I have two distinct separate stories that stood out to me more than all the other incidents of harassment that I’ve dealt with.
The first one happened around the end of July of last year. I was walking to the shop on my dinner break from work whilst on my phone (literally tending to my own business) and this, I would say, 20 y/o guy in a car drove to a traffic light ignorantly playing his music way too loudly. I turned to look at the commotion briefly and then looked back at my phone. The next minute I heard the loudest wolf whistle at my direction (apart from a few maybe 10 y/o boys running past me and an old couple sat on a bench I was the only one there so I knew it was directed at me), I looked back at the guy with a blank expression, clearly with lack of interest and again tended to my own business.
The second story occurred quite recently. I was in Ibiza and stood in the terminal of an airport waiting to board my plane back to the UK and I was looking at nothing in particular when I glanced at this guy who was looking at me. I looked away thinking we had just awkwardly made eye contact and left it at that, five minutes later I caught the guy again, just looking me, and he made absolutely no effort to look away and he continued to just gawk at me for a good and heavy thirty to forty minutes or so. It just baffled me as to how, according to him, it was completely okay to just f*****g look at me up and down with a small grin, like as if he was enjoying it.
I know these stories aren’t that big of a deal compared to other bigger harassment incidents that happen, but these particular occurrences stuck with me more for whatever reason.
– Anonymous
Location: UK and Ibiza airport
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
