Street harassment: a gender hate crime not banter
“I just wanted them to realise it is offensive and I wanted it to stop.”
A 23-year-old woman repeatedly wolf whistled by builders as she walked to work in Worcester has reported them to the police.
She was, she said, faced with “disrespectful” comments and gestures every morning for a month and reached the point where she could take it no more, so she started filming the men on her mobile phone and then went to the police.
The woman, Poppy Smart, told the BBC’s Newsbeat: “Every day I’d walk past and they’d wolf whistle. They’d even come out of the building site to wolf whistle as I’d continue down the road.
“One of the guys got up in my face and all he said was ‘morning love’, but it was in a very aggressive way and the other one sneered.
“They blocked the pavement and I had to walk around them.”
“I started wearing sunglasses so I didn’t have to look at them. I started putting headphones on so I didn’t have to hear them.”
“Eventually it got to the day where I had enough.”
“It made me feel really uncomfortable and the fact it went on for so long was the main reason I reported it.
“If it had just been an isolated incident – one, two, three, four times – maybe I could probably brush it off because these things happen and you have to kind of accept these people’s ignorance.”
She had spoken to the owner of the building site, but “He just sort of apologised. He obviously can’t control all of his staff all of the time and I appreciated that.
“I just wanted them to realise it is offensive and I wanted it to stop.”
So she called the police and reported it.
Smart told the Birmingham Mail she now hopes other women will speak out, and said the workmen should be named and shamed.
She added: “I’ve experienced this kind of sexual harassment around Worcester a lot recently and it just makes walking through town an awful experience sometimes.
“I definitely think it’s still a big issue and that a lot of women don’t bother to speak out about it because it’s such a common occurrence, we’ve almost learned to live with it.”
Hollaback! Nottingham, commenting on this story after we posted in on our facebook page, said: ‘If you are experiencing street harassment and would like to report this to the police request that it be registered as a hate crime.
If that doesn’t work, try report-it, a website where you can report incidents of hate crime and ensure that they are taken seriously.
‘The website helps you find out what hate crimes or hate incidents are; find out about the ways you can report them; report using the online form; and find information about people that can help and support you if you have been a victim.
‘Nottingham Police are not the best when understanding that sexist behaviour in public can cause those affected to feel sexualised, intimidated, embarrassed, threatened and/or unsafe in public.
‘One Hollaback! Nottingham team member has successfully reported street harassment as a gender hate crime after a council contracted builder whistled at her.
‘However she was initially told that it was not possible. The police sergeant said that ‘if we accepted a wolf whistle as a hate crime we would be inundated with calls’.’
‘So she reported the incident to report-it…
‘Within hours she had received a phone call to advise her that London Metropolitan Police had contacted Nottinghamshire Police and that the incident would now be taken seriously.’
Part of me is amazed that anyone still needs to spell out that harassment is a hate crime. Part of me wonders how long it will take for “Oh come on, everybody does it” to turn into “Oh my God! Everybody does it!” (So stop it!)