Bradford Workshop & Zine Submissions

Workshop & Zine Submission -

 Update – Street Harassment Workshop on Saturday 1st June 2013 at The Equity Centre Bradford. The Equity Centre is on Longlands street, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD1 2TP.

The centre is accessable & close to both the train stations & bus station. 

The workshop is free (donations towards room hire welcome)

We are also pleased to announce that we are now accepting submissions for our first ever zine on street harassment. We would love your stories, poems, drawing, pictures, and things like that to put in. If you want to get involved contact us or send them direct wy@ihollaback.org with `zine submission’ in the header

We hope that during the workshop in Bradford we will also make some collaborative pages with the group who attend and get the zine out in the early Summer. Its going to be brilliant

If any submissions could be black & white A5 size portrait format that would be great!

Do as much or little as you like.

Park Row Leeds City Centre

It was about 5.30pm and I was walking up Park Row in Leeds towards my bus stop to get home. As I did, I overtook a man who seemed perhaps a bit drunk, he was walking slowly and kind of getting in my way. Ahead of me was a young woman, crossing the road from the other side to ours, chatting loudly on the phone. I noticed she had a pen through the back of her ponytail and wondered if she had forgotten to take it out. I don’t know if this was related, but at this moment, a man to my left (who I believe to be the same man who was behind me before) literally just said in my ear, “She’s gotta nice arse ain’t she?” He must have crept up behind me without me noticing but I surprised myself by not being stunned; I looked him straight in the eye and stared disgustedly at him. He responded by saying “eh?” as if to follow on from his question, like I was going to give him an answer(!) and I just started walking faster, away from him, without looking back. I don’t think the woman in front had any idea what had gone on as she didn’t even turn round and he was that close to me when he said it, I doubt she would have heard. This made it pretty isolating for me but I suddenly felt really protective of the woman, like I should shout at this man to back off and draw attention to it, but I just wanted to get away as fast as I could.

I don’t understand why he picked me to say this to, perhaps he was just drunk, but all of the feelings I get from ‘typical’ street harassment came flooding back and I was glad that my bus was there waiting for me so I didn’t have to hang around. I think it was how close he was to me without me realising that affected me the most. All the way home I was furious, trying to make sense of the whole thing. I’m still not sure how I ‘should’ have reacted to the situation.

Street Harassment twice in one evening – Leeds

Walking near the Corn Exchange early in the evening (people were still out shopping) a group of men I had to walk past began discussing all the women around them and whether they were ‘Fat Pandas’. I was a ‘Fat Leopard’ apparently, as I was wearing leopard print. They went on to talk about my backside until I managed to get away.

Later, on my walk to get the bus home, near Morrisons at the Merrion Centre, I had to walk past a group of about 10 drunk men. One of them shouted “she takes it up the f*cking arse! she loves it!” I turned round and swore back as creatively as I could, and kept walking away. Then the others joined in. One of them shouted that he had a “huge d*ck” and that he would indeed love to use it… You can imagine the rest. I told him that he would not be able to do that, as he was a eunuch. Then I managed to get them to shut up, by adding “and you don’t even know what a eunuch is”. Well, I’m not proud, it’s not really nice to talk about the validity of someone’s private parts, and what constitutes gender…(I’m talking about what I said about eunuchs. I know there are loads of people who have gender identity issues who would not be pleased with my comments). But I was soooooooo cross! Just wanted to put them down.

Harassed on the train home

I got on the train home after a night out in Leeds. I sat at a table seat, meaning that there were three other available seats near me. This middle aged guy got on and asked if it was the Skipton train; I confirmed that it was. He then sat down opposite me and started asking me where I had been and where I was going. I foolishly told him where I was going and he said he lived there too. He was initially just annoying, but inoffensive, but then started saying “have you been out with your ‘ladyfriend’”. I told him I wasn’t a lesbian, if this is what he was suggesting and he pulled a face to indicate he was surprised. He then asked if I wanted to have sex on the table. I declined, clearly. At some point, another young woman had got on and sat at the opposite table and he then started asking her too. I told him to back off and that his behaviour is not ok and he started saying “I’ll just shoot myself then” and pretending to shoot himself in the head, but really exaggerated, almost completely lying down on the seat. I said I was going to find the toilet and got up to leave, gesturing at the other woman to follow, which she did. We went and sat as far down the train as possible, but then I remembered he was getting off at my stop and I have to walk home from there. I decided to jump in a taxi just outside the station so he couldn’t follow me. I was really unnerved by his behaviour, but am also really annoyed that I had to spend £4 extra to get home safe!

