I am a 34-year-old woman living in Melbourne, Australia. I have been harassed by men in public for my entire adult life. At this point in my life I feel utterly worn down and broken by it.
Today for the first time I am unable to leave my house as I simply can’t stand it any more.
Countless times men have followed me, made rapey comments about my body, yelled sexual threats out of cars, and whispered them in my ear. I simply have too many stories to pick just one. Literally hundreds. I brace myself every time I step out of my house, and can never fully relax in public spaces wherever men are around.
Young men, old men, white men, Indian men, refugee men, disabled men, men alone, men in pairs, men in groups. Men of all ages and races.
Never can I leave the house without being relentlessly reminded of my female biology in the most degrading and vile ways. I have lived in four cities and it is the same everywhere. I will be out in public somewhere thinking about what I have to do that day, about work, about a friend I am going to visit, about my next creation as an artist…..not thinking about my biology until suddenly a man yells some sexually aggressive abuse at me to remind me that I am a woman and thus a subhuman object.
I dream about being able to go out in public without being constantly forced to think about my biology instead of what I am doing in the world that day. After 16 years of abuse from male strangers I am ready to bind my chest and shave off all my hair. I have an ʺhourglassʺ shaped body and it is hell to wear this body wherever men are, particularly living in a porn sick culture where large breasts are so intensely fetishised.
I wear no make up and no revealing clothing and shave half my head, but no matter what I wear or how I cut my hair I can never not wear this body. I am met with disbelief when I describe all this to some people. The only thing I can do to try and reduce the male harassment is attempt to save money to buy a car so I never have to walk on footpaths. Ever again.
– Anonymous
Location: Australia
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