Street Harassment In The United States

Imagine, a young woman walking down a busy street in a big city. She is wearing jeans and a t-shirt. She passes an older man. As she is walking by she hears a loud shout, “Hey, princess, you look like you could handle all of this!” The woman looks back in fear. She picks up her pace. She is afraid she might be followed, fortunately, she makes it to her destination safely. She is still traumatized. I have recently read online narratives of people who have encountered street harassment. I never realized how bad street harassment really is until I read these stories. We may not see a large amount of street harassment here. However, in cities such as New York; it occurs on a daily basis. Bringing light to the issue of street harassment

Street harassment can also occur in restaurants and malls and public transportation. So you can't escape this phenomenon very easily. Street harassment is more common than you think According to a survey by the organization Stop Street Harassment, 65% of all women had experienced street harassment. Among all women 23% had been sexually touched, 20% had been followed, and 9% had been forced to do something sexual. Not only are women harassed, but also 25% of men had been victims. A higher percentage of this were members of the LGBT community. The most commonly reported form of harassment among men was homophobic or transphobic slurs which make up 9%. Many people don’t realize street harassment is a big issue Often times people consider street harassment a compliment or may just assume it isn’t a big deal because it doesn’t affect them personally. In recent years this issue has been brought to the public’s attention more. However oftentimes we hear about catcalling the most. This may cause people to not give it a second thought because they are just words. Although after hearing other types of street harassment we can all agree that this is a serious

Any form of street harassment— catcalling, groping, following— will not go away on its own. Prepare yourself for what you would do if you were faced with an attack Making other people aware of what you have experienced will help them understand what street harassment really is and help them defend themselves if they ever face it. If harassers know they can’t get away with their actions they will stop harassing innocent people. “Self respect by definition is a confidence and pride in feeling that you are behaving in an honorable and dignified manner. -Respect yourself by respecting others.”

― Miya Yamanouchi. Solving this problem can begin with one person. That person is you. Treat everyone with respect and equality. Just because someone is of a different gender, race, or sexuality doesn’t give you the right to harass them. If we spread respect we can make the world a better place. Unfortunately this goal is often not taken seriously. Imagine, a young woman walking down a busy street in a big city. She is wearing jeans and a t-shirt. She passes an older man. As she is walking by she hears a loud shout, “Hey, princess, you look like you could handle all of this!” The woman looks back in fear. She picks up her pace. She is afraid she might be followed. She sees the man walking towards her at a brisk pace, keeping her in his sight the whole way. She fears for her life. Now imagine, this woman is your daughter.