Fi’s story: Getting home from Uni

Often I don’t finish at uni until it’s dark. The last bus to Karori leaves at 6:15, so most evenings I walk home. Something I like doing if I have been sitting at a computer all day, but something that makes me nervous every single time.

A couple of months ago I was walking home from rehearsal and was just about at the viaduct (the same spot where I have been picked up and driven home -free- by a taxi driver and by the police on other occasions) when a car slowed down beside me. A voice called out the window:

-Excuse me
-(I ignored him)
-Excuse me
-yeah? (I said, thinking maybe he wanted directions)
-do you want ten bucks?
-no thank you
-OK. (The car drives off).

I was shocked. So many things were wrong with this. And I couldn’t help thinking, what if he drives back? I immediately called my dad and asked him to come to pick me up, which I don’t think he should have to do, but I did not feel safe walking the next 20 minutes.

I hate that my immediate thought was: “but I am wearing my gym clothes,” even though I know that that is irrelevant. I hate that I felt like it was my fault, because I shouldn’t be walking in the dark, and I should have covered up more. I am confused by the fact that I think there was someone else in the car with him, and I think it was a girl. This somehow changes the event, but I’m not sure how. I hate that I keep making excuses for him/them, like maybe he/they wanted me to help them pull a prank…. but as a friend of mine said “they should know better than to drive around calling out offers of money to women walking alone at night.” But in any case, young man (and maybe girl), if you were insinuating what you made me feel you were insinuating, whether that was your intention or not, you could offer a fuck load more than 10 bucks.

Josephine’s story: Harassment in the street and at school

When I was a student at Victoria University there was this guy in my first year maths class who began to follow me around campus, and when he saw me in the street, follow me for blocks and blocks until I managed to shake him off by going into a shop or cafe. His behaviour was pretty threatening and unnerving. One time I left maths class to work on an assignment in the Kelburn library and he must has overheard me saying that to a friend because he came and hunted me down in the library and sat down in the desk next to me just to stare at me. It made me feel so uncomfortable. I also heard some other girls talking about this guy who was following them, so he wasn’t targeting me exclusively. Not knowing his name, I didn’t know what to do to report him. All I know about him is that he’s probably 4th or 5th year by now and studies maths or physics. I still see him occasionally on the street; he still stares at me and my heart goes into my mouth. I hate the fact that it’s made me look over my shoulder for him every day of my life.