Street Smut: Gender, Media, and the Legal Power Dynamics of Street Harassment, or Hey Sexy and Other Verbal Ejaculations
![handle is hein.journals/coljgl14 and id is 95 raw text is: STREET SMUT: GENDER, MEDIA, AND THE
LEGAL POWER DYNAMICS OF STREET
HARASSMENT, OR HEY SEXY AND OTHER
VERBAL EJACULATIONS
OLATOKUNB 0 OL UKEMI LANIYA
I stepped on the bus cheerily anticipating the experiences of
the day, unaware of the encounter that was about to take
place. The bus driver spoke, Hey cutie. I explained to
him that I was not his cutie and did not desire his
unsolicited comments. He snatched my MTA pass, and
taunted, Now, you have to say 'please' to get it back. I
made several attempts to grab the card but could not.
Feeling as ifI had no other options, I was forced to do as
he said. He gave me back my card and grabbed my
backside as I walked towards the back of the bus. No one
on the bus said a word.'
Recently Ifound myself in midtown and decided to take a
walk through Bryant Park.... [Within moments, one man]
invited me to take my clothes off and... another...
wanted to know why I wasn 't smiling .... [There] were
perhaps fifty men, strolling, ambling, striding along eating
hot dogs, sitting on benches and reading the paper or
trading illegal substances as though they had all the time in
the world-and three women, all walking quickly and
grimly, as I was now doing, as though late for an
appointment with the dentist.2
I am walking home, and a slightly drunk and slightly
disheveled man is following me, saying, Mamma, oh
B.A., 2002, Ursinus College; J.D. Candidate, 2005, Columbia University School
of Law. The author serves as co-chair of the Battered Immigrant Women's Project, executive
board member of the Domestic Violence Project, and member of New York City's Street
Harassment Project. The author would like to thank Professor Patricia Williams and Marie-
Am~lie George for their assistance and support.
' Description of one woman's experience, shared at a Street Harassment Project
Meeting in New York, NY (Dec. 1, 2003).
2 Katha Pollit, Hers, N.Y. Times, Dec. 12, 1985, at C2.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/coljgl14&div=7&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Street Smut: Gender, Media, and the Legal Power Dynamics of Street Harassment, or Hey Sexy and Other Verbal Ejaculations
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