My friend and I were at the gas station and we are both only 17. These two men kept whistling at us, they kept getting closer and closer, we had to stay inside till they left. Never in my life had i felt so degraded.

– MT

Location: Springfield, Ohio

While the occasional lewd greetings from the homeless in Ann Arbor are common enough, today I experienced one of the few incidents that gave me real concerns for my safety. Departing my workplace at the corner of Huron and State streets, on my lunch break, two large middle aged men had just gotten off the bus and we proceeded to walk toward each other on the sidewalk. One was familiar, a vagrant and panhandler who occasionally loiters at the picnic table located on my office’s property. Noticing their attempts at eye contact I took out my phone when the familiar one’s companion spoke.

“Hey baby, wait a minute.”

I had passed him in the time it took for him to utter the sentence and was sandwiched between him and the familiar panhandler who stood in my way also attempting to get my attention.

I mumbled an, “Excuse me,” and went around the familiar person as his companion began to shout a long string of obscenities including but not limited to, “STOP WALKING YOU F***ING BITCH I’M TALKING TO YOU.” I proceeded a block down state street and turned onto Washington as he continued to swear at me in escalating rage, following from a distance. I even heard his friend, the one I had seen before, attempting to calm him down as I reached my destination.

– Anonymous

Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

I was in a crowded train, in Chicago, 16 years old, 4th of July. A creepy tall guy came & pressed his penis against my butt. I was so young & naïve, & had no idea what to do. I felt so ashamed & scared & dirty. The CRAZY thing is many years have passed & a part of me still feels ashamed & dirty typing this story out. Isn’t that crazy!?! Why should I carry any shame for this? It wasn’t me who did something criminal, it was him. I wish I could say this was my only experience w/street harassment, but it certainly wasn’t. It all kind of blurs into one big swirl of angry memories….

Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?

In a nutshell: education. Start young – both parents & schools should be involved. Teach boys that it is NOT ok to talk to women certain kinds of ways, or touch them in anyway that is not welcome. Nor is it ok to purposely act aggressively (leering, staring, barking, hooting, hollering, intimidation, etc.) w/the goal of making her feel scared or uncomfortable. It is not a “compliment”, it’s WRONG! For girls teach them that street harassment does happen, it’s quite pervasive & the unfortunate reality is they will most likely have to deal w/it at some point. Teach them it is NOT their fault & how to deal with it when it occurs. So many women are paralyzed w/fear. Something as simple as carrying a loud whistle & then shouting with your hands up in the stop sign may be enough to help stop something, call attn. to it, or at the least make you feel better. Yes, it comes down to education & preparedness. Half my problem with my own young experience is that it never occurred to me that it could happen, so when it did I wasn’t prepared & couldn’t cope well. It’s not a pleasant subject, but it is the reality of the world we live in.

– Anonymous

Location: Chicago, IL

 

Every day I deal with men harassing me on the street. And I ignore them often making myself feel bad. But no more of this! I am going to be assertive and get a piece of power back. I will not be ignored.

– Kris Ed

Location: Harlem, NY

Today a truck drove so close to me I could feel the wind of passenger side mirror blow past my shoulder. Close call: you know and I know you did that on purpose. No cars were on the opposite side of the road and you were driving fast.

It’s not the first time a guy in a truck drove as close to me as he could without hitting me. On my country road walks, here in Montana, I could count a more than a few times this has happened.

Walking with traffic, my son and I were a half a block to Main Street walking on the shoulder. The cars usually pull in at an angle here but there where no parked cars today where we were, in front of this business, it’s Sunday.

So,I shot him the finger and sure enough he was watching (probably laughing and raging) and quickly backed up to us. “Why are you walking in the middle of the road”

We weren’t. Why are you trying to hit us? You can see were on the shoulder”

“Shouldn’t be on the road, Bitch”

“Are you fucking kidding Me?” as I looked at his girlfriend in the passengers seat.

“You’re A f***ing whore”

“Is he gonna beat you when you get home?” I asked her.

Then he gave a big honkering spit at me, spraying his girlfriend.

I did not move. I felt it was all in slow motion.

I turned and walked to the back of the truck and started memorizing his plate number and he drove away.

The worst part of it all, the WORST part is when the cop on the phone I was reporting the Street Harassment to said I should not have given him the finger.

I had a feeling this would be turned on me because I am a woman.

It’s been six hours and twenty minutes since The Police officer I reported this incident to said he was going to look into it and get back to me.

I will not let this go again.

UPDATE:

He gets a disorderly conduct warning for calling me a whore – not for almost running us over, not intimidation, not for Spitting on me. I get a disorderly conduct warning for giving him the finger and was told I should walk on a sidewalk if possible. The officer said there was no third party as witness so that’s all he could do.

– Amy E

Location: Hamilton, Montana