Street Harassment

Street harassment is any action or comment between strangers in public places that is disrespectful, unwelcome, threatening and/or harassing and is motivated by gender.

It ranges from leers, whistles, honks, kissing noises, and non-sexually explicit evaluative comments, to more insulting and threatening behavior like vulgar gestures, sexually charged comments, flashing, and stalking, to illegal actions like public masturbation, sexual touching, assault, and murder.

Generally it is men who harass women because of their gender and that dynamic is the focus of this website. While women can harass men because of their gender, when they do, there rarely is the same underlying threat of violence (ie rape), making it completely different. Also, in every society today, men hold more power than women (including who leads the country or community, who shapes the media, who runs businesses and corporations, and who writes and enforces laws) and so men who harass women reinforce this power imbalance in a way that women who harass men do not.

• Find definitions of street harassment

• Learn statistics about its prevalence

• Access a list of articles, books, and reports on street harassment and related topics

• Read myths/facts about street harassment