"I didn't even see him coming well, I wouldn't have, as he came up from behind me. I had walked in his path, he barked at me. What path? I thought, baffled, as I took in the huge expanse of empty pavement around us. I was so stupefied by the encounter that I found myself frozen to the spot, watching him walk away in his blue anorak and technical rucksack."
"But what made the incident uniquely disturbing was that it was the third similar encounter in as many months. In December, a man verbally harassed me on the tube as I went down an escalator for walking too slowly this time. Last week, I was peering into a restaurant when I collided head-first with a man walking towards me. The pavement was empty and four metres wide."
"Why, when someone bumps into me, is my reaction to say sorry, or move aside? Why was it the reaction of three men to shout or walk into me, to push me? I spoke to some women in my life about what had happened, and many shared similar experiences. A colleague tells me a story that is eerily similar to mine. A man barged past her from behind on an empty street only she had the chutzpah to chase after him in a rage."
A woman experienced multiple instances of strangers confronting her in public—being shoved aside, verbally harassed, and collided with on empty pavements. Each encounter left her bewildered and momentarily frozen, despite wide open space that made avoidance possible. The repetition of similar incidents over months prompted questions about motives, whether obliviousness or deliberate aggression. Conversations with other women uncovered comparable episodes, including being barged past, threatened by vehicles, and told to be silent. Typical female responses—apologizing or moving away—contrast with men’s confrontational behaviors, underscoring persistent gendered harassment and safety concerns in public spaces.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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