Yahoo Lifestyle #FirstHarassed: Women Share Their Harassment Encounters on Social Media
Sexual harassment affects one in five women at work. Photo: Thinkstock.
A woman rarely forgets the first time she was harassed.
But now, a new hashtag is asking women to not only remember the ordeal, but to share it on social media.
The hashtag #FirstHarassed, created by Mikki Kendall, is going viral on twitter.
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It's already been described as "heartbreaking" by twitter user @jemelehill. "Amazing what we've been conditioned to believe is acceptable," he wrote.
According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, sexual harassment is any unwanted or unwelcome sexual behaviour, which makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.
On their website it states that sexual harassment disproportionately affects women, with one in five experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace at some time.
Although women were the first ones to post their stories, unsurprisingly men are also joining in the conversation - one in 20 men also report experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace.
Shockingly, many women who have so far shared their stories experienced harassment before they had even hit puberty.
Below are some shocking #FirstHarassed stories from women on Twitter:
#firstharassed age 9, dad said i was "mature enough" to ask anything ab his vasectomy, not to tell mom. He raped me later.
— Kira/Rowan (@lalaithbeinia) May 30, 2015
I don't remember exactly when it happened, but I wasn't 14 y.o when a man ran after me on the street & groped me from behind #FirstHarassed
— ツ Lavinia لافينيا ✌ (@LavIn140) May 30, 2015
I was harassed so much I can't tell you when I was #firstharassed. That's how "normal" it was. I just know it started around age 9/10ish.
— Cirque du SoBae (@brownandbella) May 28, 2015
sitting in the car next to my father and a man winked at him as if I were his girlfriend. I was 13 #firstharassed
— Tyrese Coleman (@tylachelleco) May 28, 2015
@Karnythia #firstharassed at 9 by friends of an older cousin then later by random men, friends of the family... the list goes on.
— TT (@temisol) May 28, 2015
