I was walking to the locker room at school after a hard workout. I felt confident and fierce and healthy, generally just really good about myself. However, a few boys didn’t seem to understand that I looked and felt good for MYSELF, not for anyone else, especially not strangers with absolutely no respect for anyone, and took it upon themselves to physically prove to me that I met their standards by “pushing” their friend straight into me where his outstretched hands just so happened to curl over my breasts, squeeze, then run away howling before I had a chance to express my disgust.

I now feel incredibly guilty knowing that if i had just acted instead of being taken over by shock i could’ve really done something, shout, embarrass this guy, slap, punch, I don’t know. Just something to let him know that I am not here to please him. It also makes me really embarrassed for walking down the hall like i was: good posture, just confident and showing off that I felt good about myself. Almost like I was asking for something to happen to me. I hate that I’ve learned to think like that.

– SF

Location: Mountain Ridge High School Glendale, AZ

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I was walking to get something to eat on a cold November afternoon in Georgetown. I crossed the street when I came upon a group of movers who were moving furniture into a shop. As I walked pass a worker slyly commented: “Hi beautiful” without making eye contact or even stopping as he whispered the comment. When I was done eating I had to walk pass this same spot and this time another worker passed me and whispered, “You look sexy” without stopping, almost to irk me. I quickly snapped and told him to “stop harassing me” and “get back to work.”

– NA

Location: Georgetown, Washington DC

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This didn’t happen on a street, but it was in a very public place.

It was a few days before Halloween.

Me and my family went to Six Flags for the fright fest. I had just gotten off a roller-coaster with my mom but had gotten separated from her.

I’m 20 years old and was fine with that, being that I had my cell phone and all.

As I was walking a man who I didn’t know got very close and bumped into me. You’re probably thinking that it was crowded in that one area, but it wasn’t.

There were people sitting on some benches off to the side. Me and him were the only ones walking in that area. And don’t think that it was an innocent bump either. He almost knocked me over.

I didn’t quite like where his hand had gone either. He wasn’t able to grope me, but he got pretty dang close. I was confused at first. Maybe it was an accident.

I stopped, thinking this guy would say sorry. He didn’t. Then I realized what he had been trying to do. I turned around “What?!” I asked. I was pissed.

I had been touched once before and didn’t know what to do then (I was young, and the guy was a boy. A perv nonetheless). Not this time.

He half turned, a look of stupid gratification mixed with self-righteousness on his face. There was no apology there.

“What the f*ck!” I yelled. I don’t like to stand up for myself, but everyone has a line that cannot be crossed.

I never swear in public and doing that in Six Flags can get you kicked out.

I was shaking when I walked away. I found my mom and told her what happened. She was angry at what he did and wanted to go back and find him. I said no.

I kinda wish I had gotten that moron in trouble, but hey, others saw what happened. As much as I hate swearing I felt proud of myself. One more as*hole in the world told off.

– Anonymous

Location: Six Flags Great America, Chicago

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It was almost funny, given the timing, except that it was actually terrifying.

I was lying in bed, scrolling through my Twitter timeline on my phone, checking to see if there was anything interesting to read or ponder before falling asleep.  It seemed that Holly was at it again, retweeting any and everything that was being said on the Internet about street harassment.  It’s a good strategy, I thought.  It raises awareness about her organization and raises public awareness about how prevalent street harassment is.  The last tweet that I read was from a fellow who claimed that street harassment is a good thing: it makes women feel better about themselves.  I rolled my eyes and locked my phone, ready to sleep.

But suddenly, I heard a blood-curdling scream.  “STOP IT!” the voice said.  “PLEASE, STOP IT.”  I sat up in bed, craning my neck closer to my window so that I could hear what happened next.  “NO!” she shrieked, her voice shrill.  “STOP IT!  NO!  HELP!  HELP ME!”

I ran to my window.  It was eleven o’clock, far past the time that the sun goes down, so it was dark.  However, my street in South Philadelphia is one with many bars and restaurants, and various other nightlife, so the street lights were on, illuminating the sidewalk.  Frantically, I looked back and forth, up and down the street, looking for what was happening.  And then, directly across the street from my apartment, I saw it: a man with his arms around a woman’s neck from behind, the woman crying and screaming.

