I was at the grocery store today checking out, and chatting all the while with the clerk. I slid my card to pay, and it didn’t go through, so the clerk told me to “slide it again.” The man behind me in line–who I had barely noticed until then–interrupted my conversation with the clerk to say “ha slide it again–I bet you’ve heard that one before.” I was speechless and really couldn’t believe if I had heard right. I didn’t engage at all, and I think the clerk was just as surprised as I was. I walked away with a disgusted, slightly embarrassed, and ugh feeling, all the while knowing there was no reason I needed to feel that way.

Thanks for letting me air it out here. Let’s do whatever we can to stop this kind of junk from happening to others.

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

City/community government sponsored panel/roundtable discussions. Outreach to elementary, middle, and high schools. Outreach to men’s groups in the community. Speak at local service organizations (like Rotary) and nonprofits about this issue.

– Anonymous

Location: Safeway

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Biking home from work at night. It’s cold so I’m bundled up. Right after crossing the street someone calls out “nice ass” from the window of his truck.

– Anonymous

Location: 2nd East, Rexburg, Idaho

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Walking home from the store. A group of boys passing me in a car start singing their own rendition of “We Will Rock You” replacing “rock” with “f*ck.” When I don’t respond they slowed down and started singing louder. They were practically screaming at me. Really awful experience. Stands out as one of the worst sexual harassment experiences I’ve had to endure.

– Anonymous

Location: Rexburg, Idaho USA

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I was walking back from college, only a block away by a grocery store, when a man stopped me by a bus stop. He kept asking if my eye color was real because “it’s so damn sexy” and saying that “If you were older I would be all up on you!”

This man was at least 30 years older than me (I am 18). I kept saying I had to go and meet my boyfriend who was at a restaurant by the store (I don’t actually have one but felt, as he wouldn’t let me leave when I said I was busy, he would let me go if he knew a guy was waiting for me).

Every time I tried to leave he would step in front of me and telling me how “sexy” I am and “if only you were older”. He would only let me leave when I faked a phone call from my “boyfriend.”

– KD

Location: Moreno Valley, CA

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I’ll never forget the first time I was harassed in the street. I was 12 years old. I was walking to my grandmother’s house to visit her, I was happy and excited. Then a car pulls up, a man in his forties and a younger man (whom I assumed was his son) stopped to yell, “Hey, sexy.”

Sexy, right. I was 12.

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

It has to start with early education and really changing the mentality about women’s role in public space and society in general. As long as women are seen as belonging in the home, as long as we are marginalized and viewed as beings existing for the entertainment of men, street harassment will continue.

– Anonymous

Location: Jerusalem, Israel

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Check out the new book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers!