Chloe: “By the time I got my french fries, I was exhausted from trying to get them to leave us alone, and unfortunately I broke down in tears”

I was waiting alone in line at the famous french fries stand in Flagey. If you have ever been there, you know that the line can last for at least 20 minutes. While I was waiting, the two men behind started reading out loud the text messages I was writing on my phone. I was annoyed by this, expressed it with a snarl and look to the guys, and decided to directly call the person I was texting. When they heard me speaking in English, they were asking me if I was tourist, mimicking English, etc… When I turned around to tell them that I spoke French, and very firmly asked them to stop, they continued on, telling me they wanted to get to know me despite me making it quite clear several times that I didn’t want to get to know them. Normally, I would’ve just left to avoid this situation, but I really wanted my french fries!

At this point I decided to ignore them (although the two girls in front of me had joined me in telling them that they were bothering us). Their remarks varied from comments on them just looking for love, what perfume I wear, why won’t I talk to them, and other sexual remarks.

When my sister joined me, the harassment got even worse. By the time I got my french fries, I was exhausted from trying to get them to leave us alone, and unfortunately I broke down in tears. At this point, the sales guy and men behind me had interfered, without great success, and I was so ashamed of crying that I ran away very fast without confronting the men or thanking the others.

All in all, this was quite a failure, I wish I had better responded! Or at least not cried…

One last thing, although the sales guy were nice because they asked the men to leave us alone, they did try comforting me by saying : “don’t cry, this only happens because you are so pretty…”. Needless to say, that did not make me feel better.

Chloe.

2 Antwoorden

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1. hollaback! brussels zegt:

   juli 11, 2012 om 13:03

   Thank you for sharing your story Chloe, don’t ever be ashamed of your reaction!!! It is your harassers who should be ashamed of themselves.

   Please remember that there’s never a “wrong” reaction to street harassment. You holla-ing back here shows the braveness you have inside of you. We cannot always choose when to be brave, and when something like that happens to you, it’s our emotions that take the upper hand. Trust me, we’ve all been there.

   Know that we’ve got your back, and that together we have the power to change society and end street harassment.

   Sending you our warm support. Thank you for bravely Holla-ing back!
   Your Hollaback!Brussels team

   Beantwoorden
2. Steven zegt:

   juli 28, 2012 om 03:13

   Hi Chloe,

   There’s no need to feel ashamed because your emotions got the best of you. It’s perfectly normal.
   You were actually quite brave !

   Kind regards,
   Steven.

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