Should women call the police on their street harassers?

One of the first things every little girl is taught is that, if you ignore little boys when they taunt you, they will eventually stop. Except that’s not true. They never stop. When one little boy drops the mic, another picks it up. The torment forms a chain of incorrigible links. That harassment is best ignored is a treacherous lesson most girls carry into adulthood; it is a lecherous lesson most boys carry into adulthood, too. So many American men see harassment is a free pass. Any woman walking down the street is fair game, some animal to be hunted and tortured for fun. Because society has given them that right, by default, by silence.

Many women have raised awareness about street harassment. They’ve written about it. They’ve filmed it. Society can see through a clear lens how vile and disgusting street harassment feels. We should be awake. We should be aware. We should be effecting change. We need to keep talking about street harassment. But we also need to talk about how to make it stop.

I think about street harassment every day because I deal with it every day. As a female runner, I’m a prime target.

Nowadays, I enjoy running on the track because it usually feels safer than running in the streets, where I’m subjected to a variety of hazards besides terrible driving. Running around town, I’ve…