I am a straight man and a group of young men in a truck pulled up next to me while I was biking home from work and commented on my ass, saying, ‘Nice Ass.”

I ignored them at first but they kept shouting so i gave them the finger. They drove off. But I felt uneasy, like they would maybe loop around and cause trouble. It made an otherwise enjoyable bike ride into one where I felt unsafe fearing aggressive retaliation.

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

– NP

Location: Snowy Range Road, Laramie, WY

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I had just left my boyfriend at around 8 p.m. and I was walking home. Just as I turned off the main street, a big posh looking car drove past, then the brakes went on suddenly and it pulled over near me. The window went down as I walked past and a middle-aged man asked me to get into his car and was asking me how much. Out of anger and humiliation I simply stuck my middle finger up and ran off.

The most upsetting part was afterwards, my first reaction was to call my boyfriend and ask him if I dressed slutty this evening. I was wearing thick black leggings and long baggy t-shirt. But even if I was dressed differently I shouldn’t have been ashamed. More so – I shouldn’t have been MADE to feel shame for walking down a street at 8 p.m. in the evening. It makes me sick to think that he is probably still looking for some poor woman to do as he says.

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

– Anonymous

Location: London – near Westbourne Park

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It is not often that I get support from bystanders when standing up against street harassers.

I was walking up 11th Street and turned left on the corner to get on G Street, and I passed two men who were walking on 11th. One of them said, “Ooh, moody moo!” at me. I have no clue what that means, but said, “NO!” at him. A woman who was nearby smiled in support of me standing up to him.

Then as I proceeded on G, I passed a man who was sitting on the sidewalk and asking for change. He mumbled something weird and was looking lustfully at my ankles. I once again said, “NO!”, and when the harasser kept mumbling sexual-sounding stuff, I said, “Leave women alone!”

The same woman said, “Thank god for you!” and said something about how more people need to speak up against this.

“I have to,” I said. “It [street harassment] is ridiculous.”

The woman went off another way as I waited to cross a light, and I didn’t get a chance to thank her for supporting me in standing up against harassment. Usually when people see me standing up to harassers they either ignore it, think it’s funny, or tell me that I bring this stuff upon myself for taking harassment too seriously. So when I do encounter people who support standing up against street harassment, it feels great to know that there are people who think that this is a problem.

– D

Location: 11th and G Streets N.W., Washington, DC

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On my way back home from work, I was in a good mood because I was listening to the lovable minions’ cover of “YMCA”. So, I was walking along and a guy was approaching from the opposite direction. As he passed by me, he reached his hand back and tried to grope my butt. I immediately turned around to tell him what a scumbag he was, but all I could do was scowl angrily at his back as he walked briskly off before I could even open my mouth.

Thank you, random butt-grabbing jerk, for ruining my good mood.

– hinatathekawaiimono

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I was on a bike, stopped at a red light on my way home. Suddenly a young man crossed in front of me on his bike and began screaming at the car behind me. The car came around me and braked in the middle of the intersection. A man got out and yelled at the biker but not as fanatically as the biker was yelling at him. The biker was screaming things like, “Oh you’re in a car. You dick. There’s a bike lane” etc. Then the biker turned to me and said, “YOU’RE A WITNESS!” I just stared. The light turned green. I said, “Um, can we go?” and the woman in the car next to me said, “Yeah, that would be great.” The man got back in his car and I biked past the biker.

That’s when things got weirder. This boy biked up from behind me and slowed down really close. It was a dark and isolated part of Cortland just past an underpass. We had this exchange:

Him: Hey. Hey! Why didn’t you defend yourself?
Me: Wait, what?
Him: Why didn’t you F***ING DEFEND YOURSELF?
Me: I didn’t think I was being attacked.
Him: Yes you were. That guy was F***ING YELLING AT YOU.
Me: Oh. Um… I guess I didn’t care?
Him: F***YOU. You are a f****ing c***. You know that? YOU ARE A F***ING C***.

He then pulled out a bottle of liquid (I think water, but I’m not sure) and sprayed me in the face with it.

He called me a “f***ing c***” and sprayed me in the face with a water bottle.

I was so stunned to be assaulted by this child over something that had nothing to do with me that I just pulled around on my bike as he sped past.

He must have thought he was defending all cyclists (and maybe women) and couldn’t handle the possibility that I wouldn’t be on his side. The thing is, I wasn’t threatened. I didn’t even realize the motorist behind me was even slightly annoyed.

For someone to take an instance that has nothing at all to do with him and use it as a platform for his own rage and anger management issues is unacceptable. I was a bystander and I was sprayed in the face and called a “f***ing c***.” Can’t imagine what would have happened if we had actually been in direct confrontation over something.

I think this person is dangerous. He is in his 20’s, very pale white. Wearing a Chicago flag baseball cap and riding a road bike. He has very long black hair, many tattoos, and a septum ring in his nose.

Is there anything I can do about this one particular person? Is there anything we can do?

– WR

Location: 10 PM corner of Elston and Cortland, Chicago, IL

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