I live on a busy high street and experience some level of sexual harassment pretty much everyday. Sometimes I find it so depressing it stops me from leaving the house. There is a butchers right next to my door, and the men who work there always like to leer and comment when I walk past.

One time I was walking on my own, in the day time, through a park nearby, and was confronted by one of these men who insisted that ‘he knew me’ and would not leave me alone. I responded, as I largely do, by ignoring him, which left me feeling frustrated and powerless. Luckily on this occassion he did not pursue me, but I still felt vulnerable and somewhat violated.

Sometimes I lose it, and have formerly told street harassers to ‘fuck off’, but that only seems to instigate some sort of self righteous or aggressive response where I get called a bitch or told that it was just a compliment.

To be honest I never really know what to do, and find myself walking on with my head down, humiliated. Recently at a party I was chatting to a man who found my stories of sexual street harassment completely incredulous, asking me in a bemused fashion ‘what? these can’t be English men…’.

I have experienced sexual harassment from every kind of man imaginable- of course including English men- alone and in groups. It is a male-wide epidemic. The lack of comprehension as to the daily experiences of so many women seems completely inaccusable to me, and I full heartedly support any endeavour that aims to not only stamp out street harassment, but educate men as to the full implications such behaviour have upon women.

– Anna

Location: London, UK

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

I was at work when i received a phone call from a private number. It was a man who at first seemed to be a customer, asking common questions about products, then to strange personal questions, or strange questions about the store. He called again, within 10 minutes, and on the second call, he informed me he would be waiting for me outside of work, ”baby.”

Now i have no idea what this man looks like, he obviously knows details about the store, and has been here before, and he knows my name. I was shaking i was so terrified. I informed my boss and my co-worker, who were less then concerned. I was livid, and felt helpless. On my lunch break i went next door to another business (99% of them are young males), and told them what happened. One of them taught me self defense, and told me that if i was ever afraid for any reason, i could hide out in his store. Then another one texted me after i got out of work to ask if everythin g went okay. It feels really nice to know someone is watching out for me.

In the end, no apparent signs of the man who called. But he could be in the store, and i would have no idea. I’m on my guard.

– MB

Location: Water st Augusta,ME 04330

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

I’ve mentioned this guy in previous posts before, but quite often when I ride the bus there’s this man on it who will constangly turn and stare at me for extended periods of time, and always give me these little half smiles. I’ve tried ignoring it, openly glaring at him, and even telling him, out loud, to, “Stop staring at me; it makes me uncomfortable.”

But still, he hasn’t gotten the message.

Today as I was standing near the door waiting for the bus to pull up to my stop, he was facing completely away from the bus door, but turned around, looked at me, and gave me his creepy half smile. I was freaked out and tried to just ignore him, when I hear a laugh behind me. When I turn around, I see this big man chuckling behind me. When he sees that I saw him, he gives a friendly smile and says – loud enough for the other guy to hear him: “that guy… just a little half smile and staring” and does a funny imitation of the guy’s smile. The other guy stopped staring at me and turned around when he heard that. The guy repeats, “just a little half smile” and laughed again.

This is a story of harassment, and a story about when other people recognize the harassment. That big guy behind me made me feel safe by vocally calling the guy out on what was making me uncomfortable, and even made fun of him about it. I’m not sure if he even meant to have that effect, but he made me laugh at his imitation, and he got the guy to stop staring, which is more than I could do. And he was genuinely friendly when he spoke to me. I’m so happy that, after months of this happening, someone finally stood up for me.

Though, this wasn’t a happy ending type story. Five minutes later, as I was crossing a busy road, a taxi van passed me, and some college guy leaned his torso out the window and shouted something incoherent at me as I passed. I caught “HEY!” but nothing more.

– Emmaline

Location: Madison, Wisconsin

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.