A man approached me in Lidget Green in Bradford carrying a toddler and made several vulgar comments to me on the street, I was so outraged I yelled at him “you are carrying a fucking baby for fuck’s sake” (yeh,
as you can tell, over the years I have gotten less tolerant of this crap). When workmen yell at me i give them the finger and shout “thats sexual harrassment mate and you can lose your job if I report you”. although this is very empowering for me and some of the passers by who witness
these incidents laugh/smile I have had incidents where the mans reaction to my assertiveness has been potentially very dangerous. I gave one man the finger after he yelled sexualised abuse at me across a busy main road, his response was to throw a house brick at me!

I have been involved in two incidents now on the same road. (Great Horton Road) The first time, I was physically pushed over and spat on – because a group of guys thought it would be funny to jump at me to scare me, so I screamed, hence being pushed on the floor – then the guy who pushed me; spat on me, and so did his mate.

The second incident happened two nights ago. I was coming back from a friends house at about Midnight/1pm, and I heard a really loud group of men around the corner, so I stayed back a little so they could be well ahead of me. I started walking, but it was one of those, “Its going to happen again” kind of walks, and one of the guys turned around and saw me, elbowed his mate who then turned around; then they were all turned around staring at me and making kissy noises. I thought “fuck this” and turned back and walked in the opposite direction, when one of them came up fast from behind me saying telling me to come back so they can have a fuck. I was startled so I ran into the Takeaway and waited there until I thought they were gone. I waited at least 20 mins and started walking down St.Margarets Road – I couldn’t see them but half way down the hill, they were waiting for me. I can’t tell you the dread that hit me when I realised. It was bloody awful. I really thought I was going to be raped. They were coming close to me and one of them said to his mate, “What are you doing? You’re frightening her” and he replied, “I don’t fucking care, I’ll have her pants off her” so then I ran. I ran into my house and locked the door. Then stood in the kitchen with the light off looking out of the window, they had seen where I live and were now hanging around my house. I called the police and they came about an hour later. They weren’t caught and the police couldn’t do anything. I now have a rape alarm in my pocket at all times.

If anyone else shares a similar experience in this area of Bradford, I would really urge you to speak to the Women’s Officer at the University and there is also a Police Officer at the University at all times, who specialised in harassment. Her name is Sue Mitchell. Please go and speak to her. The more it’s reported – the more can be done to stop it.

I have had men approach me when im with my son and make vulgar sexualised comments, men have approached me and said variations of “fucking ugly/ugly bitch/jesus I wouldnt fuck you”. I have also been approached by men who have assumed I would be keen to partake of sex with them and seemed outraged when I havent been appreciative of their advances.

Whilst walking my son to school when he was about 8yrs old we had to walk past a chicken processing factory, the streets outside the factory were crowded with parents and children going to school, one of a group of men at the factory yelled sexualised suggestions at me, i was embarrassed as much for my son as myself, my retort “I dont think so mate, you work in a fucking chicken factory”.

Last summer as I got off of the bus in bradford a man got off the bus directly behind me, in full view of everyone on the bus and everyone on the street he grabbed my arse and said “you have a beautiful backside”, all I could do was yell “fuck off”.
I could go on and on with the number of incidents ive experienced, we take them as par for the course, its an occupational hazzard of being a woman isnt it. If I were slightly less loving of human kind i could learn to hate heterosexual men and view them all as predatory apes.

I realise now that the sense of dread I feel on approaching a building site, or crossing the road when the traffic has stopped is not unique to me. More recently I have learned to drive and I am protected from some of the harrassment which I used to get at bus stops and on public transport but I still experience men stopping their cars alongside mine at traffic lights and making crude gestures.
I am just an average bradford woman, I dress very conservatively, there is nothing that makes me stand out from the crowd and yet the fact that im saying that could be interpreted as an attempt to distance myself from the woman who do “stand out from the crowd”, far from it, the common theme for all of us is that we are women. If it was only “attractive” women who were hassled on the street or seen as “deserving” of the attention then why have I been approached by men telling me how unattractive I am?

until recently i have concluded that there is “something about me” that leads men to think they can say and do as they please towards me on the street, I now appreciate that “there is something about society”

An open letter to the people of Leeds
I don’t know what you all did this weekend, but Saturday evening rather than staying in watching TV, or going out for some drinks, I got the train from Calderdale to attend the annual Reclaim the Night march in Leeds. Although they started in Leeds 1977 in response to the Yorkshire Ripper and the suggestion that women should stay inside in they wish to be safe from violence and sexual assault in the City this was the third event I had attended.
As I met with over 100 other women all ready to `reclaim the streets,` raise awareness of the low rape conviction rate and issue of violence against women. I know lots of you were also out on the town and having a nice evening, some of you saw us and waved, or took a leaflet, or looked bemused at a big group of women all wrapped up protesting in Leeds at 7pm on a Saturday night. However, I’m wondering what it was that led a percentage of people we passed to react to us with such a degree of hostility, violence and aggression?
I’ve both worked and socialised in Leeds before, so why have I never encountered this level of abuse in the past? I don’t understand why a large group of men verbally threatened me two minutes into the march, and shouted in my face comments so sexualized and lewd that this paper wouldn’t print them even if I wrote them down. I wonder if they knew how shocked and saddened this made me feel?
As we passed with our banners and chants, did the people who acted in this manner not think we could easily have been their wives, grandmothers, sisters, partners, aunts or daughters, what was it about what we were doing that made some people act this way towards us?
I wonder if the group who stood in a line and swore, shouted and threw plastic bottles full of liquid at us near the dark arches would let me know what angered them so much about a group of women walking through the City protesting against violence against women? Why did this make you violent?
I would love to ask the angry middle aged man outside the Northern Monkey pub on the headrow if he knows how scary I found him when he was shouting and swearing at me? Did he know that I thought he was going to assault me or another member of the group? What made him follow screaming, demanding we come back so he could shout at us more when we tried to walk away?
To what extent where the threats, violence, aggression and hostility toned dowN because some of us had small children with us? I wonder if those reacting in this way noticed them? Was it because we were women? Was it because we were protesting? Was it because you believed women ARE actually safe from violence and threats on the street of Leeds, and that this event has no place in the City?
These aren’t rhetorical questions, I’ve been wondering the reasons all day and would like an answer if anyone can offer me one. What was it all about?

On Saturday night I got the train back to Mytholmroyd, my husband stood up to get off and was quite a bit ahead of me. I was faffing about with my bag or something when a man said to me `come on love, cheer up, smile` not that I had a sad face at the time I dont think (not that its any of his business really how my face is) I just looked straight at him and said `Don’t tell me what to do` he just looked at me and looked out of the window. RESULT! I felt very proud.

 The second experience was Sunday afternoon in Halifax town centre, I was crossing the road to meet my friends to watch some Roller Derby, dressed normally for a Sunday, in a dress, leggings, boots, coat. I was stopped from crossing by traffic and I looked up to see a car with four men in it, they all looked at me in what I would decsribe as a leary manner and one wound the windown down. It was one of those, `oh bloody hell its going to happen` moments. The one in the front passenger seat was looking right at me and opened his mouth and I dont know where it came from but I pulled the most `I dont think so Mr` face (maybe you would describe it as `fierce’) and slowly shook my head looking right at him. He saw me doing this, shut his mouth and rolled the window  back up. Stopped right in his harassment tracks!