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Alison Piepmeier

My life is all about bringing down the patriarchy. I write books and articles about feminism, and I also teach and direct the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston....

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Street harassment

Yesterday’s post about my conversation with the SUV driver reminded me of a couple of other encounters I’ve had with folks who’ve harassed me from a car.  I’ve often found that if I have the chance to talk with them directly, it changes the dynamic completely.

For instance, I was walking down East Bay one night with my dog.  A guy leaned out his window as he was driving by and--inexplicably--yelled, “Dog-walking bitch!”

Hmm.

Fortunately, the street was crammed with cars, so he didn’t get very far before he was stopped in traffic.  So I strolled up to his open window and said, conversationally, “Did you just call me a dog-walking bitch?”

He wouldn’t make eye contact with me--he wanted to look anywhere but at me.  “I apologize.  I do apologize, ma’am.  I’m very sorry about that.  I apologize.”

There’s something about being in a car that can make people feel anonymous and cut them off from recognition of the humanity of other people--this is what road rage is about (and it also happens on the internet, which I’ll discuss later).  When I walked up to the car on East Bay, or biked up to the car yesterday, I humanized myself.  And in both cases, the guys seemed ashamed--and rightfully so.