in and I may just have tried to ignore it. But I now know that calling the police is an option even if they can’t do that much to help and if it had been the middle of the night, this behaviour might have been considered more threatening.

I still feel angry and upset about what happened but I’ve had so much support from my friends saying that it was brave of me to stick up for myself that I feel slightly more vindicated.

Thank you

Madeleine

Location: Hampton (London), UK

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See the book 50 Stories abut Stopping Street Harassers for more ideas

I stopped for gas on my way home from work. As I was pumping the gas a man approached me and started thrusting his hips telling me, “Pump this.”

It made me feel angry and ashamed. It wasn’t as though this had been a young man – this was a man probably in his forties and I was 24 years old.

– Rocki

Location: Home town gas station

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more ideas

I live in Washington Heights on 184th and Audubon. Not a day goes by that I am not harassed on the street and it’s usually more than once. Usually it’s inappropriate sexual comments and remarks about my looks. These men listen to my conversation while I am on the phone and think it’s okay to interrupt. Then they continue to get angry when I don’t stop everything I am doing and respond. It really amazes me that these men find any excuse to harass a young woman and they think it’s acceptable behavior.

Not only am I uncomfortable, but I am ashamed to walk around and I can not say anything back to them because I fear for my safety. I don’t have a voice and it’s scary.

I’m also called “white girl” in Spanish as I walk down the street. My room-mate and I were leaving the subway station and a man bumped into her in the rain. Instead of apologizing and moving on he screamed “move it you dumb blonde bimbo.” What happened to manners? Treating a woman with respect?

Treating EVERYONE with respect no matter what color or gender.

Washington Heights is living in a bubble separate from the rest of the integrated word and they need a huge wake up call. It’s 2014 NEW YORK CITY.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

More police outside on the streets. Make pepper spray more easily accessible to women. I would love if “Stop telling women to smile” would come uptown and do some artwork on Audubon. We need to spread the message.

– Anonymous

Location: New York City, NY

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more ideas