Holla Back DC!

Even On Duty Police…

hollabackdc — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:12:47 +0000

Photo by davidsonscott15 via flickr

I’m a female UMD student living off campus, so I have to walk next to busy roadways to get to class. I get verbally harassed at least once most days, usually by men driving by in cars. My skin is pretty tough at this point, but a few incidents involving Prince George’s County Police have really bothered me. During both of these incidents I was “cat called” by cops driving by in their cruisers. They turned on their lights and their sirens for a split second while driving past me. It was just like when men slow down and honk or yell… But these were ON DUTY POLICE using their vehicles to intimidate a woman. It’s frightening that the men who are supposed to serve and protect have the same mentality as the men we need to be protected from.

Submitted by Anonymous on 12/04/2009

Location: Near the intersection of Adelphi Road and Pennsylvania St. Hyattsville, MD; Route 1 (Near Plato’s Diner), College Park, MD

Do you have a personal experience with gender-based public sexual harassment you would like to submit? Just click here and fill out the online submission form. All submissions are posted anonymously unless you specify.

Harassing on the Clock

hollabackdc — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:06:51 +0000

Photo by laffy4k via flickr

Our friend over at Stop Street Harassment Blog wrote a great post on whether or not employers should be responsible when their employees harass in public while on the clock. We’ve had some dialogue on this blog around the issue and even a few success stories of individuals who reported an incident to the harasser’s employer. We want to know your thoughts on the issue as we are brainstorming the types of policies and programs that are needed in our community to address gender-based public sexual harassment. What are the pros with having companies and businesses implement a Harassment Hotline. Do you see any cons to a system like this?

Cross posted from Stop Street Harassment Blog:

Should employers be responsible if their employees harass women in public, while the employee is on the job?

Recently I read Deborah Thompson’s article “‘The Woman in the Street:’ Reclaiming the Public Space from Sexual Harassment” (a 1994 article in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism) and I like her ideas on this topic.

“While Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination] was never intended to apply outside the workplace, its hostile environment principles provide a useful framework from which to develop a liability regime to protect all women who are street harassed by ‘men at work.’

This regime would hold employers vicariously liable for public sexual harassment by their employees if the employer failed to warn workers that street harassment is intolerable, failed to implement as system by which members of the public could formally file a complaint, or failed to take remedial action when members of the public complained about harassment by their employees.

It would be relatively easy to develop a complaint procedure for street harassment. For example, instead of signs on the back of company trucks that read, ‘How’s my driving, call 1-800-555-1212,’ trucks and taxis could display signs that read, ‘If the driver of this vehicle harasses you, call 1-800-555-1212.’

Similarly at construction sites, there should be a number for women to call to complain about harassment by workers. Such a ‘Harassment Hotline’ would be a first step in ending the hostile environment of outdoor workplaces.

It would send a valuable message that a particular company cares about its image and does not tolerate workers who invade and bombard communities with sexual harassment…

In sum, the societal interest of promoting the privacy, safety, mobility, and equality of women should outweigh the desire of employees to engage in recreational sexual harassment while on the job.”

What do you think?

Here are two stories submitted by contributors who were able to report a harassing man or men to the employer and meet with success. And it would be even easier to make these kinds of reports if the number to call regarding harassment was prominently posted.

Share Your Groping Stories!

hollabackdc — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:32:35 +0000

Cross-posted from “The Sexist”:

Over the next few weeks, this blog will be obsessed with groping. And I’m hoping to collect as many perspectives as possible on inappropriate touching in Washington, D.C., from the District’s men, women, bouncers, and bar owners. Have you been groped in a bar, on the street, at work, in public transportation? Have you helped prevent, stop, report, or prosecute a groping incident? Have you groped? Shoot me an e-mail atahess@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Approached by a Stranger

hollabackdc — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:32:12 +0000

Photo by kennymatic via flickr

My three friends and I were sitting on a bench in Dupont Circle the other night just talking when a sleazy man approached us. He started telling us that we were having too much fun and we were sexy. Then he turns to me and says “Damn big girl, I’d fuck that pussy up! I have to leave because you’re making me too hot. Damn!”

