Maybe this can be a sexual harassment diary.

As a social experiment.

Today I rode home from uni and unfortunately had to stop by a shopping centre in a dodgy area for groceries.

Just before I parked my bike some young idiot yelled out “Wish I was that bike seat, darlin’! Wish I was that bike seat!”

I felt threatened. I thought about it the whole time I was shopping. I decided it was dumb to blow it out of proportion. Then I realised that even though logically I knew that it was unlikely that anything else would happen, I would now walk my bike to the creek trail rather than riding it, so as not to provoke him or anyone else. I had to remember that it is Not OK for a girl to ride a bike in shorts on a warm day. I spent the whole trip worried that he’d vandalise my bike while I was shopping, and waiting until I was out of sight before getting back on the bicycle would add about ten minutes to my trip home.

I’d say I’m glad I don’t live there any more, but a guy yelled something similar to me while I was on my bike about a week ago, one block from my house, so.

If anyone else wants #sexual harassment diary to be a thing, it should be a thing. I want to know how other people feel when these things happen, and how often it happens.