Harassment Quotes

“Beauty provokes harassment, the law says, but it looks through men's eyes when deciding what provokes it.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

“The liberal idea of tolerance is more and more a kind of intolerance. What it means is 'Leave me alone; don't harass me; I'm intolerant towards your over-proximity.”
― Slavoj Žižek

“When a storm of harassment disturbs our thinking and brings us down to our knees, the umbrella of our imagination can shield us against destructive aggression. It is offering shelter and is teaching us how to conquer ourselves, train our resilience, and grit our teeth. We better learn to adopt the virtue of endurance, as life consists of both ‘passion’ and ‘patience.’ ("The umbrella")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“She's all over us like maggots on garbage, just because I interfered with one pickpocket yesterday.”
― Tamora Pierce, Bloodhound

“If your flirting strategy is indistinguishable from harassment, it's not everyone else that's the problem.”
― John Scalzi

“When a stranger on the street makes a sexual comment, he is making a private assessment of me public. And though I’ve never been seriously worried that I would be attacked, it does make me feel unguarded, unprotected.

Regardless of his motive, the stranger on the street makes an assumption based on my physique: He presumes I might be receptive to his unpoetic, unsolicited comments. (Would he allow a friend to say “Nice tits” to his mother? His sister? His daughter?) And although I should know better, I, too, equate my body with my soul and the result, at least sometimes, is a deep shame of both.

Rape is a thousand times worse: The ultimate theft of self-control, it often leads to a breakdown in the victim’s sense of self-worth. Girls who are molested, for instance, often go on to engage in risky behavior—having intercourse at an early age, not using contraception, smoking, drinking, and doing drugs. This behavior, it seems to me, is at least in part because their self-perception as autonomous, worthy human beings in control of their environment has been taken from them.”
― Leora Tanenbaum, Slut!: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation

“Take "no" as an encouragement to redouble his efforts, so it was easier to say "yes" right away.”
― Stieg Larsson

“If ever a fool utters all kinds of insults against you,
The best bet is to not respond at all.”
― Miguel Ángel Sáez Gutiérrez «Marino», Zori 2ª Parte

“There are abusive individuals whose worst little demons are greed, sloth,envy, gluttony, pride and wrath enslaved by their god which is money. They usually set their false assumptions, wrong judgments, gossips and lies forceful than the ones who hold the truth but what they missed out is that the victims of their aggressions, the targets of their wrong accusations and the recipients of their repetitive harassments carry what is truly essential and what lives longer, that is: truth and goodness, both of which shall always prevail against their vicious, evil manners.”
― Angelica Hopes, Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul

“Because I questioned myself and my sanity and what I was doing wrong in this situation. Because of course I feared that I might be overreacting, overemotional, oversensitive, weak, playing victim, crying wolf, blowing things out of proportion, making things up. Because generations of women have heard that they're irrational, melodramatic, neurotic, hysterical, hormonal, psycho, fragile, and bossy. Because girls are coached out of he womb to be non-confrontational, agreeable, solicitous, deferential, demure, nurturing, to be tuned in to others, and to shrink and shut up.”
― Roxane Gay, Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture

“There's no being out too late in Whileaway, or up too early, or in the wrong part of town, or unescorted. You cannot fall out of the kinship web and become sexual prey for strangers, for there is no prey and there are no strangers -- the web is world-wide. In all of Whileaway there is no one who can keep you from going where you please (though you may risk your life, if that sort of thing appeals to you), no one who will follow you and try to embarrass you by whispering obscenities in your ear, no one who will attempt to rape you, no one who will warn you of the dangers of the street, no one who will stand on street corners, hot-eyed and vicious, jingling loose change in his pants pocket, bitterly bitterly sure that you're a cheap floozy, hot and wild, who likes it, who can't say no, who's making a mint off it, who inspires him with nothing but disgust, and who wants to drive him crazy.”
― Joanna Russ, The Female Man

