I was walking from the Arlington County Building to the bus stop this morning, and there’s this man standing outside handing out newspapers. He’s friendly and telling people who walk by to have a nice day, but with me he says a lot more.

I’m not in the mood for a paper, so I walk on a section of the sidewalk further from him, and he decides to approach me.

“God bless you, you are beautiful, mm-hmm, god bless you baby” and other nonsense. The fact that I was clearly uninterested and trying to walk away from him didn’t deter him.

When I saw that walking away wasn’t working, I stopped in my tracks, stared at him coldly, and put up my hand in a “STOP!” gesture. He still went on with the “God bless you, beautiful” mess, but he walked away from me.

I took the attached photo from the “safety” of the bus shelter. Doing that finally wiped that obnoxious smirk off his face. Being told how “beautiful” I am and having all that attention drawn to me when I’m trying to walk to a bus stop just made me uncomfortable.

Submitted by Anonymous on 7/29/2010

Location: Outside the Arlington County Building, Arlington, VA

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