Today in awkward slut-shamey advice, Beijing officials are telling women to shield themselves with newspapers in order to avoid sexual harassment.  The cops gave out this hot tip now because of China’s rising summer temperatures – they know that logically, people will be wearing fewer layers and shorter clothes to beat the heat. And police brains often seem to think that shorter clothes = more harassment = under a ... Read More

Catcalling is such a common phenomenon that a lot of people have learned to just ignore it. But this week, activists all over the world want to let everyone know that any form of street harassment is not okay. People in Philadelphia, Boston, Colombia, the Czech Republic, and many more have been posting ads on the non-profit organization Hollaback!'s Facebook for anti-street harassment week (April 7-13). Advocates hope that increased ... Read More

The vast majority of women, and some men, experience street harassment — according to Hollaback, 80 to 99% of women experience street harassment at some point in their lives. Street harassment takes the form of vulgar gestures, sexually explicit comments, whistling, following, kissing noises, groping, masturbation….the list goes on. I’ve had most of these happen to me — from the man who followed me out of the subway ... Read More

Nerd ladies all over the globe already love YouTube superhero Andre Meadows, writer and star of Black Nerd Rants. And what’s not to love? He’s funny, he’s smart, and he’s geeky as ever-loving fuck. (For those not familiar with Meadows’ YouTube channel, Black Nerd Comedy, he chronicles nerdy news in hilarious short web videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.) But last Wednesday’s video, "Con ... Read More

The New York Court of Appeals seems to think that subway masturbators are no big deal.  Last year, a man who masturbated and ejaculated on three different female subway passengers was tracked down through DNA evidence. The man, Darnell Hardware, is now out free after only one year in prison — for time served — because the Court of Appeals considers masturbating and ejaculating on someone without their consent a misdemeanor, ... Read More

We all know the drill: You’re walking down the street when a sketchy-looking guy and his “boys” look you up and down with their prying eyes. More often than not, sexual epithets and crude motions follow. And if you happen to be holding hands with another woman, expect anti-gay slurs to be tossed around without a second thought. It’s no secret that street harassment is a pervasive problem across the United States. In ... Read More

Ladies: Don’t you love it when you're on your way to work or the hardware store, or just taking a relaxing stroll on a nice day, and someone approaches you to express his desire to boink you? You don’t? Me neither! Instead of using your just-purchased screwdriver to dole out some street justice, you may soon be able to use a new iPhone app to deal with these annoying a-holes. NY Daily News reports that NY City Council ... Read More

Street harassment is so common in New York, it's practically a pandemic. It's so common that I walked from the 28th subway to BUST HQ's on 27th (that's a block) and got cat-called five times today. And it's raining. Goddamn, don't these men have jobs? Apparently the thing topping their to-do list is 'YELL AT WOMEN ON STREET' followed by the less important, but equally creepy, tasks of: 'hide in bushes & wait' and 'make lots of calls from ... Read More

We’ve been honked, whistled, and leered at. We can attempt to escape the heat by wearing tank tops and shorts, but we can hardly escape the harassment that we face every day on the streets. It is often dismissed as an inevitable annoyance, or maybe even seen as a compliment, but street harassment is one the most pervasive forms of gender-based violence and one that is least legislated against. March 20th, the first day of spring, is ... Read More

Hello, it is the 100th International Women's Day today! To help you get ready, I made a handy checklist on Autostraddle.com for you, but I also decided to highlight some of the stuff here. GET CELEBRATING ALREADY! + Find out if there’s an official IWD event in or near your city online. The theme this year is “Access to Education, Training, Science, and Technology.” + Stand with Planned Parenthood + Fight back ... Read More