Guest Blog Post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2015

When I was 12, I faced my first street harasser. This is never easy for anyone to go through, let alone a young girl. Women and even girls 10 and younger can, have, and likely will face street harassment. But harassment has always been dealt with as a “term of endearment,” or just a fact of life when it really isn’t. According to Stop Street Harassment, 99% of women have been or will be harassed, and harassment can be anything from leering to physical touching. Is this really something we want 12 year old girls to face regularly?

This is an epidemic that we blindly pass off. Some of these girls are so young, they haven’t even entered middle school. I know all of this personally through the hashtag I started on Instagram, #WhatMySHSaid, where people from all over the world tell my followers and me the horrible experiences they’ve had with street harassers. The average age is twelve and the average reaction is disbelief, but with the topic comes horrible responses as well. I have heard people defending these pedophiles who creep on these girls, or say that street harassment is because of what the girl was wearing.

We live in a culture of blaming the victims, and by saying a twelve-year-old is asking to be followed as she walks home from school is a testament to this. We as a society can and should change this culture that we promote and live in. It should not be up to the victims to change their lives and patterns to make harassers comfortable. This is not a problem that should be ignored. Women and girls should not have to be confined in their homes just so they avoid getting harassed because that is not fair, and that is what’s being promoted by blaming the victims of street harassment.

If you’re being harassed, please let someone you trust know about it. Report it on websites and apps such as Hollaback!, and please be careful. Know that there is no right or wrong way to deal with harassment. Some women yell at the person who harassed them, some ignore them entirely. It’s truly up to you and whatever makes you feel comfortable.

The epidemic of street harassment is moving quickly towards underage girls and we should not be ignoring their stories and what is happening to them. As someone who is now seventeen, I can tell you personally that I have been harassed ever since I was twelve, even if I was wearing a hoodie and jeans, and even when I was in my own driveway. Harassment is so very real, and more and more girls and women are dealing with it everyday. Now is not the time to ignore it, but now is the time to fight it.

Chloe Parker, from @rebel.grrrl