I was leaving the drugstore and I am walking down the street. I hit an intersection and wait for the traffic to give me right of way. An older man (the one in white) comes up too close behind me. "Dude, you're too daggone close!" I say, and move away. Somehow this gives him the impression to move closer to me. I try to keep as far away from him until the light changes. As soon as it does I'm off.
The man is joined by a younger guy (the one in black) and they start going on about how fast I'm walking and how I "got a cute shape."
"What the hell?!" I said. They thought that was funny.
I got tired of this, stopped, pulled out my camera and took a shot of them. I made sure to stay as far behind them as possible, and eventually they got the hint and left me alone.
Still proceeding towards the train station going home, I walk past this group of blue-collar laborer types. The one in the "Just Do It" shirt was the ringleader of these idiots. They were all hooting, hollering, and barking like dogs. "Just Do It" punches his friends in the arms, then comes too close to me with "Hey, baby!" I thought this was another opportunity to take a shot of them. He was all for it first until I said "HOLLABACK!" (I know this isn't an official HollaBack site, but it's the same premise.)
"Hey, wait a minute!" he yells. "Is this that MTV shit?"
I had done what I needed to do and kept walking.
The realization of what I had did finally came to him. "You bitcccccccccccccccch!" he yelled, his voice trailing off as I turned a corner.
Well his shirt said "Just Do It," so I did it and snapped a photo of his ridiculous ass!
I walked home from the train station and this ashy-looking guy with dreads would not stop staring at me. I gave him the "what the hell?!" look and he's like, "Nothin'...I'm just lookin' at ya." He then starts to laugh. I shook my head at his idiocy.
I made it home, dropped my stuff off and left back out to make a quick trip to put some clothes in a donation box. Men would not stop beeping at me from their cars. I got annoyed at one of the cars that I just yelled "NOOOOOOOOO!" as loudly as I could. This garnered the attention of these idiots who were loitering and getting liquored up on a bench (unfortunately I was too far off to get a good shot):
The one in black (pointed out with an arrow) got on his knees and got dramatic like "you can take a picture of me baby!"
I told them to "leave women on the streets alone" and went about my business.
If I can have a day, a week, a month, a year, the rest of my life not being harassed by these idiots on the street then that moment would be the happiest moment in my life. No one should have to deal with that mess on a regular basis.
5 comments:
I am constantly amazed at how many a-holes you manage to run into every day! Good job at grabbing their photos, though. Jerks.
Unfortnaley, I think these guys like to treat you like this because of your size, and maybe you are one of those people who walk around with a somewhat pleasant look on your face.
I very rarely have this problem since I give most men I come across on the streets the evil eye.
I've had a dude slow down his car to get a good look at me and after I flashed him my mean mug he pulled off because I am too "evil/mean looking"(his words).
Keep in mind, I in no way think this is your fault. I do think a lot of men in DC are idiots who have no respect for women and take joy in disrespecting women in public. This also hardens many women to any decent men they may come across.
True Supermodel, it could be that being petite makes these men think I'm an easy "target" for that mess. In the same token, I constantly get the "girl, why you look so mean?" from them and being told that I always look angry, so I honestly don't know what causes all these loser-ass men to keep bothering me!
I wonder if the men in DC have made this form of street harrsment a part of the culture in DC. I mean it seeems to me like women and black women in particular need to have a town hall meeting about this. If you could get this issue on some type of news show than maybe that will get people to talking.
That said I know bros will begin to cry and say we are bringing the man into our bussiness but I say if you act like a adult with some class(not a homone crazy teenage boy) than we won't need to get the "man".
That is a good idea.
I know that the anti-street harassment groups have had open forums discussing this, but the attendees were from similar groups and of similar mindsets. I'd like to see more people from different walks of life in future meetings...and I'd like it to reach a wider group of people in the District.
That's definitely something to work towards in the future.
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