“If you act up, I’ll follow you.”
Those were the chilling words of a man in a video that went viral on Twitter over the weekend.
He had climbed across train tracks to harass a woman he didn’t know at a train station late at night. When the woman reacted with annoyance and asked him to (quite rightly) leave her alone, he got mad, following her and threatening to take her phone away from her to stop her filming.
It was later reported on Twitter that the woman had to leave the station, and the man continued to follow her until another woman helped her. Meanwhile, someone else said the exact same man had followed her onto her train the night before.
But this isn’t just one man. This is something women are all too familiar with: being harassed by men who think they are entitled to our time because we dare to be out alone. It happens when we’re walking home, in bars, shopping, at work, when we’re waiting for friends, in a group or alone.
An Office for National Statistics report found that half of women aged 16 to 34 had experienced at least one form of harassment. More than two-thirds of women in that age range had experienced catcalling in the last 12 months. This is becoming especially prevalent in train stations, and it coincides with the fact that not only are there fewer staff in stations, but the government are threatening to close train station ticket offices. In the same report, 58% of women aged 18 to 34 felt unsafe using public transport after dark. With less staff or a place to seek refuge, how are women supposed to travel safely?
The number of assaults on railways has also doubled since 2015, and those are only the ones that have been reported. YouGov found that 97% of women aged 18-24 have experienced sexual harassment, while only sexual harassment 4% of crimes are reported to the police.
I’ve lost count of the number of times friends have texted me that they’re on a train and a man’s being weird or won’t stop talking to them.
One time, I was walking home from the train station after a night out and realised who had been bothering me on the train was driving suspiciously slowly behind me in a car. I rang my friend to keep me company, only for my phone to die halfway through. She later told me how terrified she was that I’d be kidnapped despite only living five minutes from the station.
Disabled women are almost twice as likely to experience sexual assault as non-disabled women. Train station ticket office closures would also mean disabled people are more vulnerable to being taken advantage of if they’re forced to ask for help. What’s more, disabled women are less believed and less likely to be able to fight off an attacker.
In a world where men are encouraged by influencers in the “manosphere” to dominate women, we are vulnerable wherever we go. However, taking away the people who we can seek help from will only make.