Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“It made me angry every single day”

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I was in a new city, in a new country, working a school-sponsored internship. On my college student budget, I figured I could easily do the mile walk and save myself the fare for a second bus and get a little extra exercise. This thrifty decision taught me that a lack of respect for women knows no international borders!

Four times a week, I made this walk. Every single week, at least two of these four times, I encountered some form of street harassment. Catcalls, honks, men pulling over their cars and trying to talk to me, you name it. They always avoided physical contact, so I didn’t think it was worthy of complaint, but it made me angry every single day.

As an adult, I should be able to walk down a street, in broad daylight, dressed in professional attire and feel comfortable. I never did. I felt embarrassed, dehumanized, exploited, and never, ever flattered.

The thing that made me most angry was the futility of this action that made me so uncomfortable. Did they think I would stop and offer them sex, right there on the street? Or even a date? Does any women ever do that? Did they think that’s the way to woo a woman? Did they think I liked it?

– Anonymous

Location: London, UK

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I was harassed on my run during Anti-Street Harassment Week

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Running Stop Street Harassment is my part-time unpaid job — and unfortunately this week travel/event for a paid job overlapped with International Anti-Street Harassment Week. So I’m in Arizona, multi-tasking as much as I can, and also jetlagged.

I woke up earlier than needed today and had time to go for a quick four mile run along the sidewalk of a trafficked road (and to also quickly write this!). I really needed it after a 21 hour day yesterday that was preceeded by four hours of sleep and a 17 hour work day (#EndSHWeek + regular job = a lot of work!). I only had a mile left and my mind felt clearer, my body stronger, when I heard a beep from an approaching car. I was on the sidewalk and not in the way so I looked up surprised… only to see a white middle-age man making a creepy/vulgar face at me. At 7:15 a.m. UGH.

I wasn’t in danger and he was gone in a second, before I could react,, but it was demeaning, disgusting, and annoying. What did he hope to accomplish by doing that? To show he is a man in public space and can demand my attention in a creepy way? To treat me like a piece of meat?

It’s pretty ironic, huh, that the founder of International Anti-Street Harassment Week can get street harassed during International Anti-Street Harassment Week?

It happened last year during the week too, while I was helping hand out anti-harassment flyers at a Washington, D.C. Metro station. A man kept asking me if I was married and could he talk to me after I said no. He even had an anti-harassment flyer in his hand he had picked up from someone else.

I heard about other female activists getting harased while speaking out against the issue last year during the week – women from Oregon to New York were the target of men’s harassment as they wrote anti-harassment sidewalk chalk messages and participated in rallies. So far this week, I’ve heard about an #EndSHWeek tweet chats getting attacked by anti-women tweeters.

That’s the thing about this issue — no woman is immune. You never know when it will happen or why or how far it will escalate. You never know why you’re being targeted. You may not always feel safe to respond or have time to, like in my sitation this morning.

I’ve given close to 150 talks on this topic alone and many of them are at night. I hate that after we talk about the issue and what we can do, the reality is, many women who hear my talk still leave the room and worry about getting home safetly. They talk about checking the back seats of their cars, going to bus stops in groups, and strategize which streets to avoid while bicycling home.

I HATE that I can’t stop my friends, family members, the people who attend my talks — or myself — from being harassed, even though I work on this issue every day.

One reason why I founded International Anti-Street Harassment Week was to try to harness actions and work of small groups around the world who are working on this issue to garner more attention, to get larger groups and organizations and governments on board.

And it is working. When the United Nations, New York Times and Everyday Health are tweeting about the week, writing about the week, and participating in it, we’re making progress. But we do need more groups, more people to be involved. I hope anyone out there reading this will pledge to take a stand. Will share a story or talk about this issue with one person today. Make everyone aware that this is a problem.

Yesterday I was at an Arizona high school doing art work against street harassment with students and one student’s poster slogan was this –  “I want to be able to walk down the street safely at night — or anytime.”

That’s all we want. To be safe. To be unharassed. To be respected.

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“I just didn’t feel safe walking alone”

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I was living and working in Oak Cliff, a rough area of Dallas, Texas, for about a year. It wasn’t uncommon to have cat-calls or people whistle as you walked down the street. But one time it went too far.

One day I was walking home from work and a truck passed by, rolled down the window, and cat-called. I ignored it and kept walking. The truck decided to take a spin around the block, pull up in a parking lot directly in my path, and the man rolled down his window and beckoned me over. He called, “You need a ride?”

I said no thanks and tried to walk around his truck which was blocking the sidewalk in the parking lot. It was a manual transmission so he could roll backwards and keep me where I was. He then said, “How about I take you out? Why are you by yourself, you’re too pretty to be out on your own. Hop in.”

I looked through the window and said in the best bold faced lie I could come up with, “My fiance wouldn’t exactly take it lightly if I jumped in a car with a random stranger. Excuse Me.”

The man called out again as I walked away. I hurriedly went behind his truck and ducked down the next block and through a few alleys to try and stay off the street in fear that the man was going to follow and continue his approaches. I wouldn’t walk around the neighborhood anymore by myself which now, looking back, was such a shame.

I allowed someone to take control over my life, a person I never saw again, but he had put so much doubt and fear in my mind that I just didn’t feel safe walking alone.

Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?

I’ve finally found a voice and now speak up, calling the perpetrators out on their actions.

– Anonymous

Location: Dallas, Texas

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“My health has suffered SEVERLY”

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I am 56 years old and I am harassed by thugs in the street EVERY DAY. Some of these men are young enough to be my son. As soon as I have the unmitigated gall to step out of my house, it begins. Men calling me Beyoncé, for some odd reason. Men following me. Men hooting and hollering after me. I go to the grocery store, and I am followed and stalked at the grocery store. There is no escape.

I go to work and am followed and terrorized by a custodian. My health has suffered SEVERLY because of this. A person should not have to go to work every day and put up with sexual harassment on the job after being sexually harassed in the street. I AM 56 YEARS OLD. WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE THEY LOOKING AT. To all of these men, ESPECIALLY the one at work, I say to you: YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL OF MY LIFE. NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST ME SHALL PROSPER. YOU THINK I DON’T HAVE A SUPPORT SYSTEM? THINK AGAIN.

– Iris D. Rice

Location: Everywhere I go

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