Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
I was walking on a sidewalk. I was not in the way or anything. A stranger’s car honked at me from behind. I think they wanted me to notice them or something. It scared me out of my skin.
– Anonymous
Location: Kansas City, KS, USA
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
My body, my temple!
It is very sad how street harassment is something I’m used to at this point, but this is definitely not something I would like to tolerate!
Whenever I go out for a walk, I either witness a random guy screaming out disgusting sexual comments or their phone number, whistling or gazing with hungry look, guys stopping their cars and offering a ride, or, even worse, grabbing a passing by girl’s buttock.
I saw it all, but I never felt able to do anything and that was angering me. One day, I was walking home from the gym, on the main road I always walked on. As I’m walking, four guys (who looked to be in their early 20s) were walking towards me. I was not worried for my safety as first of all, I was wearing modest sports clothes and I was walking down on of the main roads. However, I was mistaken.
The closer they were getting to me, the more they started to spread out to block the road. Not to provoke them, I moved very close to the roadside. However, it did not help. One of the guys grabbed my hand and pushed me towards him. My self-defense reaction emerged pretty much immediately. I hit the guy’s hand and he ran away from me while three of his friends headed towards me. The only thing I had handy was my to-go bottle filled with protein cocktail. I started to hit them with it. The lid of the bottle fell wide opened and we all were covered from head to toe in a protein cocktail.
Although it was one of the main streets no one stopped to help. Ironically, there were not even patrol cars. I was lucky when the guard of a nearby organization started to whistle. The guys got scared off and ran away.
I am confident the guys did not expect such a wild reaction from me because in our culture men do not expect women to stand up for themselves, to fight, or to shout. They expect us to be fragile, afraid and silent. They do not expect that girls can bring unwanted attention to their misdeeds. I breached socially constructed expectations because I was angry and would not stand to be grabbed as if I were someone’s property.
My body is my temple. No one has the right to touch me without my consent!
Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?
More police patrol cars. There should be alarm buttons to press so that police arrives to that spot.
– Dilber
Location: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
It’s not “street harassment,” but I’m amazed at how many men feel my work place is a speed dating site. I’m a bank teller and men will tell me I’m really pretty, or ask me if I’m dating or if I want to grab a drink. My supervisor even asked me if I was dating someone because an important customer was interested in company after his wife died. My supervisor is a woman!
– EE
Location: My workplace
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
I was at the Mid-State Fair in 2004. I was an 18-year-old senior in high just enjoying some fun with friends. It was pretty crowded and dark out. These two Hispanic men said in Spanish, “Grab her ass.” I turned around and screamed, “Go ahead and try!”
The people around immediately started staring and they literally ran off. I’m a very light-skinned Hispanic female and all my friends were Caucasian and I think they assumed I was too and wouldn’t understand them, but I did!
Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?
Empower women to speak up be loud and stand up! We don’t have to cower or be afraid. We are so much stronger than the men that are verbally and physically pushy. Bringing unwanted attention to them isn’t what they want.
– MJ
Location: Mid State Fair in California
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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
Last summer, I was on my way to work one morning and had just stepped through the turnstiles at the subway when an older guy walked up to me and tried to get my attention. I had music on so I didn’t hear him at first but, half-asleep as I was, I thought he might want to ask for directions or something.
So I paused the music and said, “Sorry?”
And he said, “You’ve got great boobs” and smiled. Like it was a compliment and I should be flattered.
I was so shocked, I just made a noise of the disgust, turned the music back on and kept walking. Still, all day, I felt dirty and wrong. In the back of my head, I was second-guessing my clothes and worrying that people at work might find my top inappropriate, if it made someone comment on my breasts like that. Also, I kept thinking, “What if he’s still there when I go home?”
He wasn’t, of course, but later that night I told my parents all about it. My mum was properly outraged but my dad just said, “So? What’s so wrong about that?” He, too, seemed to think it was a compliment and didn’t understand at all when I said, “Do you really want someone to talk to your daughter that way? Do you think that’s ok?”
Seriously, what world do we live in when even my own father can’t see the problem with someone objectifying and demeaning his daughter like that?
– Sophia
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.