@ashlingosheax: For those asking, this was Shepherd’s Bush last night, a few minutes down the road from the theatre. I’m not quite sure why I’m sharing this, I don’t know whether it’s to raise awareness of the shit we experience day to day, to open a dialogue about when men can do if they see situations like this, to publicly shame this man or whether it’s just a way for me to do something with my anger. Here it is anyway. This guy followed me across a road, he tried to speak to me multiple times (I ignored, quite clearly not wanting to engage) but he persisted. Once I got to a part of the road where all the bus stops were, he stopped saying things, probably because there was the odd person around to hear. He stopped trying to speak to me, but he continued following me. I changed bus stops several times. I walked up and down that road, changing direction frequently. He kept following. When there was someone at a bus stop I sat in with them and he waited just a few steps away. I did this a few times. At the point of this video I only felt able to speak up and say anything - let alone film - because there was a man present that I spoke to and told about the situation, so he was a witness. I felt backed by his presence, not by his words or action. The man I spoke to prior to him at a different bus stop heard, understood, watched the behaviour, but also said nothing and got on his bus. After this confrontation, when I was able to actually go to the bus stop I needed, there was a man waiting there. I asked what bus he was getting and explained that I just wanted to know if he would be there for a while. I didn’t want to be alone while that creep was still lingering around just in case. I didn’t know whether that confrontation truly scared him off, or just put pause on his plans and made him angry. This guy I chat to was so kind, we communicated via Google translate and when we got on the same bus he checked in with me at the beginning and end of his trip. Although I feel so grateful for each of these men being there in the moment, I wanna be clear that no one spoke up or took any direct action while the threat was lingering. And that’s okay, we have no idea how dangerous a person might be and sometimes it’s enough just to feel seen. But sometimes it’s also just really scary knowing you don’t have back up, you just have a kind witness to whatever might be about to happen to you.

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