Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Brugge Creeper

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Over spring break the year I studied abroad in college, I traveled a few days with friends, and then I traveled alone for a week. The first day of my lone travels, I went sightseeing in beautiful Brugge, Belgium. As I walked around the downtown area, I started to feel like I was being followed. I went in a shop, the guy went in a shop. I went back to the town square, there he was, and so on for maybe 15 minutes. I was getting really nervous and the only thing keeping me from feeling panicked was that I was in a very crowded area.

Photo from contributor in town square where she was followed

Then he came up to me and started speaking to me in French. My socialized politeness kicked in and I told him I only spoke a little French and tried to understand what he was saying. He was trying to get me to go with him to meet his friends and have some drinks. This sounded quite terrifying and a potential recipe for disaster.

As I worked on how to say no without being mean (politeness again), he became bolder and put his arm around me and acted like he would kiss me. I quickly moved away from him and said I had to meet friends (a lie since I was alone) and then hurried away (finally I was done being polite).

I was really scared he would follow me and I took off at a brisk pace and zig-zagged up and down busy streets until I had lost him. By then I had no idea where I was and I had to consult my map and figure out how to get to the hostel where I was staying. I was pretty shaken up – literally – over what had happened and I was very relieved I had lost him. Chances are he meant no harm, but I was taking no chances. And maybe he did. He’d already been physically aggressive toward me. And had he meant harm, some people would have blamed me because I was a 21-year-old woman traveling alone.

I felt like hiding in the hostel but after a quick break, I made myself get back out there to sightsee. I would only be there that day and I didn’t want to miss out on seeing Brugge because of some creepy guy. I didn’t see him again but kept a wary eye the rest of the day.

– holly

Location: Brugge, Belgium

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.

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I’ve never felt so clueless about handling harassment

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This is a follow up to “Have a nice day…you crazy bitch!”

I was walking my usual path to the bus stop this morning and saw the car that the men who harassed me last month used. I looked through my cell phone photos to compare it to the actual car, and sure enough, they’re one in the same. The things that aren’t clear enough in the original photo were more clear to me in person, such as a college decal on the top of the rear window, and an apartment complex parking tag in the rear window’s lower right corner. I took closer photos so I could have a clearer shot of the license plate and decals.

A rush of anger ran through me. I want to do something about it. I thought about printing up the original story and having it on me so if I were to see that car yet again, I could put it on their windshield so they know that their rude behavior is now public. I thought about getting someone involved, but who? Who would I talk to about this? Would I talk to Key Elementary and get them involved, since these guys park near them (I assume these guys work nearby, maybe in the Arlington County Building), or would they say it’s not their problem since it’s not technically on their property?

I’ve never felt so clueless about how to handle harassment before! And I’m glad it was only the car I’d seen today, and not the actual harassers. I don’t know how I’d feel if I ever ran into those losers again.

– anonymous

Location: Arlington, VA

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.

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Street Harassment Activism in History

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Because the internet is helping fuel discussions about and activism against street harassment, it can be easy for those of us in a young generation to think this is a new issue no one has addressed before. But women have been speaking out against street harassment for a few decades. For women’s history month, I want to point out a few of them on the scholarly side and acknowledge their work.

  • In 1981, Micaela di Leonardo wrote an article called “Political Economy of Street Harassment.” It’s the earliest place where I’ve seen the term street harassment used in the context of men harassing women because of their gender.
  • In 1984, Cheryl Benard and Edith Schlaffer conducted the first – and really the only – study on why men harass women. They published their findings in  an article called “The Man in the Street: Why He Harasses,” found in the book Feminist Frameworks.
  • Cynthia Grant Bowman wrote an extensive legal piece on street harassment called  “Street Harassment and the Informal Ghettoization of Women,“ for Harvard Law Review in 1993.
  • Carol Brooks Gardner led the first full-scale study on what she terms public harassment by studying 500 people in Indianapolis. Her findings are published in Passing By: Gender and Public Harassment (1995).
  • In 2002, Deirdre Davis wrote about street harassment and African American women in the article “The Harm that Has No Name: Street Harassment, Embodiment, and African American Women” published in Gender Struggles: Practical Approaches to Contemporary Feminism.

Each woman paved the way for later research on the topics. I have a full list of articles and books I’ve come across that deal with street harassment on my website if you’re interested in learning more.

Thank you to each of these woman (and to everyone I didn’t list but who have worked on this issue) for helping us get this far in addressing the widespread problem of street harassment.

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Bus stop harassment

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I was leaving an open stage I performed at regularly at about midnight. I had to wait for the bus, but I was on a well-lit street, so I wasn’t too worried. A car full of young men drove by. One of them hung his head out the window and yelled, “Hey slut!” The driver honked at me.

I gave them the finger. I was scared that they might stop and do something worse to me, but my pride won over my fear. They gave me the finger back and drove away.

– MH

Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada

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.

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Throwing rose petals

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In Fredrick, MD, a truck driver harassed a 14-year-old girl as she was walking to school. He kept trying to talk to her and get her attention by throwing rose petals and candy out of the window in her direction. The truck made a u-turn and passed her again and the truck driver harassed her some more. The girl then went to a nearby restaurant and called her mother, who notified the police. The driver was not found.

Police are looking into the incident and asks anyone with information to use their tip line at 301-600-TIPS (8477).

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