I was at Otakon (an anime convention) with my friend a few weeks ago and we decided to cosplay. We were both wearing low cut dresses because it’s hot outside and it worked for our costumes. The people at the convention were nothing but nice to us luckily, but as a lot of cosplayers know walking around the city outside of the convention center invites a lot of attention from strangers… which is typically pretty understandable when people ask to take your picture or ask you about the character you’re dressed like.
Outside of the convention center on our way to grab lunch a man approached us in the crosswalk and said, “I just want you ladies to know that your breasts look amazing. Has anyone told you that today?” I wanted to reply, “No, no one else has been that rude,” but I just laughed him off because I was in a good mood and didn’t want to start a fight with a stranger in a crosswalk. Then he told us that he saw us walking and HAD to get out of his car to tell us how great our breasts look… as if he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if no one commented on our boobs today.
I mustered, “Um thaaaanks?” as sarcastically as I could and we kept walking. He ended on, “Seriously, your breasts look delicious.”
I was grossed out and really alarmed that someone would get out of their car at a red light to harass women in a crosswalk. We laughed that he would have been slicker to just ask to take our picture and not comment on our breasts because we probably would have said yes (since we were in costume after all) and he could have had a photo to remember our “delicious” breasts by.
Not an hour later, another guy did exactly that. He approached us, said we looked beautiful and asked to take our picture and as he was taking it we noticed the camera slide down from our faces towards our chests. We probably wouldn’t have noticed had we not just joked about how the other guy should have done that to be more “slick.” If I was alone I would have been scared, but with my friend there I was able to just laugh it off. I’m seriously considering bringing my husband next year to avoid getting harassed again, even though he really isn’t that interested in attending the convention.
Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?
The only way street harassment is going to stop is if we share our stories and shine a light on this kind of behavior. We need to let people know that this is NOT okay and that’s never going to happen if we keep sweeping it under the rug.
– Anonymous
Location: Baltimore, MD
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea
