Today I was on a run around my neighborhood and a random man asked me why I wasn’t smiling. First of all, because I just ran two miles, and secondly eff you. This isn’t the first or second time this has happened. In fact, I get some sort of comment every time I go for a run or buy a six pack from the store. I’m not flattered, it’s not a confident boost, it makes me nervous and uncomfortable. I could write books upon books about this subject but other people have discussed it better than I ever could.

That said, I had an interesting conversation with a good male friend yesterday that brought something to my attention, there are men out there who have no idea how bad street harassment really is. My friend had heard the term and read some articles about statistics but he hadn’t really thought about it until he started hearing stories from his girlfriends. If you do it or see it happen, how can you understand it? I rarely get comments if I’m walking with a man, so my friend had never witnessed anything happening to me. He referred to it as an entire world that is happening right under his nose, and that is the reason I’m writing this.

My friend listened to story after story of things that happen to me every day and started to develop an understanding. The only way this problem is going to get better is if more and more people understand it, and that can be done by talking about it constantly. Talk about it with your male and female friends and slowly we’ll eradicate the behavior.

For more information about how to end street harassment visit Hollaback.org.