I am a female Peace Corps Volunteer currently serving in Guatemala. I am harassed on a daily basis. Most of it includes kiss-y noises, whistles, cat calls and creepy men trying to initiate conversation. Sometimes it is a man hovering closely over me on a crowded bus and forcing me into a conversation until I can get away to an empty seat. Sometimes it is vulgar sexual phrases (in English or Spanish) being yelled in my direction as I walk past.
Here, I am constantly on high alert. I am very aware of men walking around me, standing outside their stores or their homes so they can scan me up and down. I cross streets abruptly to avoid them, avoid certain streets altogether, actively look for seating or walking space near women and I always, always carry a full, heavy water bottle just in case it comes down to having to smack someone across the face.
For me, these sexually aggressive taunts make me fear other possibilities of risks to my safety. The thought of a street harassment perpetrator in one moment becoming a sexual assailant in the next is never far from my mind. I don’t always feel safe.
My mobility and freedom is definitely restricted. I think about the possibility of being harassed and to what degree everyday as I prepare myself to leave the house. I try my best to ignore it most of the time but there have been moments when I have been too overwhelmed with anger to simply keep walking and that usually results in me yelling out an expletive and giving the finger and then immediately bolting away. That is another downside of fighting for my dignity, the fact that dealing with street harassment, or “piropos”, is just a part of life for women here and challenging it so aggressively puts me at risk since the machista culture breeds men that think they can treat women however they want, whenever they want and without any consequences.
Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?
Educate young men and women in your communities about respect, personal space and mobility as a human right. Correct behaviors when you can and when it is safe to do so. Express frustrations and grief with men you can trust and hope that they will as least modify their behaviors to influence others.
– Female PCV
Location: Guatemala
