Location:  16th & Lamont NW (Mt. Pleasant)
Time: Daytime (9:30am-3:30pm)

I was walking to meet a friend for lunch just around noon this Saturday. I was walking up to 16th St from Lamont St. There was an SUV parked on the other side of the street, across the sidewalk, and a man in the driver’s seat rolled down the window in order to leer at me and make kissy noises. I’m really fed up with sexual harassment like this, especially when I’m walking in my neighborhood – which I should be able to enjoy. It is winter, and this man had no need to roll down this window. He clearly felt the need to go out of his way to sexually harass me.

I responded by giving him the finger and continuing to walk. He didn’t register any kind of facial response to this. A man crossing the street in front of me clearly saw what I did, but nothing registered on him, either. I’m glad the harasser didn’t respond by cursing at me (as had happened in the past), and I’m glad the other man who witnessed didn’t act like the whole thing was funny (although some other kind of supportive acknowledgement would have been nice). I hope I left the harasser a little dumbfounded, and he takes my response as the *possibility* that women DON’T like being harassed. Keep your kissy noises to yourself, jackass. I was just trying to get to lunch, not get his seal of sexual approval.

Submitted on 2/17/13 by Anonymous

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