Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“This guy then ran after me and chased me”

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Last August I was walking home after a gig and as I live in Manchester City Centre I’d always been comfortable walking home on my own as its fairly busy. Sometimes you’d get wolf whistles or lewd comments from groups of men, but nothing that made me feel threatened.

Then last August, as I said, I was walking home from a gig when I got to Market St, which is close to where I live in the Northern Quarter. It was midnight so not as busy as during the day but still a fair few people around so thought I’d be ok, as I had been hundreds of times beforehand.

I’d just got to where the escalators from the foodcourt area, and I noticed this guy who was hanging around the seats near the escalators. I had a bad feeling in my tummy about this guy so I put my head down and quickened my pace. He seemed to notice me and pick on me as he came over and looked at me, I’ll never forget that look in his eyes, he was psycho! He obviously could tell I was intimidated and he said, “Run love, run” and I did. I always thought if i was in a situation like that I would stand up for myself but in reality I was terrified and just ran.

This guy then ran after me and chased me all the way up Market Street. When I got to High Street I had to stop to get my breath and I thought he had got bored but he hadn’t and he was chasing me still. So I ran along High Street and it was only that I bumped into someone I knew who walked me to my building that he didn’t catch up with me. What freaked me out even more is that about half an hour later, i was watching out of my bedroom window and I saw him cross the road in front of my building.

The incident really freaked me out and I’m still having anxiety problems related to this.

– Katie

Location: Manchester City Centre, United Kingdom

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“That it happens so much that women and girls just ‘deal with it’ is the most troubling thing”

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About a month ago, i went to visit my friend, who’s a student at Manchester university. We got harassed every single night we went out that week (and once during the day when we were out shopping – a drunk guy staggered over to us and tried to kiss my friend).

The event that sticks in my mind the most is this one: we were returning from a night out – it was about 2 am. We had to catch a bus back to the halls of residence from the town centre. This guy started following us – he looked like he was about 30, and i’m pretty sure he was drunk.

He started yelling really offensive stuff at us (“One of you bitches come over here and give me head”, for example – and no doubt the fact that i can remember it shows how disturbed i was by it), but we just tried to ignore him. Then he got on the same bus that we caught, sitting a couple of seats behind us – fortunately there were quite a few other people on the bus, so he piped down. I’ll admit, i was sort of scared to get off the bus when we reached our stop, in case he started following us again, but fortunately he didn’t.

Like i said, we were getting yelled at every night we went out. But the worse thing about it is, when i spoke to my friend about it, she just said “Yeah, you get a lot of it in Manchester – you just get used to it after a while, and don’t go out by yourself at night.”

The very fact that it happens so much that women and girls just ‘deal with it’ is the most troubling thing.

–  Emily

Location: Manchester city centre, United Kingdom

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“Lose some weight you tramp!”

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Just before 5 p.m. on March 19th I was walking along Shude Hill in Manchester, next to the shopping centre. As I reached the crossing next to the bus station I became aware of a man standing alone on the other side shouting abuse at virtually every woman walking past. Anyone dressed up nicely was nasty, dirty, a slut, a whore, a tart etc, and I caught part of a bizarre threat involving rectal insertion directed at one teenage girl. As I walked past I got, “Lose some weight you tramp!” screamed right in my ear.

He was really close to me, and I just turned round and screamed ‘Who the **** are you?’ which did shut him up for about three seconds before he started on other women again. Everyone else just walked past ignoring him. He was just one guy on his own. I was terrified of what he might do after I shouted at him, but I was so angry that nobody was standing up to him. It took me about an hour to stop shaking.

– AJ

Location: Manchester, UK

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Male entitlement

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I was walking back to my apartment in Manchester (UK), having done some grocery shopping. It was winter time and very cold, so the only flesh showing was my face. I’m usually listening to music as I’m walking about, so I had earphones in, but I suddenly noticed there was a man behind me and that he was trying to talk to me.

I turned round as I caught the end of the sentence: “… I just had to tell you, you look beautiful.”

I said, “Okay, thank you” and carried on walking.

He continued to follow me saying, “I know it’s an inconvenient time and you’re in a rush but I just had to say that.”

I replied, “Yes it is really, but thanks anyway.”

The man seemed shocked and said, “Oh” as if I was going to entertain the idea of a conversation with him.

Of all the situations of harassment I’ve had I probably dealt with this one the best, but it still made me angry and frustrated. I couldn’t understand why he had picked me out from the crowds that were around or why he thought I would be flattered by that.

– HC

Location: Manchester, UK

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Bus Slap

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I had caught a bus in Manchester (UK) in the evening with a friend of mine and we sat near the back of the bus. A couple of stops later two young men got on and approached us and sat down behind us. One of them leaned forward and tried to start a conversation. I tried to be polite but indicated I didn’t really want to speak to them. He then asked if he could go with us to wherever we were going and where we lived. I told him I was obviously going to say no and my friend, who was panicking, asked if we could get off the bus suddenly so they wouldn’t have a chance to follow us or know where we lived.

As I got up to leave, the one who had been speaking to me slapped me on the backside and laughed. At the time I was just glad to be getting off the bus but found the whole thing very intimidating. My friend wanted to run home in case they got off at the next stop, which clearly showed how intimidated she was as well.

When I look back on the situation it makes me angry to think that he thought he had a right to touch me. I’d like to say I would deal with the situation differently if it happened again, but I can’t say I would know what to do.

– Hannah

Location: Manchester, UK

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