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“I’m so happy that, after months of this happening, someone finally stood up for me.”

October 4, 2011 By Contributor

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.

Street Respect: Glove Found

October 3, 2011 By Contributor

This is part of the Monday series “Street Respect. “Street respect” is the term for respectful, polite, and consensual interactions that happen between strangers in public spaces. It’s the opposite of “street harassment.” Share your street respect story and show the kind of interactions you’d like to have in public in place of street harassment.

I am so used to harassment by males on the streets of NYC that when a man last winter kept calling after I had passed him, “Miss, Miss,” I walked on angry that once again I can’t walk on the streets without a male starting up a conversation with me, a stranger. This persistent man finally caught up to me and handed me my own glove said, “You dropped this.”

I felt horrible and grateful at the same time. It was a nice reminder that not every male on the street who approaches me sees me as a piece of beef to drool over.

– Beckie

Location: New York City, USA

Street Respect: Sandwiches in Los Angeles

October 3, 2011 By Contributor

My husband and I were out running with our dog in our neighborhood. We decided to grab some sandwiches on our way back home. Of course I was dressed in tight running pants and a bit flush from our workout. I was outside the shop alone with our dog when a group of 6 or so men came out of a store and started walking down the sidewalk in my direction. I immediately got nervous when they started to look at me, I was totally a target for some sort of comment. But I was totally surprised as they walked by. Some smiled and nodded politely and one guy engaged me in a pleasant conversation about my dog’s breed and how he had had a similar dog as a kid. He then told me to have a nice day and the group walked off.

Moments later we were walking back and passed this same group of guys, hanging out by a car, on one of our neighborhood streets. They just waved politely. It certainly made me feel very good!

– Tanya

Location: Olympic and Vermont, Los Angeles, CA

Snapshot of street harassment stories, news and tweets: October 2, 2011

October 2, 2011 By HKearl

Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week and find relevant announcements and upcoming street harassment events.

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Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read new street harassment stories on the Web from the past week at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

HarassMap in Egypt

Resist Harassment Lebanon Blog

Hollaback West Yorkshire

Activism Shoutouts:

* Freeze the Tease campaign organizers in Mumbai, India

* Gawaahi in Pakistan

* Male allies Sean, Tim, and Jesse in USA

* “Adventures of Salwa” in Beirut, Lebanon

* Safe Slope in Brooklyn, New York, USA

In the News, on the Blogs:

* The 42, “Men of DC: Stop Harassing Women“

* Rookie, “First Encounters With the Male Gaze“

* The Riot, “TW: Street harassment“

* NOW Lebanon, “Why don’t women fight back?“

* Get Off My Soapbox, “My Street Harassment Journal“

* Radio Netherlands Worldwide, “Mumbai students hit back at eve-teasers“

* Yentha, “Essential Alternative: Rebel with a Cause“

* Baltimore City Paper, “The Best…and the Worst“

* There is No Fear in Love, “Coercion for a Good Cause? Consent in Everyday Life, Canvassing“

* The Times of India, “Flash mob tease for Bangalore“

* Girls who eat their feelings, “One Stone“

* The Times of India, “Cell to curb eve-teasing“

* Broad Recognition, “Street Walking: Sexual Harassment in Jaipur, India“

* Youth Activ8, “Steps to curb eve teasing“

* The Gossip blog, “Anti-Street Harassment Activism starts TOMORROW!!“

* Decording Dress, “Street Harassment (?) and Me || Why I Wore It“

* MSNBC, “NYPD’s warning about skirts irks Brooklyn women“

Announcements:

New:

* Congratulations to HarassMap in Egypt for winning the World Summit Youth Award from the United Nations for their anti-street harassment work!

* Last Monday, Stop Street Harassment launched a new weekly “Street Respect” series highlighting the type of stories we want to see instead of street harassment stories!

Reminders:

* Call for men to share views/stories about street harassment

* Sign Mend the Gap’s petition to address subway harassment in Delhi, India

* Are you in Egypt? Use HarassMap to report your street harassers

* Have an iPhone? Download the Hollaback iPhone app that lets you report street harassers

15 Tweets from the Week:

1. KimFoxWOSU Today was a milestone: walked through the Khan el Khalili by myself and didn’t get sexually harassed! A-maze-ing! #Cairo #Egypt #EndSH #wwpw

2. WomSocBangor wolf whistled, fat or slut shamed, told to “give us a smile, love”, “get your tits out” or “show us your legs” it’s still #streetharassment!

3. HollaBackBmore Had a good meeting with the mgmt of Canton Safeway – they are not ok with #streetharassment in their store! Don’t leer at their customers!

4. hollabackWY Driving in hot weather, saw many topless males. Didn’t feel urge to shout sexualised/derogatory comment once. Funny that #streetharassment

5. SPARKsummit 22 percent of girls have experienced street harassment by age 12, and 87 percent by age 19. What can we do to end this? bit.ly/mWw06L

6. BookElfLeeds I shitting HATE #streetharassment. I hardly get it but that’s not the point. If one of us is harassed we are ALL harassed. #solidarity innit

7. SpookSquad Try had his whole family with him. RT @hkearl RT @EngyG: A man can harass you, even if his 5 yrs old daughter is with him! #endSH #Egypt

8. thewholeplate catcall of the day: “i love you, jewish girl!” i am sick and trying to buy kombucha. go away.

9. RenPassion #LawsMenShouldFollow Not all women are going to want your attention. No, it’s not a compliment when you catcall us.

10. emilyhughes Guy passes me on the sidewalk, leans in close, whispers, “Nice walk.” Officially the creepiest catcall I’ve gotten in 6 years here. #ew

11. lillyheart It is 645 in the morning! I am buying breakfast! Can the #streetharassment at least wait until the sun is up?!? I’m mean without coffee!

12. MohammedY Fellow Egyptian men, as you walk through the streets, spare a thought for your fellow women who often can’t do that due to harassers #EndSH

13. thetrudz #somewhereInTheHood there’s a woman enduring street harassment while men pretend it’s acceptable & women tell her be glad for “attention.”

14. ElizabethOwens Langelan, Kearl say activism on #streetharassment can be a portal for other feminist activism & social change, here and abroad. #AAUW

15. gwssprof Have more to say about the #femd2011 issue of street harassment/Slutwalk? Post a comment on my open thread! rm34.us/719

“I am more than something to be leered at”

October 2, 2011 By Contributor

I was in a pub with work mates waiting for my boyfriend to arrive. I had to stand by the door of the pub to get signal for my phone. There were two men sitting across from me; one who was blatantly staring right at me. I get very angry when this happens as I feel I am more than something to be leered at and I aggressively asked the man what he was staring at. He then shook his head and turned away from me. I was still left angry and upset, however, and wished I didn’t have to display such aggressive behaviour to defend my right to be left in peace.

It is not uncommon for me to experience street harassment nearly every time I go out. Unfortunately, it appears my aggression towards it is the only working remedy as the harassment can happen in a fleeting moment and I have no time to probe these men as to why they feel it is acceptable to treat me like a piece of walking meat.

– FP

Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

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.

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