Stop Street Harassment

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Street Harassment Round Up – June 21

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Stories:

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.

  • On this blog, women in Chicago and Hawaii talk about being fed up by the volume of street harassment they face on a daily to weekly basis.
  • On HollaBack Toronto, a contributor wrote a post about having a TTC subway employees flirt with/harass her when she was paying her fare. The Director of Corporate Communications for TTC saw the post and wrote to HB Toronto with information about how passengers can file complaints about employees. This post was followed by one from another contributor telling about a time a TTC employee made her feel uncomfortable and unsafe. Harassment on public transportation is global!
  • On Holla Back NYC, a contributor tells about getting oogled by men at a community pool, but they complained to the pool management and then men had to leave.
  • Holla Back DC! has a contributor post from a woman who was asked “how’d you get that cute ass” by a man who then turned very angry when she asked him not to harass her.
  • Two years ago Blank Noise Project asked readers to submit their list of things they wished they could do in their city (for example, smile when they wanted, not have to think about who’s watching them, be able to go out at night and be safe…) and this past Saturday afternoon, they invited people to come to Cubbon Park to live out their wish list, including wearing something they wished they could wear but never had for fear of harassment.

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No, I Will Not Marry You!

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After getting off the bus, I make a call on my cell phone, passing by a man who says, “Hey baby. Marry me.” I had already passed him when he said it so I just kept walking. I sat down at a Coldstone Creamery table to finish the conversation and eat a snack when the guy comes over and stands in front of me. He says hi and quickly leans in toward my neck when I tell him very loudly and firmly to leave me alone and get away from me. He acts insulted and tells me he only wanted to look at what was on my necklace. I give him a look of contempt and he finally leaves me alone, yelling “Fuck you! Fuck you you fucking bitch!” the entire time he walks down the sidewalk.

I am a student here in Honolulu, I have no car and I am almost always by myself when I run errands at the store or grocery. I am absolutely sick of dealing with this type of bullshit every time I leave my home. I never dealt with this sort of constant harassment in any other city I have lived in.

I am certainly not going to stop telling these pathetic old men to leave me alone just because they will yell and threaten me. I felt completely furious. I was angrier than the time I was waiting at a bus stop and a man got off and persisted to say he’d seen me before and took out his wallet to get out money when I threatened to call the police to get him to leave. Enough is enough, but what can I do?! I don’t know what to do anymore and fear that if I keep having to deal with this on an almost daily basis I will explode on someone one day.

– anonymous

Location: 710 Keeaumoku St, Honolulu, HI

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Enough is Enough!

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I am nineteen years old, and I moved to Chicago about four months ago for school. I have consistently been harassed at least two or three times a week on the streets. I don’t wear skimpy outfits, I just dress normally and I am going on about my day when strange men come up to me and harass me.

I was waiting for a bus the other day when a guy pulled up in his car and started calling me “blondie” and kept asking me to party with him. He kept his up for at least five straight minutes, until my bus came. I had a man come up and whisper “hey pretty lady” into my ear a few weeks ago. One man went off on me on a bus, calling me horrible names when I ignored his advances. These sort of things happen all the time, and I am so sick of it. Honestly, it scares the hell out of me, especially when I’m alone at night. What makes me mad is that I’m too afraid to say anything to the men, or to do anything other than completely ignore them, because I’m afraid they’ll hurt me. Every single one of my female friends in Chicago have had similar experiences, mostly on public transit. We all ignore it, because we are all afraid that these men will physically harm us.

It makes me especially angry when people are all around and do nothing to stop it; my friend and I were on the train this winter when a drunk man proceeded to lay on the ground in front of us and stare openly at our breasts while yelling nonsensically. The train was full of people, and none of them did anything to help us, even though we were clearly uncomfortable and freaked out.

Now that it’s summer, I would love to go out in shorts or cute dresses, but whenever I do, I get even more harassment from men. It’s just become a rule to never walk alone at night, to never look at people in the eyes or talk back.

I love Chicago, but the government absolutely has to do something about this problem, especially on the L (the train). That is one place where they could keep women safe, where they could send out security to patrol on a regular basis. Yes, they have a “press for emergency” button, but how long will it take help to get there? Most of the time, the men are gone, or women are too afraid to make a stand. This has to stop!

-Liz Anderson

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Butt Slap Leads to Activism

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Recently I was slapped on the butt by a teenager on a bicycle while I was jogging in my neighborhood. He simply came up behind me, spanked me, and furiously pedaled away. I was wearing sweatpants and my little brother’s oversized soccer jersey. No makeup, greasy ponytail – I looked like crap (though, even if I had been provocatively dressed, it would be no excuse for this boy’s behaviour).

After screaming profusely at the kid and his friends, who rode away laughing like hyenas, I walked home almost in tears, feeling so violated and frustrated with society in general. I can’t stop asking myself how somebody, especially at such a young age, would think that he has the right to act like that towards another person. It’s scary. I feel as though women over the age of 12 can rarely step outdoors wearing anything less than a parka without being jeered at by creepy men anymore. And I’m frustrated.

[As a result], I am working on a story for a school assignment on the subject of street harassment…Street Harassment is positively rampant in London, [Ontario,  Canada], and I think that my campus community would respond positively to an article like this. Hopefully, it will inspire girls in London to start fighting back against the creeps that scream at us from their cars. At the very least, it can raise awareness about the fact that street harassment isn’t a harmless game.

– L.O.

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Street Harassment Round Up – June 7

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Stories:

  • On this blog, a male ally submitted a story about street harassment he observed on a vacation in New Orleans; a female contributor shared a story about being followed by a man in NYC and having him touch her from behind with his penis (!)
  • You can submit your stories via Twitter now on Holla Back NYC. Tweet from the street with #hbnyc! Your tweets will be retweeted through @emilymaynot and posted to HollabackNYC!” Here’s their first entry sent this way, from @ElizabethKoke: a dude turned to look me up and down, called me “bitch” and said that it looked like I had a long day but still looked good.
  • On Holla Back CHICAGO a contributor tells how a man in a truck took photos of her butt as she walked home from running at a park and then he had the nerve to call her a pervert for “wearing see-through pants.”

  • Holla Back DC! has several new contributor posts this week. They also have a post about talking to WMATA about sexual harassment on DC public transportation. Way to put on the pressure, ladies!

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem!

In the News:

Upcoming Events:

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

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