Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Street Harassment Round Up – July 5

By

Stories:

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.

In the News:

Upcoming Events:

  • July 8 (8 – 11:55 p.m.): SafeWalk Benefit by Friends of RightRides to help offset the operational costs of SafeWalk to provide safe, free walks to any destination in the northern Brooklyn area on Friday nights. Cost: $6-10 sliding scale. Location: Silent Barn, 915 Wyckoff, Brooklyn, NY. More info
  • July 10 (7 – 10 p.m.): BACK UP! concrete diaries documentary screening as part of Docs in Progress. Cost: $5 suggested donation. Location: George Washington University Media & Public Affairs Building, 805 21st Street NW, Auditorium B-07, Washington, DC. More info

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

Joan Fayer’s article “Changes in Gender Use of Public Space in Puerto Rico,” in Voices in the Street: Explorations in Gender, Media, and Public Space, eds Susan J. Drucker and Gary Gumpert (New Jersey: Hampton Press, Inc: 1996).

Share

Are You Conceited or Ugly?

By

I was walking down the street in the Bronx to go catch the 6 train. As I’m walking, a man begins to follow me. He began talking to me and started saying things like “what are you? conceited or ugly?” after I had kept walking and not paying attention to him. Since he evidently was becoming annoyed when calling me ugly did not work. I guess he was expecting me to stop and turn around to prove that I’m not ugly nor conceited. He continued on to follow me and explain to me that it is his day off and he can follow me all day. I guess he thought that threatening to stalk a woman is a good way to get her to stop and give him attention. After trying to ignore, I could no longer handle it and was beginning to become frightened, feeling like he really was going to follow me and not leave me alone. Out of nerves, I dialed my friend on my cell phone and asked if she wanted her sweater, since it was left in my house, after she said yes, I did a U-turn and walked across the street back to my house. Thankfully he did not follow.

– Lisa

Location: Bronx, New York

(Submit your stories here)

Share

No, I Will Not Marry You!

By

After getting off the bus, I make a call on my cell phone, passing by a man who says, “Hey baby. Marry me.” I had already passed him when he said it so I just kept walking. I sat down at a Coldstone Creamery table to finish the conversation and eat a snack when the guy comes over and stands in front of me. He says hi and quickly leans in toward my neck when I tell him very loudly and firmly to leave me alone and get away from me. He acts insulted and tells me he only wanted to look at what was on my necklace. I give him a look of contempt and he finally leaves me alone, yelling “Fuck you! Fuck you you fucking bitch!” the entire time he walks down the sidewalk.

I am a student here in Honolulu, I have no car and I am almost always by myself when I run errands at the store or grocery. I am absolutely sick of dealing with this type of bullshit every time I leave my home. I never dealt with this sort of constant harassment in any other city I have lived in.

I am certainly not going to stop telling these pathetic old men to leave me alone just because they will yell and threaten me. I felt completely furious. I was angrier than the time I was waiting at a bus stop and a man got off and persisted to say he’d seen me before and took out his wallet to get out money when I threatened to call the police to get him to leave. Enough is enough, but what can I do?! I don’t know what to do anymore and fear that if I keep having to deal with this on an almost daily basis I will explode on someone one day.

– anonymous

Location: 710 Keeaumoku St, Honolulu, HI

Share

Enough is Enough!

By

I am nineteen years old, and I moved to Chicago about four months ago for school. I have consistently been harassed at least two or three times a week on the streets. I don’t wear skimpy outfits, I just dress normally and I am going on about my day when strange men come up to me and harass me.

I was waiting for a bus the other day when a guy pulled up in his car and started calling me “blondie” and kept asking me to party with him. He kept his up for at least five straight minutes, until my bus came. I had a man come up and whisper “hey pretty lady” into my ear a few weeks ago. One man went off on me on a bus, calling me horrible names when I ignored his advances. These sort of things happen all the time, and I am so sick of it. Honestly, it scares the hell out of me, especially when I’m alone at night. What makes me mad is that I’m too afraid to say anything to the men, or to do anything other than completely ignore them, because I’m afraid they’ll hurt me. Every single one of my female friends in Chicago have had similar experiences, mostly on public transit. We all ignore it, because we are all afraid that these men will physically harm us.

It makes me especially angry when people are all around and do nothing to stop it; my friend and I were on the train this winter when a drunk man proceeded to lay on the ground in front of us and stare openly at our breasts while yelling nonsensically. The train was full of people, and none of them did anything to help us, even though we were clearly uncomfortable and freaked out.

Now that it’s summer, I would love to go out in shorts or cute dresses, but whenever I do, I get even more harassment from men. It’s just become a rule to never walk alone at night, to never look at people in the eyes or talk back.

I love Chicago, but the government absolutely has to do something about this problem, especially on the L (the train). That is one place where they could keep women safe, where they could send out security to patrol on a regular basis. Yes, they have a “press for emergency” button, but how long will it take help to get there? Most of the time, the men are gone, or women are too afraid to make a stand. This has to stop!

-Liz Anderson

Share

Butt Slap Leads to Activism

By

Recently I was slapped on the butt by a teenager on a bicycle while I was jogging in my neighborhood. He simply came up behind me, spanked me, and furiously pedaled away. I was wearing sweatpants and my little brother’s oversized soccer jersey. No makeup, greasy ponytail – I looked like crap (though, even if I had been provocatively dressed, it would be no excuse for this boy’s behaviour).

After screaming profusely at the kid and his friends, who rode away laughing like hyenas, I walked home almost in tears, feeling so violated and frustrated with society in general. I can’t stop asking myself how somebody, especially at such a young age, would think that he has the right to act like that towards another person. It’s scary. I feel as though women over the age of 12 can rarely step outdoors wearing anything less than a parka without being jeered at by creepy men anymore. And I’m frustrated.

[As a result], I am working on a story for a school assignment on the subject of street harassment…Street Harassment is positively rampant in London, [Ontario,  Canada], and I think that my campus community would respond positively to an article like this. Hopefully, it will inspire girls in London to start fighting back against the creeps that scream at us from their cars. At the very least, it can raise awareness about the fact that street harassment isn’t a harmless game.

– L.O.

Share