My friends and I sat there completely shocked. None of us knew what to do. We felt completely violated and dirty. I wish I had said something to him at the time. Maybe I should have called him out on being completely inappropriate and disrespectful but I was too scared and shocked. I’ve been harassed on the street before, but this was definitely the worst.

Submitted by Anonymous

Location: 14th & U St NW

The Serial Smoocher

hollabackdc — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:38:25 +0000

We found out about this serial smoocher in Loudoun and decided to post since so many people commute into DC from this area. The Sheriff interviewed in this article asked some interesting questions that often get asked on our blog as well.

From the Washington Post:

The first time the smoocher struck it was just after 9 a.m. Nov. 20.

The man approached a woman jogging on Whitewater Drive in Sterling and held out his hand, as if to shake hers, Loudoun authorities said. The man then leaned in and kissed the startled jogger on the cheek.

Then, on Monday, a woman jogging in the same area was approached by a man who held out his hand to her. This time, the man kissed the jogger’s hand.

Loudoun Sheriff’s spokesman Kraig Troxell said authorities suspect the smoocher is the same man. He did not speak, and the women said he seemed a bit disoriented. So far he has not turned violent, but detectives want to find him to make sure he is not a threat. They also are concerned about the man’s safety.

“Is there something physically wrong with this person,?” Troxell said. “Is it a cultural thing? Is this person just doing something that seems inappropriate here [in the United States]? Or is it more sinister?

Metro Follower

hollabackdc — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:48:11 +0000

Photo by willgt09 via flickr

A younger male got on the train and decided to sit next to me even though there were plenty of empty seats. I had on my headphones, but he started to talk to me anyway. He kept asking my name so I finally took out my headphones and told him my first name only (in my best I’m not talking to you voice). I thought maybe he would stop talking if I answered his question. Boy was this the wrong move. He kept talking even though I put my headphones back in. Then he picked up my hand and tried to kiss it. I pulled away and thankfully we were approaching a stop, so I asked him to move and left the train car. He started to follow me (even though he only got on at the previous stop). I hung back on the platform and let him walk ahead. Just before the doors closed, I jumped back on the train. This kind of harassment is crazy and I shouldn’t have to put up with it when I just want to get home from work in peace. Who knows what he would have done if he continuted to follow me.

Submitted by M on 11/30/2009

Location: On the Red Line, near CUA

“I am not your sista”

hollabackdc — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:30:19 +0000

Cross posted from Stop Street Harassment Blog:

I’m a Black woman, and I hate the familiarity some Black men who are strangers use toward me.

I had just gotten off the bus to go to work this morning, feeling drowsy and out of it. I see this delivery guy wheeling cartons of liquor into one of the restaurants, and he leans in close to me and says “Ay, girl!” as if we were long-time buddies or something. I am tired and am not in the mood to entertain men I don’t know, so I don’t respond. I stare straight ahead and continue on my destination.

“You can’t speak?” he says. “You too good to speak?” I still don’t bother to respond, and I don’t bother to look back his way either when he continues to attempt to elicit my attention.

He hadn’t bothered to talk to any of the other women of different races who walked by—he only targeted me. I hate how harassers think that being the same race gives them an automatic “in” to bother me. I am not your “sista”—you are a STRANGER to me. I’m just a woman who wants to be left alone.

Location: M St. and Wisconsin, Georgetown

Metro Stalker

hollabackdc — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:25:48 +0000

Photo by pedrosimoes7 via flickr

Cross-posted from Stop Street Harassment:

Although I am verbally and sometimes physically harassed literally every time I walk to and from the DC metro to my work place, the most recent incident was the most disturbing.

