Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Prey

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I was walking home in NYC on a Saturday night on a residential street. The street was not deserted. A man walking towards me stopped and followed me for a few blocks. When I quickly turned down another street to walk next to another woman, he pushed in between us, groped me, and then quickly walked away.

While he was first following me, I was afraid and was mostly concerned about ducking into a store and getting away. After he groped me I was completely stunned and angry that I didn’t get a chance to fight back. I felt powerless.

– anonymous

Location: New York City, NY

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Harassers’ rating? 0

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When I walk to and from work, when I run to the bike path, when I walk to friends’ houses for dinner – essentially whenever I go anywhere alone, aside from class, I hear some obnoxious/offensive/fear-inducing comment. I’ve gotten the, “Hey baby,” and,  “Come suck my cock.” Some assholes outside a bar shouted out my rating on a scale from 1-10…

I am sick of it.

– anonymous

Location: Columbus, OH

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Get her

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I was walking alone in Tempe, Arizona, on Mill Avenue, just north of University, heading to dinner with my friends, when I saw two guys approaching me, staring at me. One of them was gesturing at me. I immediately felt uncomfortable and made sure my purse was closed and secure on my arm. I looked straight ahead so they wouldn’t see my fear, but I think checking my purse undercut that idea.

The one who was gesturing started saying loudly to the other, “Go get her, go get her, she’s tasty, she’s sick, go get her” over and over again. I felt a rush of fear and shame, clutched my purse in front of me and looked around to see if other people were nearby. There were a few people on the other side of the street, which made me feel a little better, so I decided to keep walking instead of ducking into the nearest shop. I quickened my pace and walked into the restaurant without looking back until I was safely inside. I felt sort of sick.

– anonymous

Location: Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ

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Safety in numbers

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My roommate and I live in the Fan district in Richmond, Va. It’s all too common to be followed home (either on foot or scarier, in slow moving cars) by random sketchy men. The best thing you can try and do is ignore it, but there’s this primal fear that kicks in when you’re being followed by someone who could easily overpower you. Most of the time they’re not that aggressive, but every now and then you get some real creepers.

Once we were walking to the 7-11 near our apartment in broad daylight when a group of six men circled around us and demanded that we “talk” to them, and they tried to touch my roommate and myself on the shoulder. Then they started moving in closer and tried to convince us to get into their car to go “hang out” with them. I told them no and they moved in closer and tried to grab us. My roommate is a lot more passive than I am and she froze, so I grabbed her by the arm and pushed through two of the men. They followed after us and yelled at us for about a block, then they finally called us frigid bitches and turned around.

More than anything, I’m glad that I was there to look out for my roommate. The whole ordeal was infuriating, but the most important thing I learned from this is that there is safety in numbers. What bothers me the most about this is that it happened during the day with several people around, and no one stepped in to help us even when we were clearly being harassed.

– anonymous

Location: Richmond, VA

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Groped in Cadiz

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Where do I even start? Being in Spain has been out of control in terms of street harassment, but the worst experience I had was at Carnaval in Cádiz. Carnaval is the alcohol-fueled Spanish version of Halloween, in which everyone takes to the streets. My two female friends and I were walking through a relatively crowded alley and took a break when four men approached us. We were standing in a corner, and they surrounded us and trapped us in the corner.

They began to ask us if we had boyfriends (yes), where were they, and explained that if our boyfriends weren’t there then we didn’t have boyfriends. We tried to get them to get away from us and they became more and more persistent.

Finally, one of them grabbed me and started to grope my breasts aggressively through my jacket until I slapped him across the face and started screaming at him (“cabrón” is a very useful word to know in Spain if you want men to leave you alone). It was incredibly frustrating but I’m glad that I reacted quickly and got him and his minions to leave.

– E. S.

Location: Cádiz, Spain

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