My name is Heather, and I am a 21 year old female from Florida. I have experienced street harassment everyday since I was a young teenager. I moved to Miami Beach when I was 18, and immediately noticed an increase in the amount of harassment I received.

I remember a terrifying experience I had right after I moved. It was probably around 9 or 10 p.m. at night, and I had had an argument with my boyfriend. I stepped out of the apartment to take a walk around the block. A man pulled up along side me, and asked why I looked sad. I told him no reason and hoped he would leave. He continued to drive next to me, and told me that if I wanted, he could buy me some alcohol, and we could hang out. I declined and turned the corner. The man continued to follow me, and at this point I started to run. The store was in sight, and I knew I needed to get inside. As I got inside the store the man stopped and stared at me through the glass doors. He stayed there for a couple minutes and then drove off. That is when the danger of street harassment became real to me. All I had to protect myself was pepper spray, which would have been useless against a pick up truck.

When I vent my frustrations about constantly being harassed, people usually tell me that I shouldn’t walk alone, and I should try putting more clothes on. I have already changed my routes so I’m always on a busy street. I always look at the ground when people pass me on the sidewalk so they won’t try to talk to me.

I’m tired of being whistled at like a dog, and being called a bitch when I don’t reciprocate. I refuse to change myself, when it is the harassers who need to change. I had given up on my dream that I would one day be respected, until I found this website. I sincerely thank you.

– Heather

Location: Everywhere, particularly Miami, FL

Share your street harassment story for the blog.

I was with my son, aged 7 at the time, during this summer and we were at a local beauty spot only a few minutes walk from where we live. My son was down a small embankment next to a stream and I was standing at the top on the pathway watching him play and talking to him. There was a man, woman and small child sitting on a bench about 200 yards away to my right. I heard people talking to my left and glanced up. I registered 3 young guys aged about 25ish walking down the towards me with cans of beer in their hands. I registered them but truly this was all the attention my brain gave them and I turned back to my son to hear one of them say in a kinda sing-song voice…and I’m quoting, “Oh look they’re drinking and there’s children about, won’t stop me putting my dick in her mouth!” to which his mates started laughing.

I retorted by saying to him “Obviously no-one allows you to put your dick anywhere mate if you have to say that to random strangers.”

His mates then started the predictable “Woohoo.” My son by this point starting looking worried and asking me what they were saying as he could see I looked angry but I managed to calm down and the guys walked past. This was around 2 p.m. in the afternoon and we had already altered our walk because there was another group of young guys drinking at a particular spot, no doubt their friends. I felt angry, humiliated and vulnerable.

Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?

To be honest, at the time it happened and immediately thereafter, if I had had a baseball bat I would have set about the guy. That is how angry and outraged I was at the time, however, I’m not a violent person in any away and I basically just filed the incident away in my ‘annoying immature pricks’ file. Definitely something that could be addressed in schools more as I know our schools in Scotland promote as part of their curriculum, kids growing and becoming more responsible citizens. With regard to dealing with the here and now, it should fall under the umbrella of something like breach of the peace or even harassment or stalking law. Teaching kids how to act socially also begins at home and I’ll certainly be bringing my son up accordingly.

– Anne Clifford

Location: The Saltings, Old Kilpatrick, West Dunbartonshire, 60, Scotland

Share your street harassment story for the blog.

I. Shame
I want to teach myself to not feel sick with guilt
when I tell you to shut the fuck up, and
I wish I could take back the quiet “thank you”
I politely whisper when you won’t leave me alone
and I don’t know what else to say.

II. Anger
“Smileformeyoungladylookingsobeautiful, canyougiveasmileforme?”
it’s a command given in two breaths.
May it subtract two of your last inhalations
for every time you’ve said it to me, every time you’ve seen me.

III. Violence
If you think my ass is yours to grab,
then I think your eye sockets are a good place
for me to jab my middle fingers, and twist.
I don’t want you to see—even in your mind’s eye—
the things you say you’d do to me if you could take me home.

IV. Shame
I’m told I “should be flattered”
As if I’m incorrect to feel
uncomfortable, unsafe, and degraded.
As if I lack emotional agency, and it’s somehow up to others
to decide how to respond to my body
with no regard for my brain.

Erica Motz is a third-year student at UW-Madison.  You can talk with her about street harassment, street respect, gender performativity, music, or making weird art at this address: ericarosemotz AT gmail.com.

At my boss’ wedding reception, a male who said he was my boss’ cousin kept asking if he could speak to me alone. He harassed me again at a table full of two other women. He kept asking if he could call me some time, and leaned in and patted me on my back as he was talking.

– Anonymous

Location: New York

Share your street harassment story for the blog.

Trigger Warning

My husband of 38 years and I were just finishing up 31 miles of biking in the countryside when we pulled into a small Ohio town to retrieve our car. A small car with two adolescent males with a PA system announces loudly to my husband that they were going to “Rape your wife.”

They then pull their car up to me and start their sexual diatribe on me. At first I was confused because I didn’t understand what they were saying but then it sunk in. Being a woman of 60 who was exhausted after a long, hard bike ride, I could only muster a look of annoyance which seemed to make them more angry and they became even more verbally abusive.

Darn, I had my phone camera with me and I didn’t think to take a photo of them or their car nor did I call the police until a couple days later. I am in the process of writing a letter to the city paper and will include a description of what happened and links to websites such as yours, because women, even older women in this community are at risk. Thanks for this site!

– DAS

Location: Eaton, Ohio

Share your street harassment story for the blog.