“Phwoar, I’d like to get my leg over you”

I was waiting at a bus stop, sat down on the bench, a man around 80 approached me, got close enough to put his hand on my arm and said “Phwoar, I’d like to get my leg over you”

I was disgusted and shaken up – I turned to the two women seated next to me for some support and to my horror they both laughed and told me “It’s okay, he’s harmless”

The bench I was sat on was enclosed in a bus stop, on one side there was a glass panel and the other a woman was sat next to me with a large shopping trolley in front of her. He was stood in front of me, so close that I couldn’t stand up without pushing him. I’m disabled and walk with a stick. The incident left me shaken, but the worst part was the other women on the bench laughed with him and told me it was okay.

Street Harassment LS6

Lovely sunny day and walking down to headingley train station. Car pulls up at traffic lights, windows down and 2 guys in the car wolf whistling. I felt annoyed and told them oh.. fuck off.. to which they made even more noise and shouted something i didnt hear. I was absolutely fuming and was about to throw my water in the window but they drove off… gah!!!

Bradford harassed in the afternoon`Fuck me you are sexy`

I was walking from my office to one of my companie other offices carrying files and stuff. Two males approached me and one of them just shouted `fuck me your sexy` in my face and made a growling nolise and walked away. I was stunned and couldnt even respond. Angry with myself about that really wish Id told them where to go. It was on the very aptly names Hustlergate….oh the irony!

Kirkgate Centre Bradford `fanny like a bucket`

Sitting rolling a cigarette on the seats in the Kirkgate centre today two women walked past and two men walked the opposite way. I saw him say something like `hey baby` she told him to fuck off and he shouted `I bet you have a fanny like a bucket` and his mates laughed.

Street Harassment Headingley Leeds

I’ve been a student in Leeds for almost 4 years now. I moved here from a small town in Cornwall and had never really experienced street harassment before becoming a student, but now it’s a regular occurrence for me.

Since I’ve been living here I’ve had heaps of the most common types of street harassment – “Smile, love – it can’t be that bad”, kissing noises, van drivers beeping their horns at me when I cross the road and then laughing when I’m visibly shaken. But there have been plenty of more vulgar and upsetting experiences too: a bunch of lads stuck in a traffic jam shouting “Get your tits out” over and over as their car drove next to me whilst I was walking home up Headingley Lane; an old man hissing “I want to lick your pussy” at me and my friends as we walked to Leeds train station. Easily worst of all was one time when I was walking home up Headingley lane about 5pm on a Saturday afternoon. I was with my boyfriend and a group of lads dressed up on a Otley run started walking towards us. They were clearly pissed and rowdy so I was expecting some kind of comment, but when they got closer a bunch of them cornered me and one of them asked “How much for a blowjob?” before they all walked off laughing. I was visibly shaken, but to top it all off one of them had the cheek to tell me to “Smile love”, even after what had just happened to me.

I’m so sick of being harassed. It’s on nights out, it’s walking home from uni, it’s on my way to the supermarket or a friend’s house. It’s not about sexual attraction, it’s about power. Wherever I go and whatever I’m wearing, men think they have the right to make me uncomfortable and humiliate me and I’m totally sick of it.

Easter Weekend Leeds – Groping Drunk man

Easter weekend & I was out in Leeds with friends from work on the Thursday before the Bank Hol weekend – Town was busy and we had been to a few bars. Ironic as it is I had just been to a Arts & Activism night at Hyde Park with talks about street harassment, lapdancing clubs and the history of reclaim the Night. We had been in a few bars and loads of places were packed. I went to the bar in Mojo and a man so drunk he couldnt focused tried to talk to me. I ignored him and chatted with my mates. My friend turned to me & said `hes just slapped my arse` I turned to look and felt the same man squeeze my bum really hard. I went right up to him and told him if he did that again to me or my friend I would punch him in the face and knock his glasses off (bit aggressive I know but anyway..) the guy was so drunk I wasnt too sure if he could understand what I was saying. So I found his (more sober friend) and told him what he had done and that he would be best making sure his mate either got home or stopped sexually assaulting women.