Waiting in the metro station for my train, i heard a male voice saying “Hey sweetie” over and over again while I read a book, and then was approached by a very tall male who proceeded to “praise” me with what he must have considered “compliments” about my appearance. He asked a series of questions, very aggressively, so I felt pressured to comply and answer, though I lied about my name and where i was headed, where I lived, etc., and did not feel comfortable telling him, I’m a lesbian, I have a long-term partner, because those sounds like excuses with the potential to infuriate. He grabbed my hand and wrote his number on it, pressing so hard it cut my skin, and proceeded to ask about me calling him, demanding details about this future call.

When the train arrived, he got on the same car as me, despite telling me he lived in the opposite direction of my train. I tried to sit away from him, but he continued trying to speak with me across rows of seats and passangers. At a high-traffic stop, I snuck off behind another passanger. When he spotted me through the large window on the platform, he was obviously very angry, and stood up. He was moving quickly for the door, but they had shut and the train was moving. I let a few trains pass and took a longer, more complicated transfer pattern from train to train to ensure I didn’t see him again.

While the entire thing was obvious annoying, it goes beyond that – that kind of control exhibited over you in a public sphere is disempowering and disoriented, and shakes a person’s sense of confidence and safety. The anger on his face and his attempt to get off at the arbitrary station I chose sincerely lead me to believe he had plans for following me to the false end-point I’d told him, which is TERRIFYING unto itself, but especially in conjunction with the series of media stories detailing the indifference and non-action of public transportation attendants/others in the general public.

Submitted by Jess on 11/19/2009

Too Close For Comfort

hollabackdc — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:28:34 +0000

Photo by Steve & Jemma Copley via flickr

While walking to Dupont with two colleagues – S, a woman, and K, a man – a gaggle of various express buses blocked the path across H Street NW from 14th Street. My colleagues and I, attempting to hold a conversation and navigate the crowded intersection, became caught up in the confusion and I, in particular, was not as aware of my surroundings as I would normally be.

It was at that moment that I felt a vague tickling sensation towards the bottom of my butt – too close to my crotch for comfort. At first, I thought perhaps I had backed up into someone or that one of my friends was playing a joke on me, both poor ideas since I had only been moving forward and the friends I was traveling with were from work and not nearly close enough to me to be so physical. Quickly dismissing those scenarios, I spun around to see a haggard man with few teeth in tattered grey clothing snickering at me. Suddenly, I felt dirty.

Then I lost it. I can’t remember exactly what I said in my rage, but I know I told him to “never fucking touch me again,” that what he did “was harassment,” and called him some variety of “fucker” name on several occasions. The man just made kissy-faces at me and laughed before staggering off to the other side of 14th Street.

“Yeah, go ahead and fucking laugh,” I shouted after him, sounding angry but feeling weak and defeated.

If anything good came out of this whole situation, it was that I discovered how much other people are disturbed by harassment, too. A lady near me asked what happened and responded with “That’s disgusting” when I explained. A man, also standing nearby, muttered something about “belting that guy.” S and K also asked me if I was ok several times on our way to Dupont. Receiving sympathetic responses from bystanders instead of apathy was heartening.

Still, I was violated by a stranger and I feel disgusting. Melodramatic as it sounds, it’s almost enough to make me not want to be touched by anyone for a long time.

Submitted by @sweetpearacer, aka Obie on 11/20/2009

Location: 14th & H St NW

“He Continued Walking”

hollabackdc — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:20:30 +0000

Photo by DraconianRain via flickr

Last night I was waiting for my bus when some guy told me “Hey baby, can I be your umbrella?” I was too dumbfounded to give any type of response except to completely ignore him. I wish I had a quicker reaction and smacked him with my actual umbrella.

What bothered me about this is that he continued walking as he made this comment. It was as if he’s conditioned to say whatever crap he can think of to random women and doesn’t care how or if the women react. It’s really annoying.

Submitted by Anonymous on 11/20/2009

Location: M Street and Wisconsin, Georgetown