Advanced Essay #4: Jordan Grayes

There is a worldwide knowledge of something known as, Street Harassment, which is most commonly mostly to blame for women’s fear of walking city streets. But, I ask, should Street Harassment be a crime? I feel that Street Harassment should not be a crime because it is almost instinctive for men to attempt to engage in interaction with a women that they desire, persistent Street Harassment is the true crime that needs to be addressed and what is there for the police to really do about this first amendment right?

Street harassment should not be considered a crime because it is only the pursuit of finding a companion. It is natural for a male to desire a female and when he sees one that he wants it is almost instinctive for that male to approach and try to get the attention of the female.This quote from a story of sexual harassment on Hollaback.com brings me to my next point, “At first I was suspicious, as I always am when a man offers to give me something for free that normally costs money, and then I felt bad and thought, That’s terrible, Diana. This nice, religious old man is doing something sweet for you and you’re suspecting him of being a pervert. So I thanked him for the candle and he went away and I kept praying. A few seconds later he came back and cupped my boob.

This is the crime portion of street harassment, not to go into details about punishment but persistent harassment should be followed up with some sort of jail time or fine or anything for that matter that involves police. But, what is it that the police would do, they barely do anything about rape cases, so why would a women telling them about an incident where a man is trying to holla at her be a top priority. I do not think that there should be a crime for catcalling and street harassment, yet there needs to be a new general approach to educating the future of our country on how to treat a female or any other person. I was taught at a young age to always approach a beautiful girl if I happen to spot one. Why not try to go after her and interact? If I want to engage in friendly conversation with a random person on the street then that is my choice. I understand the stigma of coming off as a; stalker, weirdo, other adjective for jackass. When approaching a female with the typical and repetitive, “ Hey baby girl you looking good today,.” But i just wanna get to know her a lil bit and possibly get the number so i can see more of her and that's the cycle of things. It's not harassment unless it is persistent.

The stories of stalking and groping and the mini-rants and sparks of rage that come from rejection should be annexed. Persistent harassment on the street should be a crime. But, when you simply give women a compliment and she says thanks and walks away, then no further catcalling should take place. When it comes to not responding to the compliments and men then lashing out, I don’t know why, as a man, that we do this sort of thing. There is no possible justification for this act, and seriously as a whole we as men should start to stray away from this sort of thing because it is very disrespectful and offensive. Just because we don’t get our way we shouldn’t lash out at the female that we were just trying to engage in conversation with. I agree that a law would not work because there is no way to enforce the law. Would the women have to report the incident, what if there is no proof, police officers aren’t around at every location at every moment of every day so it would be hard to enforce the situation.