Troll. Check out previous comments- some truly batty nonsense.

I’m only familiar with my state and the use of restraining orders wrt domestic violence, but here you can fill out paperwork and go straight to a judge (you do have to bring some sort of proof/evidence, which is often a police report).

Maybe the first letter writer should just go straight for a restraining order. Seems like the most appropriate course of action, as I don’t know what the police would do exactly (generally, police departments don’t always know how to handle stalking or even take it seriously, which is what I’m guessing this would fall…

I definitely understand the many reasons people don’t get involved- I know of people who have been badly hurt intervening for a stranger in distress. But I don’t understand how men can be surprised that women often suffer public harassment in the course of living their daily lives. It seems obvious, but maybe that’s…

I do agree that sometimes it’s hard to notice harassment when it’s done in a quiet or up-close way. But so often dudes actually do just yell horrible things, or a group of guys loudly comment about a woman they’re walking behind. And in those cases, it’s obvious. I’ve seen guys ignore it on the CTA, when it was in a…

That’s exactly what I was trying to get at- it’s easier for them to say this isn’t a problem than to acknowledge it and that they may be part of the problem.

Succinct but accurate. And super demoralizing :/

That’s absolutely despicable.

The feeling of powerlessness is the worst. Consider this some internet love from another person who has had this same terrible feeling.

I’v Had this conversation with men in my family. It’s like they are so sure that their perception of the world is accurate that it couldn’t be possible for someone they ‘knew’ could actually be a pig or a monster when they aren’t around.

That’s easily the most depressing explanation, and at the same time, I’m certain it is accurate for some.

Your description is impressively vivid for something that’s really hard to put into words. I appreciate you taking the time to try and explain this.

How sadly myopic. There is a ring of truth to this. I seriously wonder whether it’s even possible for men to conceptualize what the experience is like.

That sounds terrifying, i’m so sorry you went through that.

What a shitty balance we have to strike- deal with definite verbal harassment or the vague threat of physical harm because we cannot hear someone coming.

For me, I just wouldn’t want to do that to anyone else, I suppose, because I’m acutely aware of how awful it feels.

This resonates and disgusts at the same time.

My parents live in a midwestern suburb, and when my dad mentioned not wearing headphones when I walked around my city for safety reasons, I laughed and told him it was worth the risk just to drowned out the awful cat-calls from men along my route home. He truly could not believe that was such a problem.

‘It was only after some of her male friends “interjected with their disbelief”’

I didn’t have to deal with any sexual harassment issues, but definitely faced the dilemma of how best to handle totally inappropriate behavior (it was a faculty member threatening not to stick around as my chair if I continued to work with another faculty member on an article, just because my chair vehemently disliked…