Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

West Philly Conversations about Street Harassment

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Check it out! And many thanks to FAAN Mail co-founder Nuala for letting me know about it.

“Conversations From The Bench is a collaborative web-video series addressing important social justice issues in a participatory documentary format.

In Episode 2, we go “Under The El” in West Philadelphia to start conversations with passers-by about street harassment,“catcalling”, questions of having to grow up too fast, and if the way a woman dresses defines her…This project was a collaboration between four grad students from the University of Pennsylvania (located in West Philadelphia) and four West Philadelphia High School (WPHS) students as part of a class entitled “Social Change Through Participatory Filmmaking”.”

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“Will I get shouted at on the street today or will I be hunted down like an animal?”

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My girlfriend (now ex) and I were sat at a pier close to the Snowdome. We weren’t holding hands or anything and a group of children suddenly started chanting “filthy lezzers!” at us and started throwing rocks at us. I managed to chase them off, but the annoying thing was that this area wasn’t even in a busy public place, it was our one safe place and it had been ruined by some bigoted children.

Other occurrences include a man slapping another partner on the ass and saying, “Ooooh I want in on that, a good shafting will straighten you f****ts out” whilst we were shopping in Farmfoods.

Even after I promptly asked what the hell was wrong with him, nobody stepped in, they simply stared as I tried to defend my partner. He just said, “Well you should’ve chosen to be straight ennit you’re just asking for it’ and promptly walked off.”

Furthermore I’ve had beer bottles/cans thrown at me from car windows whilst walking home (along Lower Gungate and the Ashby Road), the passengers would shout “f***ing lezzers piss off you c**ts” and other derogatory remarks to my partner and I, usually involving rape/death threats.

Children with water pistols and rubbish around where I live would try to assault my partner and I as their parents would sit and watch, doing nothing until I said something, but even then it would be, “Oi f**k off you pedo’s or I’ll phone the coppers on ya.”

In recent months, since I appear more masculine now, I’ve had men threatening to beat me up and rape me. Some groups of men have even tried to follow me home, which has resulted in some evenings where I’m forced to run down side alleys in order to get out of their sight so I can get away. I run home heart pounding in my chest and it makes me scared to even leave my own house as there’s been increased reports of abductions within our area It leaves me thinking, “Will I get shouted at on the street today or will I be hunted down like an animal?”

It just isn’t right, women and LGBTQ+ folks shouldn’t be being harassed at all. It’s 2016 for crying out loud, surely as a society we should be moving on from these everyday degradations?

JB

Location: Tamworth, UK

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

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“Harassed on a daily basis”

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I am a female that is harassed on a daily basis where I am living, and it seems to be the entire neighborhood that is doing this to me.

If I’m not being attacked with sexually suggestive behavior, then I’m facing shame one way or another. I am treated as though I have no common sense and made to believe that everything I know is not how it is. When I talk to anybody, it’s automatically taken as if I am flirting as if I want them to have sex with me. When I say I’m not into it and didn’t mean to come across that way as politely as I can, then it turns to shaming me and calling me a whore, or thinking I must believe that they are not good enough for me.

– Tired of being harassed

Location: California

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

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“I was so nervous I was shaking”

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I went on vacation to Italy with my mom. It was a dream, we went to multiple cities and we fell in love with the country. On our last day in Florence we decided to visit one of its most renown galleries. Around an hour in we noticed this young man…he was in every room we entered and we started getting suspicious. My mom told me he’s following us and I thought there’s no way. She was right, though. This man was in each and every gallery that we were in. He went out before us and magically reappeared in the next area.

We thought maybe he wanted to rob us, but that didn’t take away the fact that we felt harassed as we have never felt before. We decided to wait for 5 minutes seated, and again he was seated two galleries down waiting for us. We talked to an employee and she said if he doesn’t touch or rob you we can’t do anything.

Our last resort was to wait inside the gallery for 30 minutes, but not to our surprise he was there when we finally decided to leave the gallery. When we came back, the man at the door said he couldn’t do anything, just go out and find the police. We decided to find a group of tourist with at least one man that spoke English so we could explain our situation. We found a couple with their mom, they were extremely nice to us and escorted us out of the gallery. The young man was still seated there, outside waiting for us. But he did not look up or even dare to follow us anymore.

This experience really made our trip a bit sour. I was so nervous I was shaking. We lost the rest of our day. We bought something to eat and ate it at the hotel. During our way back I couldn’t stop looking back and making sure we were not being follow. That happened two weeks ago and I still can’t shake off the feeling of impotence.

– Anonymous

Location: Florence, Italy

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

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“He just wanted me to hear it”

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I was walking home in the middle of the afternoon, on the edge of my neighborhood. From across the street, a man was walking in the opposite direction, and I heard the words, “Oooh blonde chick, I’d like to put a stick right up your ass.”

There was no one else in sight, and since I wasn’t even on the same side of the street, I don’t think he even wanted me to have the opportunity to defend myself. He just wanted me to hear it, wanted the satisfaction of knowing he infected my thoughts, that he had control over a single moment in my life, enough to ruin it with ugliness.

– Anonymous

Location: 18th and Walnut, Boulder, CO

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

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