Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“Damn, you’re making me hot!”

By

A few days ago, a group of my female friends and I were sitting on a bench in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. It was about 8:30 p.m. and there were about 30 or so people sitting around the fountain just hanging out with friends and significant others. My three friends and I were just talking and laughing when a man came up to us and started talking.

Here’s the conversation:
Man: “You ladies are having too much fun. Are you two sisters?” (Asking me and my friend who had her hand on my shoulder)
Friend: (nervous laugh) “Ha, no. We’re just friends.”
Man: “Well you guys are sexy! Damn, you’re making me hot!” (Talking directly to me) “Mmm big girl, I’d fuck that pussy up! Damn! I have to leave, you are making me hot! Damn!”

As he walked away he kept turning to look back at us. We all sat there in disbelief. One of my friends, who has a blackbelt in Karate, looked like she was about to go beat him up. At the time, I was completely shocked and thrown off guard. In retrospect, I wish I had said something to him or told him to leave. My friends and I felt completely violated, dirty, and uncomfortable. I’ve been cat-called at before but this was definitely the most disgusting and explicit experience I’ve had.

– anonymous

Location: Dupont Circle, Washington, DC

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.

Share

"Fine ass ho"

By

In Athens, Ohio, USA, I was having an evening workout around 7 PM. I was running in shorts and a tank top, minding my own business when a group of teenage boys in a sedan slowed down next to me. One of them said in a sing-songy voice:

“There she go, the fine ass ho.”

I WAS 15. I froze. I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing while they drove off laughing. I was scared to death, I wanted to cry, and most of all, I couldn’t understand why anyone in their right mind would terrorize a girl like that. Now that I’m 22, I realize that my offense was being in public while female. And, even more egregious was the offense of wearing shorts and a tank top while young and attractive.

I wish I could say that I reacted strongly every time I’ve been harassed since then, but it’s not that simple. You can never be prepared to react to a harasser, because it is impossible to tell which man will be the next perpetrator. So these days, I just stare straight ahead and stomp my ass off. Nothing scares harassers more than confidence. But, when men harass me anyway, I still find myself at a loss, frozen, scared, with no sense of how to react until after the fact.

– A.G.

Location: Athens, OH

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.

Share

“Fine ass ho”

By

In Athens, Ohio, USA, I was having an evening workout around 7 PM. I was running in shorts and a tank top, minding my own business when a group of teenage boys in a sedan slowed down next to me. One of them said in a sing-songy voice:

“There she go, the fine ass ho.”

I WAS 15. I froze. I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing while they drove off laughing. I was scared to death, I wanted to cry, and most of all, I couldn’t understand why anyone in their right mind would terrorize a girl like that. Now that I’m 22, I realize that my offense was being in public while female. And, even more egregious was the offense of wearing shorts and a tank top while young and attractive.

I wish I could say that I reacted strongly every time I’ve been harassed since then, but it’s not that simple. You can never be prepared to react to a harasser, because it is impossible to tell which man will be the next perpetrator. So these days, I just stare straight ahead and stomp my ass off. Nothing scares harassers more than confidence. But, when men harass me anyway, I still find myself at a loss, frozen, scared, with no sense of how to react until after the fact.

– A.G.

Location: Athens, OH

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.

Share

Quick News Cap

By

I’ve been working hard on my street harassment book and took a two day vacation over the weekend, so my posts have been lax the last week – sorry! Here’s a recap of three relevant news stories for the past week or so.

First, today journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein goes on trial again in Sudan. Her crime is wearing pants in public. Rather than take lashings as other women who were arrested did or rather than take immunity from her job with the United Nations she is electing to go through a public trial in an effort to change the laws saying women cannot wear pants in public. Her original trial was scheduled for August but it got rescheduled to today. Best of luck to her!

Second, it’s been one year since the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights released its report on the high rate of public sexual harassment in Egypt. Bikya Masr writes about how little things have changed for women since then.

“The government and police have done little to enforce the laws in place, which call for up to one-year in prison and a hefty fine for perpetrators.

“The police chief told another man ‘what if this were to happen to a foreigner or even an ambassador’s wife? Then we would have a problem.’ I felt as if I was being demeaned because I was Egyptian,” said an Egyptian woman who recently took an incident to a local police office. She argued that the police do not seem to put much weight when it comes to average Egyptians complaining of harassment.

And it is Egyptian women who face the brunt of harassment on a daily basis. ECWR agrees, saying that “not addressing this problem leads to total injustice, especially since victims often hesitate to report incidents for lack of confidence in the legal system or fear of being blamed herself.”

Third (and lastly), there is an interesting article in the Yemen Times about street harassment. In January 2009, a survey revealed that most women experience street harassment and for many of them this causes fear and anxiety about going into public spaces. The article from last week covers the role of Sana’a’s police patrol who monitor the street for crimes like street harassment, the low report rate of harassment, and the impact of Sheikhs on negative attitudes about women being in public (punish women who are not modest and not cloistered etc). Educators suggest the importance of teaching both boys and girls not to harass each other and to report people who do.

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.

Share

Captured on video without permission

By

I walked out on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan in DC Saturday night at about 9:30 p.m. I was on my cell phone text messaging a friend when a woman in a wheel chair violently wheeled herself up to about I’d say four feet in front of me grunting (nothing) but grunting violently. She stopped, then she abruptly did it again up to about two feet to the side of me. It startled me. I quickly stopped to move around her so she would not touch me, and then within seconds one of two guys on the other side of the sidewalk said to me, ” Oh, we got a phone camera too…we got a video camera, can we tape you, watch you…” I kept walking, and the other guy (now all of them behind me) said “keep walking, keep walking” as he taped me walk down the street on his cell phone. This low life (and his friend) have me on video and there’s nothing I can do about it.

– J.S.

Location: Columbia Road, Washington, DC

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.

Share