“I am not your dog that you whistle for; I’m not a stray animal you call over, and I am not, I never have been, nor will I ever be, your “baby”!”
― Joy Jennings, I'm Not Your "Baby": An Australian woman's tortured life of sexual harassment and assault

“Treating Abuse Today 3(4) pp. 26-33
TAT: No. I don't know anymore than you know they're not. But, I'm talking about boundaries and privacy here. As a therapist working with survivors, I have been harassed by people who claim to be affiliated with the false memory movement. Parents and other family members have called or written me insisting on talking with me about my patients' cases, despite my clearly indicating I can't because of professional confidentiality. I have had other parents and family members investigate me -- look into my professional background -- hoping to find something to discredit me to the patients I was seeing at the time because they disputed their memories. This isn't the kind of sober, scientific discourse you all claim you want.”
― David L. Calof

“Back then, she had to worry about the government tapping her phone. It still probably does, but all the other stuff's been outsourced. Now, instead of just a COINTELPRO operation, she’s got to worry about that and some dude stalking her relatives from his mother’s basement, and kids bombarding her with death threats because it makes them feel like part of the (terrorist) gang, and a troll farm in Russia using the Center as the next cause célèbre to whip up Nazis. All the people who really are a threat to the country; somehow they’ve been convinced to do its dirty work, more or less for free. She would admire it if it weren’t so damn horrific.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The City We Became

“Sexual Harassment: Forgetting is difficult, remembering is worse.”
― Nitya Prakash

“I police the police.”
― Steven Magee

“The public should not have to police the police.”
― Steven Magee

“An awareness of police misconduct on my 911 calls that was covered up by internal affairs is what prompted me to become a police corruption researcher.”
― Steven Magee

“The most unexpected provocation is unprovoked.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“Meanwhile, nobody said, Haha, dang, isn’t it bad enough that rape and assault and abuse and harassment and boyfriends doing the emotional psychosexual whatever equivalent of sticking their beefy hand into your brain and wearing it like a baseball mitt or a puppet so they can just really move it around and infinity et cetera happens to so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so many of us, and we can’t even talk about it without having to apologize afterward?”
― Alice Sola Kim, A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers

“The Dark Cloud
Is the idiocy of classmates who seem to lack manners and tact
Is the weakness of character that leaves a terrible and lasting impact
Is the ingratitude of bullies in the way that they think and act
Is the foolish attitude that keeps friends from making a pact”
― Aida Mandic, The Dark Cloud

“The Dark Cloud
Is the criticism you face because you don’t want to kiss ass
Is the rage you experience when people are treated like they are a “lower social class”
Is the animated facet of your nature that has a certain keenness
Is the policy you have of not tolerating unnecessary meanness”
― Aida Mandic, The Dark Cloud

“The Dark Cloud
Is the boiling blood of a victim that has lost everything and been consumed whole
Is the icy coldness of a world that has lost its conscience and soul
Is the pathetic mistreatment that haters want to make sure will stay
Is the infinite loop that governments like to encourage and to play”
― Aida Mandic, The Dark Cloud

“40
The Dark Cloud
Is the negativity that surrounded you at work and in school
Is the toxicity that bullying victims have to use as fuel
Is the neurological disorder war victims have that is cruel
Is the disgusting attitude some older men have towards little girls that causes them to drool”
― Aida Mandic, The Dark Cloud

“The Dark Cloud
Is the “I’m sorry” that is worthless to you in times of despair
Is the worry and troubles that refugees have because life is not fair
Is the “Just ignore it” stance school administrations have towards kids that have been beat up
Is the dead dog you found laying on the street next to a small pup”
― Aida Mandic, The Dark Cloud

“Weak women in power believe in harassment than in quality.”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“I'm gonna rape Soniya”
― Thushyanthan Sivarajah

“I called 911 reporting harassment. The responding police officer never showed up, I had to call 911 again and when the police officer showed up over an hour later, he harassed me too!”
― Steven Magee

“Harass me and you will probably end up on social media.”
― Steven Magee

“I always seek out a law enforcement officer whenever I am being harassed during photography.”
― Steven Magee