I live and work in Queen Anne, Seattle. Currently Seattle is exploding with construction, and I pass by MANY construction sites on my morning walk to work.
On one particular day, I crossed paths with a construction worker before he entered his office building. He suggestively said, “Hello”. (You know the tone. It wasn’t a polite “hello” to a passerby. I hadn’t even made eye contact with him. He just saw it as an opportunity to interject himself into the attention of a young, small girl, wearing a dress and walking to work alone.)
I had to do something about it. I stopped walking, asked him to repeat himself (which he did, even clarifying the creepy way in which he said “hello”), and I began to explain to him why what he just did wasn’t okay. Then, since we were conveniently right outside his office, I asked for a manager to be sent down.
Also conveniently, other construction workers were filing into the office around this time, so I asked several of them to send someone down (hoping to up my chances of one of them actually doing it). To my pleasant surprise, a project manager came outside with the man who’d harassed me. I explained again what happened and why it wasn’t okay, ending with the request that they think about their words and why they’re speaking them to women they don’t know on the street.
Then I was offered a half-hearted apology and walked away. Very doubtful that the manager reprimanded or talked to the employee further, I also sent an email to the Seattle branch president of this construction company, asking if their employees are trained on street harassment and explaining once more why this is an important issue.
I haven’t heard anything back, and doubt I will, but at least I’m trying? And I’m going to continue to speak up when things like this happens, unless I feel it would put me in danger of bodily harm- in which case, my plan is to get away and then send the cops to the location.
Optional: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?
1. Ask them to repeat themselves, hopefully embarrassing them and making them think twice.
2. Stop and demand a moment of their attention, since they’ve entitled them self to yours. Explain that you are a human being who deserves respect, not an object to be commented on.
3. Ask if they have a wife, mother, daughter, or niece and ask how they’d feel if someone did that to one of them. If they have a wife, also ask what she might think if she knew her husband was harassing women on the street.
– BW
Location: Near the corner of Republican and 2nd Ave W in Seattle outside the Lease Crutcher Lewis construction office
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
