My story starts with me walking downtown in Saskatoon from my car to the mall for my shift at work. In an ugly uniform, broad daylight, two o’clock in the afternoon. I had to cross a parking lot and an alley between a couple of businesses and a car with five young but big guys rolled into my path blocking my way. They were laughing and telling me how hot I was and telling me to come party with them. I politely declined and tried to laugh it off, saying I had to get to work. And they wouldn’t let me by and after some more banter they got out of the car. Five men. All much larger than me surrounded me and making the sexual comments and grazing me while joking amongst themselves of how much fun I would be.
I’m Caucasian, 5’9 but skinny, 130 pounds, and suffer from Lupus, so I wasn’t any match for any of them. And I started to get scared and more vocal in telling them no and to let me go. One of them grabbed me and tried to move me towards the car while I struggled and screamed every curse I could think of and they still just laughed. There were two customers that came out of the restaurant and saw what was happening, and an elderly homeless man who had been rightfully hesitant to get involved being so clearly outnumbered.
The guys let me go and got in their car and left after being confronted. The two men from the restaurant walked me to work where I sat down and sobbed over what had taken place. I was late and my boss was angry with me until I explained what had happened. And she uselessly offered to get her female employees rape whistles.
I began carrying a knife with me after that, knowing that it wouldn’t be much good against a large crowd. It would be wrestled away from me before I could do enough damage and more than likely end up on the receiving end but I swore I would never go down without a fight. Since that incident, I’ve become hostile and challenging instead of the joking way I tried to play it off to begin with and I’ve not had any serious problems since.
Street harassment is a real issue facing women but we have to take a stand for ourselves if we ever want it to stop. Don’t be a victim.
– Anonymous
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
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