Devon’s Story: The Third Option

Walking to the public library, guy in a satellite truck honked at me. I flipped him off. Walking home, same guy honked again; I flipped him off again; and two other guys-in-vans waved and hollered a few cars later. I’m looking for a third option…like calling their bosses, mothers, proctologists, and child support officers.

Published on June 19, 2013 at 5:00 pm

Emily’s Story: “catches me offguard”

This is an online hollaback to a person who probably created a fake profile just for harassment purposes considering his profile name is Jon Smith.
I think he might have seen my post on a feminist pro-body hair fan page called “F*ck Shaving” where women posts pictures of their hairy selves. I posted something like this article, although I cant find the one I actually posted, on pubic hair and received the message that I screen shot and attached here.

I am a women’s studies major, so I know a bit about our patriarchal society and how it produces attitudes about women like this person must have, but it still catches me off guard when people have the audacity to send harassing messages like these. I’m probably not in any real danger, but this messages reminds me of the sort of sexism people are capable of. And now I’m going to make sure that my privacy settings don’t allow anyone who isn’t my friend see what city I’m in…

Published on June 19, 2013 at 3:30 pm

Stephanie’s Story: Sleazy Scumbag

So a few months ago I was waiting outside at school for my ride one morning when this dude starts hitting on me hardcore. He’s telling me how cute I am and I’m trying to just ignore him, then he asks me if I have a boyfriend and I told him I did (even though I don’t) and he goes, “You were supposed to say no.”

Just as I’m wondering what the hell this dude’s problem is, he comes up closer to me and tells me how I should give my “boyfriend” his number and I’m like wtf why??? He tells me because he wants to take him out so he can try and break us up. What a fucking scumbag.

Published on June 19, 2013 at 11:50 am

Vicki’s Story: Hot Tub Hollaback!

Today I was at my local indoor pool, looking after the two young boys I nanny for. While in the hot tub, I noticed two older boys, probably around age 13 or 14. The boys seemed to recognize one of the kids I was caring for from school, but he seemed very wary of them, as the way they were acting was very loud, aggressive, and in-your-face. The entire time we were there, they kept ogling my breasts, and I could feel their eyes on my back when I stood up. Both of the older boys had googles and snorkels with them, and kept going underwater and not-so-subtly pressing on my ass with their entire torsos as they swam by. The first time it happened, I was like, “Well, I’m sure that was just an accident… I mean, the undertow from the jets in the hot tub IS pretty strong, he could have easily swum astray and bumped into me”. The second time I was like, “Yeah… his hand just brushed my crotch… Undertow definitely doesn’t force someone to do that…”. Just when I thought it was over, one of them came around a third time when I wasn’t looking and rubbed up hard against me. While he was underwater and pressing me, I made eye contact with the other one (he had a big grin on his face) and the little shit knew exactly what was happening, disgusting little pervert. When the groper came up for air after the third time, I gave him a look that said, “You touch me again and I’ll kick your fucking teeth out” and they just laughed, like my anger and disgust at them was hilarious. After their laughter died down and they looked ready to pull the same shit again, I grabbed the kids, gave the older boys a cold look, and said, “You know exactly what you were just doing. Don’t be such dicks.” They looked surprised that I had cursed at them, but laughed again anyways. I left feeling disgusted and appalled that boys so young already had such poor impulse control and such a lack of respect for women’s bodies and feelings. When things like this happen to me in my own community, and in a public place, it makes me feel certain that today’s brazen and shameless groper is tomorrow’s perpetrator of rape.

Published on June 19, 2013 at 10:58 am

Kels’ Story: Evading the Enemy

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to leave the office a little earlier than usual. Leaving work, I hop on the metro, and once I arrive at the metro station, I have to take a bus home. Unfortunately, the bus drops me off at the bottom of a large hill, so I have a 10 minute walk home everyday. As I began my journey up the street, a man in a car with darkened windows drove past me, slowly, and rolled down his window. He literally stopped his car in the middle of the road, and waited until I caught up. As I passed, he stuck his head out the window and stared at me, looking me up and down. I instantly felt uncomfortable, and walked away quickly. Then, when I thought the man had driven away, I noticed that he has turned around in someone’s driveway, and was driving past me again, going less than 5 mph. He shouted something out the window at me and stopped in the road again. Fear rushed over me and I grabbed my pepper spray. The man continued to follow me, driving slowly, until a car drove up behind him, and he sped away. I should NEVER have to fear for my safety walking home, especially in broad daylight. I am lucky the situation was not a lot worse than it was.

Published on June 18, 2013 at 5:20 pm

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