I remember the very first time I experienced street
harassment.[1] I
was 12 years old and attempting to do cartwheels on the front lawn of my
grandmother’s house. With abandon and a lack of self-consciousness, I focused
on getting my legs high in the air. A man in a passing truck whistled loudly and
yelled at me. I did not understand the words he yelled, but understood that he
had seen me in a way that I did not see myself.
Here it
is more than 50 years later and I just experienced street harassment. This morning I left my car at a body shop a
couple of blocks from my house and at 4:50, I was walking briskly to make it to
the shop before they closed at 5 pm. A man driving by yelled at me, “Grandma!” -amazing how much contempt his tone conveyed in shouting that one word.
Although
I have experienced street harassment over the years, what struck me today was
the similarity with my first experience over 50 years ago. In both cases, I was
fully and unself-consciously in my body, taking up my space with a clear
purpose in mind. In both cases, I was acting without consideration for another’s
gaze or judgment. Although I imagine
that neither harasser could articulate his motivation for yelling at a stranger,
I think that the glimpse of a girl/woman fully claiming her body without
consideration of how she was seen by others rattled their gender binary cages.
[1] Stop Street
Harassment defines such harassment as “any action or comment between strangers
in public places that is disrespectful, unwelcome, threatening and/or harassing
and is motivated by gender or sexual orientation or gender
expression. Street
harassment is a human rights issue because it limits women’s ability to be in
public as often or as
comfortably as most men.” For
more, check out http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/
