This is a space to work together to stop street harassment! You can share your stories, advice, and your activism to stop street harassment.

Find suggestions & tactics for dealing with street harassment, resources and research on street harassment and interviews with activists.

About Me:

After years of dealing with street harassment and learning about the HollaBack websites, in 2007 I wrote my master's thesis for George Washington University on the topic, particularly the unique ways people are working to combat it via Internet. Because I included some of my data results online, various reporters contacted me to learn more about my research. Most recently in May 2008, my research was mentioned in a CNN article on street harassment.

The response to the article - both positive and negative - reinforced for me how many women do not like being disrespectfully or crudely addressed in public by a stranger because of an underlying fear of rape or assault or because of how annoying, insulting, scary, and invasive it can be. The comments on the CNN story, e-mails I received, and comments on numerous blogs made me realize how strongly people feel about this issue on both sides of the debate over whether or not women like being harassed in public and whether or not whistling, honking, kissing sounds sexually charged comments, groping, leering, stalking, or assault constitute harassment or are just compliments. I also found out how many inaccurate stereotypes persist. For example, I was told that what I considered harassment (see above for the list of actions I constitute as harassment) was just men's instinctive behavior that they can't and shouldn't have to control. Many men commented that women like the harassment, otherwise they wouldn't dress a "certain way" or go out in public alone etc. Some common themes among the commenters also included the idea that women should be grateful if men find them sexually attractive enough to comment on, only beautiful women get harassed, women who don't like it are stuck up, only feminist women don't like it, etc.

As a result of the response to the CNN article and the issue of street harassment in general, I've created this website as a resource on street harassment and I've created a companion blog to let women share their experiences of street harassment. The blog will also serve as a catalog of the extent of street harassment in women's lives.

This is a sampling of my 129 page thesis.