Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Street harassment is a trigger for rape survivors

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Street harassment from the perspective of a rape survivor:

Sometimes when I express my anger at street harassment, at my inability to move through public spaces freely, I feel as if I am dismissed. Other people, both men and women alike, tend to minimize it, saying, “Why let it bother you? It’s not that big of a deal.”

But I am a rape survivor, and for me, it is a big deal.

Every time I am harassed by men on the street, I am re-victimized. From leering, catcalls, and comments about my body, to stalking and groping — they all reduce me to an object. Not a person, but a thing. Something to have power over. All of these forms of harassment are triggers for me. They all induce the same sense of powerlessness, the feeling of invasion – they all take me back to when I was raped.

I know I am not the only one. There are so many other survivors, like me, who every day are forced to relive the experiences of their rapes by men on the street. Street harassment IS a big deal. It perpetuates the society which allows men to treat women as objects, to have power over them, to assault them, to rape them. Street harassment is sexual assault, it is sexual violence, and we must work to end it now.

I am not an object, and I will not be silent.

– AH

Location: Everywhere

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.

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Male bonding at the expense of women

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My friend and I were walking downtown on the sidewalk. On our side of the street were two guys sitting on a porch and on the other side was a group of guys dressed in all black. We were ignoring them until one of the two guys on the porch shouted, “My friend here thinks you two are cute!” Then the group on the other side of the street started shouting back to them, saying that they were going to “get us.” They kept encouraging each other, adding things like “Go get them, tiger!” and we were afraid they were following us, but thankfully, they never did.

– anonymous

Location: Davison, MI

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.

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Weekly Round Up: July 3, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

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

Interviews:

In the News:

10 Street Harassment Tweets of the Week:

  • iHollaback: How come no matter how much you talk about street harassment, it’s still shocking and scary when it happens?
  • mkpheartsnyc: Gotta love that it’s never too early for street harassment.
  • MissDC2009: The stories on @hollabackdc infuriate me so much, I called my parents yesterday to tell them that I’m going to law school. I need to help
  • femmeniste: I hate walking down the street KNOWING that a man is looking and waiting to say something gross as you pass by. #StreetHarassment #NYC
  • thekateblack: E. Village street harassment stoops lower. Not 1, but 2 men blocked my path. 1 reached in front of me 2 prevent me crossing
  • feministhulk: HULK TRY TO OPEN MIND, SMASH EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMEWORKS WHICH LIMIT HULK’S THOUGHT, BUT HULK WILL NEVER GET CAT-CALLING.
  • lorenacupcake: Street harassment is getting so bad I’m almost wishing for winter, wrapping my body in wool armor against the stares and comments of men.
  • ashleyrebeccah: Guy says I look cute. I ignore him & he asks didn’t u hear me? Yes I fucking heard u I just want u to leave me alone! #streetharassment
  • kerinrose: Awkward fratboy-in-a-cab catcall of the nite: “I can see my reflection in your pussy!”
  • allfallsup: i love dresses but hate how nasty older men catcall to me like i want em…ewww you got wrinkled balls dude.

Events:

Announcements:

Resource of the Week:

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Skeezy driver harasser in Burbank

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There isn’t a general parking lot where I work, just one for the higher ups. Because of that, I have to park a couple blocks away wherever I can find street parking. This is not a great situation, not because I mind the walk, but for whatever reason this particular neighborhood, which is quite nice, has some very not nice traffic in the form of guys who like to harass women.

Up to now, this has only really been a problem in the evenings, after dark, and if I leave particularly late or am parked particularly far away, I can usually get someone to walk with me. Which I never do because that seems pathetic. I have been followed by cars, honked at, and screamed at. It’s usually just a brief scare and it passes.

Not that it matters, and it certainly shouldn’t matter, but I don’t dress provocatively. 80% of the time I’m wearing some variation of jeans, t-shirt, ponytail and glasses.

Anyway, the point is that the summer has been a welcome respite because it stays light longer, so I walk to my car from work in the daylight and it’s all good. I haven’t been bothered in ages.

This morning, I parked not terribly far away, and someone in a gold forerunner not in very good shape honked at me and waved like crazy as I was walking through a crosswalk. I looked at them, it was some guy I didn’t recognize and who, even at a distance, looked skeezy. To be fair, honking at a girl automatically puts you in the skeez camp, even if it is 10AM.

I crossed over another street and saw that the forerunner was driving too fast up that street and quickened my pace a little to be well out of the way. The guy had driven around like 5 blocks to get back to me. The guy started screaming at me, but I just ignored him since he was behind me, hoping that he’d go away.

The guy swearved around traffic and pulled into someone’s driveway to cut me off. He very nearly ran me over.

Creep: Hey, I’m the guy who honked at you.
Me: Yeah, I got that.
C: Do you have a boyfriend?
M: Yes.
(The inflection here has to imply the imaginary boyfriend is a linebacker, very violent, and the jealous type)
C: Does he make you happy?
M: Yes.
C: That’s too bad, I was hoping I could take you out some time.
M: Sorry, you can’t.
C: You could still go out though, right? I mean –
M: Really I couldn’t
C: Do you have a sister?
M: No, I have a brother, I doubt you’d be interested.

Do you have a sister? WTF SERIOUSLY?! Who goes around picking up women on the side of the road?

– AFM

Location: Burbank, CA

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.

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“Two wrongs don’t make a right”

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I was crossing the Key Bridge a week or so ago, and a guy was jogging in the opposite direction, shirtless and sweaty. I walked past two women who were behind this guy and I noticed them look this guy up and down and then say, “Cute body, nice ass.”

Are you kidding me?

I gave these women a dirty look and shook my head at them, but they were too into their vapid conversation amongst each other to care.

Ladies, it’s bad enough that men do it to us, but we don’t need to stoop to that level. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

– anonymous

Location: Key Bridge, Arlington, VA

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.

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