An Open Letter to Street Harassers Everywhere
From Girl to Woman: My Journey With Street Harassment
Dear Harasser,
Of course, you won’t feel like I’m speaking to you. You’ll acknowledge scumbags harass women all the time, but that’s not what you do. You do it as a joke. Or it’s only handing out compliments. Or you just want to talk to women. The problem sits with all these other men.
So, let me define who ‘you’ are. You’re the guy that, for whatever reason, has already whistled at a woman who walked by. Or the one throwing an insult at her (‘Slut!’), or a comment about her appearance (‘Sexy’, ‘Very charming!’, ’Nice ass!’) as she walked past you, with an objectifying tone. Sometimes it’s even something you’ll whisper near her ear, especially for her. You might also be the guy that follows her, even for a minute. Or undresses her with your eyes in such an obvious way she’ll have to notice. Or the one who’ll shout ‘Miss! Hey, Miss!’ from your spot on the side of the street, asking her to stop for you, so as to bother her, because you know full well it’s the only thing that’ll come out of it.
But ‘you’ can also be the ‘polite’ guy who’s tried engaging a conversation in a nice manner. Except you’ll keep insisting even though she will show all the signs of not wanting to participate from the beginning…
