I was driving a truck east on the 55 Freeway, pulling a horse trailer with a horse in it, trying to get out of a lane, which forced me to exit. The car next to me slowed every time I slowed. I was trying to let him pass so I could move over a lane to remain on the freeway. Finally, I looked over to see what the problem was, and the man was masturbating.

When I looked, he flipped on his dome light, continued his demonstration for a moment, then flipped off the light and sped off through traffic. First I was horrified. Then I was dismayed. Then I got really, really mad, and felt completely helpless and taken advantage of. I didn’t think to get his license plate, but I always fantasized about knocking on his door to tell the wife I imagined he had. This was over 30 years ago, and I’m still mad about it to this day.

– Amelia Smith

Location: 55 Freeway, Costa Mesa, CA

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Yesterday as I was walking to my parents house,  some men shouted “whore” at me as they drove by. To the group of young men in the SUV who caught me off guard, and to the silent other pedestrians and drivers, this was violent and unacceptable.

– Anonymous

Location: North Toronto, Canada

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I was at my office today walking up the stairs and two guys came loudly tromping down the stairs at me. No one ever takes the stairs so it was sort of surprising and then suddenly one of them interrupts his conversation with his coworker to be all, “Hey baby” at me. I couldn’t believe it! I’m at WORK, for chrissakes. I was so appalled that I actually stopped walking and then turned around and said, “My name is *Aerin*” really assertively. They both stared at me like I was something they’d never seen before and then the guy actually told me his name, like we were being introduced by a coworker.

– Aerin

Location: St. Louis, MO

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I live in a nice area on the outskirts of the city. We just moved here about 10 months ago and I’ve loved everything about it — well almost. Our house is next to a somewhat busy road with a chain link fence around our 2 acres. I am a very energetic person who loves being outdoors and physical activity. We have a trampoline that I use daily. It’s one of my ways to de-stress after a long day. At first people just stared, which I understood since we are new here. Then cars would slow down…which was a bit creepy but I just shrugged it off. Then it escalated to lewd hand-motions, yelling, and stopping their cars to watch all together. I can’t believe this, I am being street harassed in my own backyard.

So I just stopped jumping during the day and just waited til night. (which majorly sucks for me since it’s summer and night is when the Mosquitos come out.) So I switched my exercising to running in the mornings. Thinking no one would bother me at 6 in the morning, well I was wrong. Now I just stay inside most of the time, which is hard because I love the outdoors so much! I just don’t want it to escalate to the point that they come on my property, I mean they already know where I live, which is terrifying. The thing that really gets me is that, I do not live in a bad area, some of the houses around here are 700k-1 mil. Most of these people that shout obscenities at me are yelling from their new BMW’s.

– Marissa

Location: Las Cruces, NM

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