Creepy Guy Does NOT Get the Message

I was coming home from law class at about 8:30pm on Monday the 29th. I noticed a man sitting near the adjacent door wearing an overcoat and green leather "cabbie" hat, neatly dressed. This man began to make suggestive "compliments" and hand gestures to two young women as they left the train. The young women looked a bit embarrassed but said nothing. Unfortunately, I became the next target of his attentions.

He points to me, then gives me the "thumbs up," and says, "you, you're a bit old but I wouldn't mind fucking you either!" (I'm in my late 30s, not dressed suggestively or revealingly - but neither were the other women he spoke to) I say nothing, but I move a bit further away and put in my earphones to communicate I'm not interested in any interaction.

He becomes angry that I don't acknowledge his comments, shouting "I'm talking to you, bitch! I just paid you a compliment, and you didn't say thank you!! Didn't your mama teach you to say thank you? What are you, a wiseass or a smartass? Fucking bitch, you listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

I say nothing and continue to ignore him, but stand my ground because I am sick of this type of behavior. I feel I'm too old to have to deal with this crap and I refuse to run away and be forced to move. I just pretend he doesn't exist.

He gets up and walks over to a young woman, and I hear him ask her if she knows me - she shakes her head.

There were perhaps a dozen other people on the trains car, who (of course) said and did nothing.

~Submitted by Lenka

Resisting Violence Against Women in Chicago

Paving New Roads: Communities Engaged in Resisting Violence

This is your opportunity to hear about innovative, creative & grassroots strategies in Chicago to end violence against women & girls!

Groups from around Chicago will be holding hands-on workshops with concrete ideas, tools and strategies to resist violence, including…

• Media Justice & How to Deconstruct the Media
• Performance as a Means of Activism & Resistance
• Engaging Young Men as Allies: Lessons Learned
• Using Platica & Storytelling around issues of Violence & Reproductive Justice
• Creating Alternative Responses to Violence against Girls & Women of Color in the Sex Trade & Street Economies
• Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Anti-violence Work
• Violence & the Prison Industrial Complex
• Queer Youth Resisting Violence
• Educación Popular y Violencia de Género

Participating and presenting groups include: Access Living, AquaMoon, Broadway Youth Center, Casa Segura, Females United for Action, FIRE, Latinas Organizing for Reproductive Equality, the Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team, Take Back the Halls, and the Young Women's Empowerment Project.

The event will take place on Saturday, December 1st, 2007, from 11:30 - 4 pm, at DePaul University SAC - 2320 N. Kenmore

The event is FREE and open to the public, but space is limited, so if you haven't already, RSVP today to pavingnewroads@gmail.com

This event is sponsored by Women & Girls CAN, the Community Accountability Planning Group and DePaul University Program in Women & Gender Studies.