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23 Women Confess Their Scariest Encounters With Street Harassment

11.

I was waiting outside the place where I used to volunteer; it was night time and my dad was going to pick me up, but he hadn’t arrived yet. A man walked up to me and started trying to engage me in conversation even though I was reading a book and clearly didn’t want to be bothered. He kept asking me personal questions, like where I went to school, my name, what neighborhood I lived in, etc. Eventually I told him “I’m not interested; please stop talking to me” and he got kind of angry, though thankfully not violent/aggressive. Then he told me that his workplace was in the neighborhood so he’d seen me around before. That made me decide to never wait outside the building by myself at night anymore.

12.

Went with my mum to Paris when I was about 15. Sitting on a bench resting our feet when some much older man sits down beside me. Nobody says anything. Finally my mum gets up and starts walking off without saying anything or looking at me- we were tired and a bit grumpy by that point in a long day of walking. Older guy takes the chance to kiss me on the face. I, being young and scared, don’t know how to react, and awkwardly jump up and sprint off after my mum. I was mad at her for a good while after that for not keeping a closer eye on me, especially around this shady guy… But I should blame him alone for doing such a disgusting thing.

13.

About a year ago I was working an EMT shift at about 5 am. They were doing construction in the EMS station’s parking lot, so I had to park at a nearby bank a few blocks down. At this time in the morning, the entire area was desolate except for this one other car at the bank. When I get out of my car to begin walking to the station, the other car begins following me. A man in the car sticks his head out the window and asks, “are you a cop? where are you going all alone?” I just kept my head down and began walking faster, but he continued to follow me. He then pulled right up along side me and asks, “have I been naughty, do I need to be arrested?” My answer was to run as fast as I could to the station without looking back.

14.

Once I had an early flight out of Boston and decided to take the subway since it was so much cheaper than a cab. It was early enough that the station was pretty much abandoned. I was taking the escalator down to the subway with my luggage and this guy saw me and stood at the bottom of the escalator just silently staring while the escalator took me closer and closer to him. I couldn’t get away, I couldn’t run back up the escalator with my luggage, there was nothing I could do except wait. When I got the the bottom, he tried to block my way, I bumped back into my suitcase and it started flipping with the moving escalator. I scrambled, grabbed it in the flurry and ran away. I might have said something but I don’t even remember. He didn’t follow me, but that was absolutely terrifying.

15.

Had a car follow me while I was jogging. Luckily I lived in a housing development at the time so when I got back there, I ducked behind a row of houses and made my way back to my house through backyards so he couldn’t see where I lived. That was the first and last time I wore a tank top while jogging outside…and now I don’t even jog outside anymore.

Written by Laura McNairy

Laura is a freelance writer for TFLN. She likes to write about what she knows best — dating, sex, and being awkward, but usually in the opposite order. She is the Assistant Editor and videographer for Peach Fuzz, a sex-positive nudie magazine in ATX.