Stop Street Harassment

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“I want to add my voice to those women who have experienced street harassment”

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I have been yelled at and honked at multiple times from men driving past in cars. I have never had a very serious or scary experience, but it happens often enough to make me really annoyed and very, very angry. What troubles me most is deciding on an appropriate way to react to this very rude and obnoxious behaviour.

There has recently been some discussion on this subject in the media in New Zealand and I want to add my voice to those women who have experienced street harassment.

– Anonymous

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

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Street harassment snapshot: January 16, 2011

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Story Submissions Recap:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

New stories on:

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

Image from The City Fix

Events:`

Announcements:

New:

On-going:

10 Tweets from the Week:

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Silent harasser in a Switzerland hostel

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This actually happened in a hostel rather than on the street. I was siting in the common area and was the only one there. I had the TV on but wasn’t facing it as I was using my laptop at the time. A man then came in and sat opposite me on one of the other couches. At first I thought nothing of it until I realized he wasn’t facing the TV at all – his eyes, and his whole body was directed towards me.

At this stage I thought he could just be trying to be social and get my attention in a friendly way but as I had been travelling on my own for the past 9 weeks, I was growing wary of male attention whether genuine or not. I put on my headphones so he would get the idea I wanted to be left alone.

That seemed to work and I’m not sure where his eyes were directed then as I wasn’t interested. His friend then came in and they had a conversation – it was clear by this guys loud voice and stupid “listen to me impress this girl” answers that this was no normal conversation but both guys got up and left to start cooking dinner.

Thinking that would be the last of it I pulled the headphones out of my ears and continued with my email. Less than 5 minutes later however, he was back. There were three large couches and one sofa in the common area. As I was alone I’d put my laptop bag and hand bag on the seat next to me thinking no one would need the seats. The guy then comes up to me, takes both bags one by one and throws them on the floor (yes – ‘throws’ and I thought he was trying to impress me) and sat right beside me.

I was too suprised by what had just happened to turn and yell at him, which now I think back was probably a good thing as my non-reaction was probably not what he ‘d been hoping for. I ended up picking the bags up and moving to the other side of the room. I think at this stage he’d become annoyed with me more than anything. When his friend came back and asked if he wanted to eat downstairs he said, head and eyes fully on me and nowhere near his friend, “No, I think I’ll just stay here”.

His friend, a bit confused, shrugged his shoulders and left without him. I then moved to another room and sat with my back to everyone else – a bit anti social but I had a fantastic view out the window and a heater to lean against. As expected, the man followed me in and sat a few tables behind. I gave up at this point – as long as I couldn’t see him staring he was welcome – the back of my head is not particularly exciting!! For that matter neither is the rest of me – I was still dressed in my winter hiking gear!

The problem with this encounter is that who was I suppossed to report this too? I don’t think the hostel staff would have done much but shrug it off, or jokily tell the man to leave me alone. It’s not something enough people take seriously and had me thinking also – if I was the hostel stff what would I or could I have done? He didn’t say anything innapropriate or do anything that could be considered ‘harrassment’ but he still succeded in making me feel extremely uncomfortable!

– Anonymous

Location: Switzerland

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Groper in a Build-A-Bear Workshop

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Birmingham City Centre
Image from yourlocalweb.co.uk

I remember about two years ago, I was 13 and in town with a friend. We went into a Build-A-Bear Workshop so she could get a present for her friend. We were looking at the sounds you could put into your bear when a man walked past us. My friend turned to me and said, “That man just squeezed my butt.”

I couldn’t believe what i was hearing, i was so shocked. In the end we just blew it over and thought nothing of it. We then went into Adidas. We went upstairs and split up to look around for a bit. I went back down and i found her and she said it happened again!

I went back up with her because i wanted to see who this guy was. We couldn’t find him so we headed back down. As we were going down the stairs, she’s like, “that’s him.”

I looked over and he was staring at us. We headed out of the shop and i looked back and he was watching us walk away. We quickly headed into primark, to the back of the shop to lose him. We watched the door and saw him walk in. It was easy to spot him as we was wearing all black and had dark skin. He headed straight up the escalators to the next floor and it was then that i realized he must have been following us the whole day. He was carrying a SuperDrug bag. We had gone into that store after it had first happened.

We ran straight out of the shop and on the next bus home. We just took it as a joke at the time and laughed it over. She took it so well and at the time we were both shocked but neither her nor i seemed bothered.

But at the same time, i was so angry at her at the time for not saying anything to the guy, or anything at all just letting him get away with it, but now i’m angry at myself because i know i should of said something or done something, so i’m partly to blame.

This angers me a lot now because we where so young at the time and it’s just disgusting. In the past I have been a victim of disgusting comment or behaviour from both boys my age and older men, and i’m only 15! It really upsets me that this kind of behavior still happens! Why should i have to feel unsafe going out, having to watch out everywhere i go?

– Hannah

Location: Birmingham City Centre, England

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

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Street Harassment Snapshot: January 9, 2011

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Story Submissions Recap:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

Image via Washington Post

Events:

  • Jan. 10: Radio show about street harassment by The F Word: Feminist Media Collective, 3 p.m. EST
  • Jan. 10: Discussion on HarassMap at 14 Sleem EL-Ghatas St, Off Sleem the First St. – Hadaek EL-Zatoon, Cairo, Egypt, 5 p.m.
  • Jan. 13: Stop Street Harassment Book Talk, University of California, Irvine, 8 p.m.
  • Jan. 15: First day of 5 week self defense class with the Center For Anti-Violence Education in Brooklyn, NY. sliding scale! call 718-788-1775
  • Jan. 23, Anti-Street Harassment Planning Meeting, In Other Words, 14 NE Killingsworth, Portland, OR, 4 p.m.
  • Feb. 1: Stop Street Harassment Book Talk, Northern Illinois University, 7 p.m.
  • Feb. 12, HollaBack Baltimore Launch Party, Metro Gallery, 1700 N. Charles Street, 8 p.m.

Announcements:

New:

On-going:

10 Tweets from the Week:

  • monaeltahawy “Move away or I’ll smash your face!” a young woman told the man who groped her on a bus in #Yemen (she wrote to tell me). Kickass!
  • DianeMassage Another day of #streetharassment in #nyc, whilst wearing my red puffy jacket.
  • MaxineFrances Street harassment so angers me. Usually I let it lie due to incredulity and fear for my safety. Proud I gave it a bit of lip just now.
  • FatSocialWorker Octopus Pie on #streetharassment http://bit.ly/dJNhZ6 cat-callers don’t make me laugh like Octopus Pie does.
  • bettyslutsky Street harassment is worst when other cyclists do it. A Harvardy 1 made lascivious tongue gestures & ruined the sunshine
  • FatBlackDiva Cab home. Driver says: “Why not invite me in? I like a big woman like you.” Yeah? Do you like fines from the TLC, too? #streetharassment
  • sasaragor Chuffed to see WAG’s ‘Let’s stop blaming victims’ rape prevention campaign on Queen’s Street in Cardiff #streetharassment
  • StreetHarassmnt recntly approached a dude known for yelling at women on the street and told him to quit it. ended w/ ‘don’t fuck with me’! he was speechlss.
  • _sugaHoney Doesn’t matter what you wear. If you have a vagina, you’re going to be harrassed because men don’t know how to act. Period.
  • burnyourbones man in car shouts “I can see your knickers!” at me cycling down hill. At best I’m humiliated, at worst a multi-car pile-up #streetharassment
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