Sexual harassment a bane for young women

I, like many other women, have fallen into a trap. The trap where we think we need to change ourselves to avoid being harassed in a bar or on the side of the street. But the trap has gotten even smaller; I can’t even walk my dog anymore.
I have recently decided to start walking for exercise. Walking the square is easy because I know if I stick to the outside for two laps I can walk a mile.
After work I like to go home, unwind, grab a bite to eat and then I am ready for my walk, usually around 8 p.m. This should not be a dangerous hour, right? The sun had barely been down 20 minutes before I started on my walk earlier this week.
While crossing the street a white beat-up old car, filled with a group of relatively young men, drove up and got dangerously close to me, maybe a couple of feet away. Instead of proceeding, the car slowed  and pulled closer, hugging my side until I safely reached the sidewalk.
The incident left me shaken, and I tried to let it go.
After all, there is nothing I can do about it.
As not only a woman but as a human being that is one of the worst feelings. Knowing that a group of men can harass me and I have to accept it.
This is not the first account of harassment I have experienced.
I can almost bet I will be hollered or honked at every time I cross the street. I have been at a bar when I politely tell a man I have a boyfriend and I am not interested and he proceeds to place his hands on me. Not to mention the countless times I have had to leave a bar because I felt too uncomfortable to be there.
I know the answer to most of these instances is to call the cops or carry pepper spray — I do.
I take the proper precautions. I don’t dress in a provocative way. I don’t go out alone late at night, and yet, I have to deal with this kind of harassment.

I KNOW I am not the only woman who has experienced this. I talk to other women and most times I get the response “don’t you just hate that,” as if it’s something that just happens to all of us.
It shouldn’t happen. It is not OK to treat women in a disrespectful manner just because you can. We don’t appreciate the constant heckling and that should be reason enough for the men who think it’s OK to act in such a way to change their ways.
Allison Tinn