Why Do Gropers Grope?
This week, the Sexist will embark on a series about groping in D.C.'s public spaces—its bars, parking lots, Metro cars, national parks, bookstores, and sidewalks. So far, I've heard the stories of...
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Sexist Comments of the Week: Groping Edition
Last week's essay on groping in D.C., "Touch and Go: How Groping Happens," inspired several readers to write in with their own experiences being touched without their consent. More ways groping...
View ArticleJudge Rules Groping Victim Too Hot Not to Ogle
On Aug. 17, 2008, an Ottawa waitress in her early 20's came down with some abdominal pain, so she left her early-morning shift to check into the emergency room at a local hospital. There, the woman...
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“I Just Wanted Him to Finish And Leave”: Why Some Groping Victims Stay Silent
It used to be that Jessica Graves was always up for a dance party. So when she headed out to Dupont Circle gay bar Cobalt one night in 2006, Graves and a male friend hit the crowded dance floor hard....
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A Groping Victim’s Guide to D.C.
Stand up. In need of a more servicey approach to the Sexist's groping series? Here's a collection of sexual assault resources for victims of groping—and everyone else. KNOW THE LAW. D.C.: Groping is...
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How Bystanders Can Help Groping Victims
Say you're riding home on the Metro, minding your own business, when you just so happen to notice a guy repositioning himself to better rub his erection against a stranger's back. You've just become a...
View ArticleSexist Beatdown: Guys Who Grab Butt Edition
[youtube:v=QjWn-ueeeLw] This is what the guy touching your ass thinks you're thinking. Public sexual assault: I'm still fucking talking about it! But this time, I've got a little bit of help from the...
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Introducing Our Groping Page
The Sexist is out today; I'll be back posting on a regular schedule tomorrow. In the meantime, occupy yourself by perusing all of the Sexist's groping coverage in one handy spot: Check out our groping...
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“Why Would I Want to Touch Your Ass?”: When Groping Victims Talk Back
Last week, the Sexist highlighted a fairly common reaction of groping victims around the metro region—say nothing. A woman who got assaulted on a crowded dance floor, a woman who got rubbed on Metro,...
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Metro Transit Police Talk Groping
The Metro transit system is one of D.C.'s most popular venues for public gropers. Whether it's the guy pushing his erection into your back on a train or the man reaching out to grab your genitals at a...
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MPD Officer Groped By Suspect
One of the gripes leveled at the Sexist's recent groping coverage is that it has so far focused on only one category of victim—women. Men get groped, too, so let's hear one male victim's story. This...
View ArticleHas a Man Grabbed Your Ass In Adams Morgan?
Last night, Sexist reader was groped at the corner of 18th & Columbia Rd. NW. On to the good news: After thinking it over, the woman reported the incident to police, who told her that they were...
View Article12 Gene Weingarten Readers Are Serial Gropers
This week, Washington Post humor columnist Gene Weingarten took a "deeply respectful" but skeptical eye to the Sexist's ongoing groping series. "Basically, the column seemed to divide the world into...
View ArticleStories From Male Groping Victims (And One Female Groper)
When the Washington Post's Gene Weingarten took the temperature of D.C.'s groping problem this week, he constructed two separate reader polls—one for women, and one for men. The women's poll asked...
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Groping at Cobalt, Consensual and Otherwise
View Larger Map Is there a more grope-centric nightlife destination in the District of Columbia than Cobalt? Out of the dozens of groping stories reported to the Sexist over the past couple of months,...
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“I Wanted Him to Feel Physical Pain”: The Revenge Fantasies of Groping Victims
The man never even touched Miranda Vargas, but her body felt him. While riding the Metro, Vargas watched as a man with a “stale, semen smell” inched close to her, opened his legs, and “began playing...
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March Is Public Transit Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Local anti-sexual harassment resource Holla Back D.C. has declared March "Public Transit Awareness Month" in order to "focus on public sexual harassment on our public transportation in the DC metro...
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“I’m Claimed By This Pervert”: One Woman Who Reported Her Grope
Emily Ruskowski isn’t thinking of much as she sits on a concrete bench at the Foggy Bottom Metro stop on a late-summer night in 2009. In a station crowded with loitering commuters, one man makes his...
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Diagnosing Groping: New Frotteur Rules Require Three Nonconsensual Rubs
Yesterday, the American Psychological Association released a set of proposed revisions to its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, the document that sets guidelines for psychiatric...
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Sexist Comments of the Week: The Sexual Assault Trauma “Myth” Edition
Last week on the Sexist, we debuted our final groping instalment (yes, haters, it is really over). In the final column, Falls Church resident Emily Ruskowski is groped in a Metro parking garage,...
View ArticleGroping Victim: A Prompt Assault Report Does Not Guarantee A Prompt Police...
In response to the commenter who thought that her story perpetuated the "myth" that sexual assault victims are too traumatized to report their assaults promptly to police, Fairfax groping victim Emily...
View ArticleVictim Reports “Forcible Fondling” In GWU Library
Over the past school year, the campus of the George Washington University has experienced several public sexual assaults. Back in September, a University of Maryland student entered a G.W. dorm and...
View ArticleHolla Back DC and the District’s Sexual Harassment Reporting Problem
Holla Back DC—a blog chronicling street harassment in the District–-turns a year old this month. (Make a wish!). One of the reasons that Holla Back has been such a valuable resource over the past year...
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Miss D.C. Meets Grope With Body Slam
This year, I wrote a series about public sexual assaults in the District, and how victims respond to them. I separated typical victim responses into four categories: freezing, talking back, fighting...
View ArticleMiss D.C. Talks Groping; NBC 4 Is Shocked and Confused
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcwashington.com/video. Miss D.C. Jen Corey discusses defending herself against gropers with body-slams and head-locks on NBC4. AWESOME. She also makes some really...
View ArticleThe Groper’s Path of Least Resistance
It is a principle of public sexual assault that gropers will follow the path of least resistance. They will gravitate toward situations where their activities will not be discovered, and their assaults...
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Examiner Called On Sexual Assault Coverage, Cites Intern Defense
Last month, Washington Examiner gossip columnists Tara Palmeri and Nikki Schwab drafted a hot little item about Miss D.C. 2009 Jen Corey "kicking some tail at the local bars." Corey, the gossips...
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Examiner‘s Solution to Bad Sexual Assault Reporting: Victim-Blame!
After Miss D.C. 2009 Jen Corey's claim that the Washington Examiner mischaracterized her sexual assault as a simple "bar fight," reporter Tara Palmeri first defended herself by claiming she doesn't...
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