Today is the 3rd annual International Day of the Girl, an opportunity to reflect on the status of girls in the world and their needs.
I, of course, always think about street harassment. I was harassed as a teenage girl and the older I get, the more outraged I am about my experiences and about the harassment and assault girls and teenagers continue to face today in public spaces. It angers me that the depictions of street harassment in the media would like us to believe it “only” happens to adult women and is no big deal, but the reality is, teenagers are targeted the most — and often by adult men. In fact, our national survey found that most people who are harassed (female and male) begin to experience it before age 17.
You can read stories on our blog showing this too,
Like K in New York shared her story… “I’ll never forget being in middle school and walking around my neighborhood and having these middle-aged men cat calling me. I was a 12-year-old girl, I wanted to dress pretty but the constant stares and whistles from older men made me feel insecure. It felt as if I wasn’t a person just a body with a vagina walking around.
At times I would yell and say you are disgusting but I was afraid that they might chase me down, so I didn’t do it as often. The majority of the time I would look down and walk away quickly. I was in middle school and these men were older and stronger than I was; all the news story scared me of what these men could do.”
Or Anonymous in CA who reflected on a lifetime of harassment…”I started being harassed as a pedestrian the summer I turned nine. A driver honked, catcalled, and threw a penny that hit me. Now I am 39 and I keep thinking I will eventually grow old enough to fall off the radar. Being honked at, whistled at, shouted at, followed, groped, and grabbed makes me angry, shaken up, and stressed out.”
Summer Al-Saleh, a high school senior at Foothill Technology High School in Ventura, California, wrote about street harassment for her school paper this week. She gave me permission to excerpt it:
“Over the past few months, I cannot begin to count how many times I have been harassed when I was by myself or accompanied with friends.
As I was on a run earlier in the summer, two middle-aged men drove by, stared, and whistled at me. They drove away, probably laughing at the fact that they caught me off guard and caused me to jump out of initial shock. They drove away, not even considering that I was on a run, trying to concentrate, existing in such a way that has no relative bearing on their existence, something that is very difficult for street harassers to understand.
When I was walking out of the grocery store two young men started following me into the parking lot, while asking questions and making comments about my appearance. As I briskly walked away they got the satisfaction of knowing that I was angry, disturbed, and threatened. They, just like the other men, did not see me as a person with somewhere to be, something to do, and something on my mind.
While finishing a run with my teammates, two middle-aged men drove by, slowed down to get our attention, yelled something that was incomprehensible and made kissy faces at us. The thing about this specific encounter, the former encounters, and other women’s experiences is that they are all much too similar: each and every act of harassment is steeped in entitlement. So much entitlement that it’s difficult to grasp how someone could do something so inconsiderate, objectifying, and privileged that they won’t even accept or may not even realize that what they’re doing is harassment.
Their over-flowing sense of entitlement coupled with their lack of sensibility creates a situation that makes women feel unsafe and uncomfortable in public spaces. It can and does determine where women choose to go, what we choose to wear, and where we choose to live. Ultimately, it limits our choices and freedom to be safe in public.”
What is different from when I was a teenager is that there is a lot more awareness about this issue. And thanks to social media and sites like mine, I know there are places teenagers can go to for advice, for support and to share their stories. Which is so important.
So today, I honor all the girls who are bravely speaking out and demanding the right to be safe in public spaces!
