Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Safety in numbers

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My roommate and I live in the Fan district in Richmond, Va. It’s all too common to be followed home (either on foot or scarier, in slow moving cars) by random sketchy men. The best thing you can try and do is ignore it, but there’s this primal fear that kicks in when you’re being followed by someone who could easily overpower you. Most of the time they’re not that aggressive, but every now and then you get some real creepers.

Once we were walking to the 7-11 near our apartment in broad daylight when a group of six men circled around us and demanded that we “talk” to them, and they tried to touch my roommate and myself on the shoulder. Then they started moving in closer and tried to convince us to get into their car to go “hang out” with them. I told them no and they moved in closer and tried to grab us. My roommate is a lot more passive than I am and she froze, so I grabbed her by the arm and pushed through two of the men. They followed after us and yelled at us for about a block, then they finally called us frigid bitches and turned around.

More than anything, I’m glad that I was there to look out for my roommate. The whole ordeal was infuriating, but the most important thing I learned from this is that there is safety in numbers. What bothers me the most about this is that it happened during the day with several people around, and no one stepped in to help us even when we were clearly being harassed.

– anonymous

Location: Richmond, VA

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Groped in Cadiz

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Where do I even start? Being in Spain has been out of control in terms of street harassment, but the worst experience I had was at Carnaval in Cádiz. Carnaval is the alcohol-fueled Spanish version of Halloween, in which everyone takes to the streets. My two female friends and I were walking through a relatively crowded alley and took a break when four men approached us. We were standing in a corner, and they surrounded us and trapped us in the corner.

They began to ask us if we had boyfriends (yes), where were they, and explained that if our boyfriends weren’t there then we didn’t have boyfriends. We tried to get them to get away from us and they became more and more persistent.

Finally, one of them grabbed me and started to grope my breasts aggressively through my jacket until I slapped him across the face and started screaming at him (“cabrón” is a very useful word to know in Spain if you want men to leave you alone). It was incredibly frustrating but I’m glad that I reacted quickly and got him and his minions to leave.

– E. S.

Location: Cádiz, Spain

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Gotcha!

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I was walking my dog near my home, and two teenage boys in an SUV whistled and yelled at me as they drove past. My jaw dropped, but as soon as they passed me, they got stuck behind a transit bus that was parked a stop, waiting for someone to load their bike. In that time, I was able to walk down the sidewalk towards them and reprimand them harshly while they couldn’t move. They looked incredibly scared/embarrassed. I told them they should never speak to women that way, that it is disrespectful.

– A. Brown

Location: Fayetteville, AR

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“Hey baby, I want to have your babies”

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A friend and I had visited a museum in Brussels and were on our way walking to the station. Suddenly 3 men were following us, whistling and were saying things like ‘Hey sexy’ and finally ‘Hey baby, I want to have your babies!” I felt relieved when we finally lost them in the crowd.

– anonymous

Location: Brussel, Belgium

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Just waiting

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A few weeks ago I’d just missed a tram, so had to wait for another one. A group of high school kids pass me by with their teacher and one of those teenagers apparently had paid me ‘a compliment’, because suddenly the guy was yelling at me that I shouldn’t ignore him, that I should learn to smile and then left while saying: “Why bother, you’re ugly and sick looking anyway.” When he joined his friends again they were all laughing with me. I felt so humiliated and the whole thing left me shaken.

– anonymous

Location: Ghent, Belgium

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

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