Resumen

MOLINA RODRIGUEZ, Nancy Elizabeth; LOPEZ MOLINA, Sergio Alberto  y  CHAVEZ TORRES, Guillermina. A fear that consumes: women and young men helplessness in lieu of street sexual harassment. Cultura representaciones soc [online]. 2022, vol.17, n.33, e0001998.  Epub 05-Mayo-2023. ISSN 2007-8110.

A comparison of actual experiences associated to street sexual harassment of women and young men undergraduate students is presented. In order to transmit such factual gender violence related experiences, commonly exerted against women, a platform was generated through discussion groups. The richness of this paper is that the experiences of both women and men as persons receiving and/or observing street harassment are analyzed. The findings are organized by disaggregating the events into: personal experiences, behaviors in the face of harassment, response of people receiving harassment, and of the reactions manifested as witnesses of the harassment. Additionally, a group reflection on the role played by the State on such a mode of violence as well as proposals for solutions to the problem. Some of the most salient results are that both women and men felt incapable of reacting to street sexual harassment, and both concord that empathy and working with men can be strategic to prevent and find possible solutions. Another relevant aspect of the reflection process made by the participants in the study, expressed in their testimonies, accounted to the fact that the optative course “Introduction to gender perspective”, facilitated the personal reflection, on the one hand, and, on the other, showed the importance of incorporating gender courses in the curricula as a sensitization formative process in the general issue of gender violence.

Palabras llave : street sexual harassment; violence receptors; prevention and sensitization.