When a girl is jogging down the street, don’t honk. Honking only scares us, and it gets kind of repetitive when every other car feels it’s necessary to either honk or yell something obscene along with it. The priceless comment someone yelled out at me today was, “Hey baby, show me your tits!” Aside from losing all the faith in humanity that had foolishly remained in my mind, I was appalled and justly frightened.

Another scary event happened two days ago when I was jogging in shorts and a t-shirt. I heard a noise behind me and turned around to see some scumbag had been slowly trailing me on a teeny, probably stolen, bicycle. Gross! I ran across Lincoln Way to get away from him, and I saw him speed up to a normal biking pace.

About a month ago, I was jogging up deserted, poorly lit North Dakota Avenue around dusk. A red pickup truck slowed down next to me, and then pulled into what I think was a cemetery drive up ahead. I freaked out, turned around, and started running south toward home and, most importantly, lights. Then the truck pulled out and drove off.

That was the last time I went jogging around dusk, but even since then the atrocities have not ceased. Though in broad daylight assaults are more verbal than potentially physically harmful, one can grasp how entirely inappropriate honking at jogging or walking women really is.

I just started working out outside again after taking a long time off because of the harassment I would encounter on every single trek outdoors. I will be damned if perverts are going to make leaving the house an unbearable and anxiety-provoking task for me. Sometimes I even want to walk to class, but this has become out of the question.

I don’t know if other women in Ames can attest to this problem, but I would like to tell the public this: Leave joggers alone!

Bethany Ryan

Junior

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