Learn Something New

The Disturbing, Everyday Encounters Women Face On Public Transportation

''In nearly 15 years of living in New York City, I've lost count of the number of times I've stood in a packed subway car and had some stranger cup my butt, or whisper something in my ear. Once, in college, I felt a man grow hard as he pressed up against the back of my thigh in between stations.

By now, I've become conditioned to wait for a less crowded train, or aggressively (some might say obnoxiously) elbow my way around to make sure I'm surrounded by women, and I'm hardly alone. As Jessica Valenti writes in her memoir Sex Object, "The two worst times for dicks on the New York subway: when the train car is empty or when it’s crowded. As a teenager, if I found myself in an empty car, I would immediately leave ... if I didn’t, I just knew the guy sitting across from me would inevitably lift his newspaper to reveal a semihard cock."

This week, the New York City Police Department announced that reports of sexual offenses in the city's subways are up by more than 50 percent over last year...''

by Catherine Pearson