Impulsively, I knew that I had to do something.  I didn’t even stop to ponder what I – in my five-foot-four, 125-pound frame – could do to help this woman, but I felt the distinct instinct to move.  Before I could lift my feet, I saw a passerby break away from his gaggle of friends, dive in, and punch the assailant in the face, bringing him down to the ground.  A curious, concerned crowd gathered.  I lifted my phone and dialed 9-1-1.

“9-1-1.  What’s your emergency?”

“Yeah—hi,” I stammered.  “I—um—I don’t know what—there’s an altercation happening outside of my house right now.  Um, it looks like it might be a domestic violence situation.  I think this guy is trying to hurt his girlfriend.  Someone jumped in and—”

“Is this the same situation that’s happening at [street] and [cross street], ma’am?”

“Yes.”

“The police are already on their way.”

I stood at my window, watching the rest of the event unfold.  I wanted to run downstairs and across the street and console her, to do something, but I could tell that the situation was under control.  The crowd, mostly men, intimidated the attacker by yelling at him so that he wouldn’t escape.  The few women who were there ran to the side of the victim, soothing her and listening to her sob.

The attacker started yelling – not at the woman, but at the crowd – that he was sorry.  He didn’t seem to understand what he had done wrong, and he repeatedly explained that he had never touched a woman a day in his life, that he wasn’t sure what the big deal was.

“I don’t even know him!” the victim cried.  I was alert then, my eyes squinted in thought.  If it wasn’t a domestic violence situation, as I had originally thought, then what had happened?  After all, I had hear the attacker shouting at the woman, calling her a bitch and telling her to listen to him, telling her to come back and pay attention to him.  This had given me the impression that they knew one another, rather than that it was a random attack.  I wondered what could provoke a person to attack a stranger so viciously and personally.

The police, to their credit, came incredibly fast.  Two cars pulled up, and four officers stepped out to get the situation under control.  As an officer pulled the attacker to the side, men from the crowd, who had listened to the victim’s story (to which I was not privy, since I do not have super-sonic hearing), started telling the police, “He tried to rape her!  He tried to rape her!”  This infuriated the attacker, who, shouting, ran away from the police, telling them that he wasn’t scared of them.  After wrestling him to the ground and, I assume, putting handcuffs on him, the police escorted the attacker into the cop car, and then they asked the crowd to please step back, so that they could address the situation.  Everyone moved immediately, waiting on the outskirts to see what would happen next.

Sobbing loudly, the woman explained, from what I could understand, that she had been walking down the street when the man, who she had never seen before, had approached her.  Annoyed with his harassment, she promptly told him to fuck off.  At which point, he jumped on her back and started pulling her hair, demanding that she pay attention to him.

Oh my God, I thought as I pieced this together.  It was street harassment!  My lower jaw dropped slightly, and my arm drooped down to my side.  This woman was brutally attacked because she didn’t respond favorably to street harassment.  And some people don’t think that it’s a legitimate issue?

People ask me – often, in fact – why I feel so strongly about street harassment.  They – mostly men (who, it’s understood, are not very often victims of this offense) – tell me that I’m overreacting, that I’m making a big deal out of nothing.  They ask me why I don’t focus my energy on more important issues plaguing women worldwide.  But this is why.  This is why street harassment is a problem.  This is why we fight so hard to stop it.  Because no, it’s not a compliment.  It doesn’t make women feel better about themselves.  It’s horrifying and anxiety-inducing because this could happen.

Street harassment isn’t about men letting women know that they’re sexually desirable.  Street harassment is about dominating women.  It’s about purposely making them feel unsafe to the point that they question themselves and their right to, not only their own bodies, but to walk freely at night.  Street harassment is about an embedded sense of entitlement that men feel toward women’s bodies and attention.  It’s about thinking that women in a public space are there for their entertainment and enjoyment.  Street harassment is more than a throw-away comment.  Street harassment is a form of violence against women that can turn into physical and sexual assault.  Because if someone feels entitled to your body and your time insofar as to comment on it as you’re walking by, then who’s to say that whether or not that same person will go so far as to take what they were not willingly given or otherwise physically harm someone who exercised their right to exist freely in the world?

This – this one woman’s story – is why we do what we do.

Melissa A. Fabello is a feminist blogger and vlogger, as well as online sex educator, based out of Philadelphia.  She is a second-year graduate student working toward obtaining her M.Ed. in Human Sexuality.  She can be reached on Twitter @fyeahmfabello.