Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“I give him my best death glare”

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I was on my way through a busy bus station on the way to my stop, lost in my own little world and minding my own business.

As I walked past a row of seats I heard a loud ‘all right, darling,’ which startled me and made me look round. An older man in grubby looking clothes, seated alone, is leering back at me, and repeats himself just in case I didn’t hear him the first time. As usual I’m too dumbfounded to retort, so I give him my best death glare and hurry on.

I sit down at my stop, and while waiting for my bus eye the man down the other side of the station warily. He chooses to stare lingeringly at young girls walking past him, but ignores the older women. I can’t remember whether he saw me watching him or not, but suddenly he is sat five or so people away from me on my row of seats. He switches places twice, and I get a bit nervous. I stand up to let someone else sit down, and turn back to see him watching me through the crowd in front of him. I am freaked out by this point, but am simultaneously preparing myself to make a fuss if he comes too close. I choose to sit somewhere different so he can’t see me, and he at last loses interest and gets on a bus. I wish I had thought to take his picture, for as far as I know he could have been a nuisance to women at the station before.

– Hannah

Location: Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

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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“You look like a 46 dollar whore, and 40 is for the bike.”

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I was sitting at a red light on my bike minding my own business when I realized a guy sitting on a nearby bench was talking to me. I didn’t acknowledge him because I was alone, but being aware gave me the displeasure of hearing what he was saying.

“You look like a 46 dollar whore, and 40 is for the bike.” Insulting to me and my bike. The whole time, a cop was standing about ten feet away. He didn’t even make a comment. The loser was still flapping his gums together as the light turned green and I rode away.

I was left feeling unsafe, with the unpleasant reminder that some men really do think of me a nothing more than an object. To top it off, men who don’t harass sometimes don’t understand how distressing it is, because they never see it. They don’t realize how scary it is and how powerless it makes you feel.

– MR

Location: Charles Street at North Avenue, Baltimore, MD

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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7-11 hideout

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I was walking home from a bar when a couple of guys in a car started propositioning me. They asked me for blow jobs and sex, insinuating that I was a hooker and they’d pay for it. (It was winter time, I was wearing a bulky coat and combat boots and was in no way soliciting). I had to hide in a 7-11 for fifteen minutes before they left.

– anonymous

Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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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Women pedestrians are not “mayhem,” Allstate

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Have you seen the new Allstate Mayhem commercial? It opens with the Allstate Mayhem spokesman Dean Winters jogging, saying, “I’m a hot babe out jogging…” Then you see a man in a car ogling the “hot babe” and driving into a lamp post. The commerical ends with the Winters saying, if you go with Allstate, “you can be better protected from mayhem like me” [meaning, the woman running].

Excuse me? Women running = mayhem?

The men ogling women are the mayhem!!

Just last week I was driving my car and suddenly the car in front of me dropped about 15 miles per hour for no apparent reason. Then I saw the reason: a woman was walking her dog on the side of the road in a sports bra (in our recent 100-degree weather stint). When I passed him I saw that yes, he was staring out the window at her instead of focusing on driving.

Of course, this is not the first time I’ve witnessed such careless driving. Countless men have hung out the window of their car ogling or yelling at me while they are  supposed to be driving and all I have been doing is running, walking, or even waiting for a bus. More alarming, last year, two women were walking home from work, facing catcalls from men in a truck. The driver lost control of the vehicle and both women were hit and one was killed.

We women are going about our days, yet WE’RE the mayhem? YEAH RIGHT.

More on this commercial from Liz whose Community Feministing post alerted me to this vile commercial.

As I was watching tv the other night I saw AllState’s newest commercial in their ‘protect yourself from mayhem’ series…

Here are my 2 big issues: the implication that slobbering over a woman from your car is generally acceptable, and that the woman is in fact the bringer of the mayhem.  This commercial says any woman jogging, or walking, or simply existing on any sidewalk in America is fair game to be sexualized, and rarely does that sexualization remain silent, it is usually accompanied by street harassment yelled from a passing car.  I personally jog about 2miles every morning and there are streets I will not jog on because I know someone is going to honk or catcall and at 8 in the morning that’s not something I want to deal with.  But this commercial is saying go ahead young men(any men really) stare, stare at her until your basic motor functions are compromised.  And then blame her.

She is the mayhem, she is the reason you crashed your car into a lightpole.  She made you do it, she made you crazy.  Does that sound like abuser logic to anyone else?  Why do you make me hit you, sounds a lot like, why did you make me crash the car?  Presumably if the ‘woman’ had not been so carelessly jogging along the sidewalk this young man would never have been distracted and would have been able to competently drive his car.  But the message here is one we have heard before (in rape cases), men cannot biologically control their impulses when it comes to sexuality and women.

The solution is clear to me: women pose such a serious risk to male drivers that we can no longer be allowed to jog outdoors.  This is for the good of the nation, we simply cannot expect men to remain in control of their functions while we prance around the neighborhood.  America is counting on us.

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Grocery store semen shooter

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Michael W. Edwards is accused of spraying semen from a bottle onto women’s backs in Giant grocery stores and Michael’s craft stores in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Edwards has confessed to the crime and there is video evidence of his actions on his cell phone. Clothing from two of the women has been tested as evidence. Detectives have charged Edwards with five counts of second-degree assault and say there might be additional victims. He had no prior convictions.

I’ve never heard about this kind of harassment before, but I know there is an endless supply of men who think nothing of humiliating, harming, harassing, and assaulting women in public places for their own amusement.

The Washington Post article author does not seem to know this, though. The writer kept noting how “normal” Edwards is, how he was raised in the church, has a college degree, a long-term girlfriend, and until his charges, a job. I find that focus problematic because it implies that harassers – or other criminals like rapists – are ususally “deranged” people. But in fact, many of the perpetrators are “normal” people who are indistinguishable from our friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, and national heroes. Yes, that’s scary, but the sooner we as a society face this fact, the sooner we can address the root causes and increase conviction rates instead of ignoring or being shocked when these crimes are committed by “normal” people.

(By the way, Edwards worked as a security guard at a water treatment plant. He was fired. The company said there was no evidence he’d done anything wrong, but when someone who likes to squirt semen has access to drinking water, I say thank goodness for water filters!)

Many thanks to reader MRH for the story tip

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