I lived near the Rosslyn metro during a semester I spent in DC this past spring. I always went up to the Safeway near my apartment.
One afternoon I was quietly shopping in an aisle and an older, chubby man walked past me then stopped. I tried ignoring him thinking he’d carry on. No. He tells me, “You’ve dropped your smile.” I was so stunned and shocked I was being hit on in a grocery store I asked him to repeat himself. He repeated the statement and I politely laughed. That wasn’t it. He said, “You… you have the most beautiful body…” all the while looking me up and down like I was something he could purchase. “No really, are you a model?” he asks. At that point I turned cold, irritated this was happening to me. I told him I was in a hurry and turned and squealed my cart down the aisle as fast as I could.
Other than that, my experience in DC was fantastic- what a fabulous city!
Location: Rosslyn, VA
Submitted by Anonymous
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Categories: Rosslyn
Tagged: fabulous city, model, Safeway, smile
Another Harassment Hill story…
I was walking down 14th St. NW coming home from Target on Saturday evening, when a man standing at a bus stop says loudly at me, “Hey, you had better smile and make the world a better place!” He said it as a command, but he also seemed quite amused with himself and was chuckling.
I wish I had the quick thinking and/or guts to have said, “Hey, maybe you could make the world a better place by not harassing women who are just trying to walk down the street,” but instead I just scowled at him, intentionally making the least smiley face I could. As I kept moving down the hill, he started to shout something at my back like, “Hey now girl, I was just trying to…” but he trailed off.
Location: 14th Street NW, Columbia Heights
Submitted by CR
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Categories: Harassment Hill
Tagged: i wish, smile, target
