My stories are pretty tame compared to others. My advice below is what is more important to publish. I was standing at a street light and a group of men in there 20’s walking past. One man put his arm around my neck and asked me to follow the group. He tried to “drag” me along but I shook him free. I was shocked because this was in broad daylight with plenty of people around. Some men have no shame anymore.
Like you say in your home page, there needs to be a cultural shift so women are not treated like sex objects. Everyone needs to be taught the lesson of respecting ourselves and others in primary and secondary school. But with the media, internet, music saturated with women as sex objects, this is pretty hard to change. But things we can all do is fight advertisers and the media to stop showing sexist advertising and to ensure we censor the web to get rid of porn. Porn, girlie clubs, prostitutes are degrading to women.
Also, if women want respect, they can’t dress like prostitutes. One simple thing women can learn to do is NOT dress sexy in public. I see many young girls now wearing skimpy clothes including dresses so short they barely cover their bum crack. Honestly, how can you expect men or women to respect you when you dress like sex is on offer? “Dress with respect” is the motto I would be graffitting everywhere. Women can dress pretty, classy but not sexy and definitely not slutty. The golden rule of thumb is the more flesh you expose and/or the tigher the clothing, the more sexy/slutty you look and hence the more respect you will lose. Just remember, dress like a sex object and you will be treated like one.
– anonymous
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.
[Blog admin’s note: Just want to state my belief that the way a woman dresses is NOT an invitation to harass or assault her or to treat her disrespectfully. Dressing “like a prostitute” is not an invitation to be harassed and women who are sex workers deserve respect and should not be harassed or treated poorly either. Men harass women wearing all types of clothes and even some women who are veiled get harassed. Changing how women dress is not the answer to ending harassment – ending the socialization of men to think it’s okay to harass and ending a culture of disrespect for women is the way]
