Tube journeys

Submitted by: Jen

Isn’t it weird that harassment seems to come in little concentrated waves? Must be something in the air.

Yesterday morning on the Piccadilly line into central London, the well-dressed businessman opposite me was acting damn suspiciously with his camera phone - holding it up and directing it to me and various other women in the carriage. I’m pretty sure he was doing what I thought he was when I looked up and saw it directed at my legs. I really didn’t have the energy to have to start a scene, and just gave him the death glare. Seriously dude, anyone sat near you can SEE what you’re doing.

Coming home, again on the Piccadilly line, it’s packed and I have to stand in the aisle. The man sat down next to me is an elderly man in a baseball cap and dusty work clothes, supposedly sleeping. After standing there a couple of minutes though, I realise he’s not sleeping, but peeking out from his cap to look at my mid-section and the girl’s legs next to me, whilst making these ‘Mmm, mmm’ noises to himself. I turn around pointedly so my back’s to him. Obviously, this denial of his ‘rights’ is too much to stomach, so he swats my bag with his newspaper and then shoves me with his shoulder when he gets off a couple of stops later. What, do you have a mental age of 15?!

So, two guys from completely different walks of life, united by one thing: their unwavering belief that I am their fucking entertainment.

176 bus in london

REPORTING = RESULTS! Check this story!!

Submitted by: Ads

This happened a while ago but I’m still pissed about the experience so I thought I’d post on Hollaback LDN. At the time only Hollaback NYC

existed, but I feel that I must share this especially since I have
pictures.
I was going out to meet friends at about 5pm on a Thursday or Friday, and got on the 176 bus at Champion hill going north to Tottenham court road. I was sitting behind the steps in the upper deck and there was a guy sitting across the aisle from me. 2 seats and the aisle were empty between us and there were only a handful of people in the back of the bus. A few minutes into the ride I noticed the guy moving his hand and jacking off, barely covering himself with a newspaper. His penis was totally out and he was looking straight at me. I ran downstairs, shocked, and tried to call the police. I was so shocked I didn’t have the presence of mind to talk to the driver, who later told me that he would have sent a red alert and the police would hve come to meet the bus. OF course I was put on hold and never got through but when that pervy arsehole came downstairs I managed to snap a few pics of him before he got off on Walworth Road in Elephant and Castle. I filed a police report,
which was a hassle, but now he’s on a national sex offenders database.

Submitted by: Emily

I have experienced so much street harassment I hardly know where to start! It feels so good to have everyone here understand and agree that it is unacceptable and that it is the harasser’s problem, not ours. Thank you!

This morning a man hissed at me on the train station at 8am. Hissed. What does that even mean?! Prick.

The most irritating street harassment I’ve experienced in a while was the guy who decided that my sweaty, badly-dressed self on  the way home from the gym (where I go to build MUSCLES for tea kwon do so I can kick dickheads hard in the balls!!) was desperate for his attention. I am tired of having to avert my gaze and shuffle past men in the street so as not to provide them with even the tiniest bit of encouragement, but I mistakenly made eye contact with this tosser. Because he was staring fixedly at me. And I was GLARING at him. That is not encouraging!

He said ‘Hey sexy looking gorgeous tonight’ and I told him not to speak to strange women on the street and have more respect. He shouted ‘Why?’ (at this point we were past each other but he had turned back in my direction) and I yelled ‘Because I for one don’t like it!’ And the incredible thing is, his parting shot was ‘That’s your problem then!’

No, not my problem. Your problem. My reaction to street harassment does not constitute the problem with street harassment. I wrote about this on the LASH site too but it is just so frustrating that I needed to say it again!

Funny Video on My Little Funny

Check out ‘Nice Ass’ on My Little Funny it’ll make you laugh. 

xx

Write up on UPLIFT magazine

Dearbhaile Kitt gives a rad write-up on UPLIFT online magazine. Check it ooooowwwwwt. 

Lameo dude at house party.

I got ass-slapped (hard) at a good friend of mine’s house party on Saturday. I turned around and asked who’d done it and after some hesitation the guy owned up. As it turns out he was a friend of a friend of mine. The friend immediately poured forth excuses and praise ‘i know that was a shitty thing to do but he’s a nice guy really, he’s a good guy, don’t freak out’. Apparently he’d been doing it to loads of girls that night and he was just messing about. I sat down with the dude and had an (admittedly, slightly drunken) chat with him in an attempt to make him see what he’d done was out of line. I was trying really hard to keep my cool, and be reasonable with who was obviously an intelligent, normal young guy, who actually had a lot of positive opinions on feminism and equality, but was just a bit childish and ignorant.  He failed to see the bigger picture though, and claimed, in the end that in the apparently sexualized environment of a house party where girls (me) wore tight skirts, it was simply to be expected.  When i put to him that he doesn’t know anything about the girl he’s harassing, what if i had been a rape victim? How did he think he would have made me feel? He responded that if i had been he didn’t think i would go out dressed in tight skirts. That says it all, really. 

I was really bummed out, because as i said, this guy wasn’t your stereotypical creepy gross weird old dude, he was a young smart guy, who clearly thought what he was doing was not unacceptable, and if i can’t change the opinions of men like that, what chance do i have with the rest of them? Its difficult because its hard for some people to see what they’ve done-a cheeky slap, a ‘complimentary’ comment, a little pinch-is really fucking annoying, at best, for us girls, and at worst; scary, intimidating and totally demeaning. Its exhausting, when he has been the fourth, fifth, sixth, tenth guy that day to take it upon himself to piss me off because of the way i look or dress, and because i’m a woman, and its just how things are. I know if i’d had had a boyfriend, i know know know it, then that guy would have apologized to that boyfriend, straight up. 

Maybe the worst thing about it was that, in my frustration i ended up slapping the one guy who does have a right to be intimate with me round the face later on that night for touching my bum. Mental.