Walking from my neighbourhood to the gym, twice along the way I was verbally harassed by men. One yelled, “You’re ugly. UGLY,” as he rode his bike past me. A further 10 minutes on, a drunk/high man said, “You’ve got a hot body. Your head’s farked.”

Funny, as it is on one of the first days I decided to be proud of myself as a woman, not afraid, not keeping my presence small to protect myself.

– BT

Location: Sydney City, Australia

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

I was followed around a bookstore today for well over 5 minutes. I did not want to believe I was being followed and so I began purposely going in random aisles and circling around one section several times and this guy appeared at the end of each aisle every time staring at me. I stopped at the end of one aisle and pretended to look at the books there hoping he would leave.

Instead he approached me and tried to give me a piece of paper with his address on it. No hello or introducing himself just, “Can I give you this? It’s my address and stuff.”

I was already on alert from him following me and my instincts were screaming at me to get out of there. All I could do was shake my head. He left the aisle after I refused to take his paper and I quickly left the store and ran straight to my boyfriend’s place of work which was nearby. I was fearful he was still following me and I didn’t want to lead him to my car. I was very shaken up by the whole encounter.

– TR

Location: Bookstore in Washington state

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

I experienced it a lot of times and in different places. Honestly, I don’t wear revealing clothes. I grew up in a conservative family. I don’t wear shorts, above the knee dresses and skirts, sleeveless, tube, etc. But no matter how unrevealing the clothes I am wearing, I am not safe from street harassment.

No matter what you wear, no matter how you walk, no matter how you act, they will do it to you and they don’t care if it could hurt you, or worse, if it will traumatized you.

* While waiting for a public transport in a bus stop, the drivers and even their passengers (vehicles that were passing by) were catcalling me.

* There was one time that I was walking from school to our home, there were a group of boys laughing and slurring something to me.

* Inside the grocery store, there were men (around the ages of 20 to 26, I guess) stalking me and were leering.

* Inside a bus, I was about to come out but still waiting in line because a lot of us were coming out, when suddenly, someone was touching my waist and he’s acting like it was all accidental when in fact he did it thrice.

* I was walking home, when a motorcycle came by (a driver & a passenger, both are men) and touched my breasts then, they drove so fast that I couldn’t see their faces.

* Another time this happened when I was also walking home. There were two boys riding a bike when they passed by me, suddenly one of them touched my thigh. Everything happened so fast that I froze and I just cried.

Honestly, as of now, I am still in trauma about the street harassment that I had experienced. I cry a lot of times every time I remember those incidents. Some of those happened a couple of months ago, and one of those happened hours ago. I searched in google about street harassment and it led me to this website. I don’t know if I already need to seek for help from a psychiatrist or someone that could help me. I no longer feel safe and everything that has happened to me is really hurtful.

– CL

Location: The Philippines

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

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

This just happened less than two hours ago. First of all, I am a student. At approximately 11:30 AM I decided to walk to campus (right next to where I live) to get some work done for a project. After one hour (at 12:20 AM), I was done and was walking to my apartment building. As I approached the main building door, I saw a guy walking past me (facing me) so he was walking the other direction.

Anyways I continued to approach the building door and opened it then walked up the stairs and stood in front of my apartment door looking for the keys in my pocket. Mind you that there was absolutely no one around except him and I in the street. While getting my keys I suddenly heard the building door open and heard heavy and fast footsteps climbing up the stairs. I don’t know why but I did not get a good feeling and I panicked, I managed to quickly unlock my door and go inside and immediately locked the door behind me.

I looked straight through the door eye hole and found the same guy who just passed me, he just missed me by a second. He walked through the hallway and then went downstairs again and left. I do not think this was a coincidence. He does not live in our building, and he was originally walking in the other direction. It terrifies me to think what could have happened if I had not closed the door on time before he could come upstairs. I seriously wish our apartment building had surveillance cameras or at least only allowed tenants to access the building.

– Anonymous

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

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