Men's stranger intrusions: Rethinking street harassment

Women's experiences of intrusive men in public space, popularly termed ‘street harassment’, are the most understudied yet commonly experienced forms of violence against women. Despite acknowledgement of its importance, an explicit debate on naming – with an exploration of how language creates both openings and restrictions of what can be said – is yet to be had in the literature. This paper begins this conversation, detailing the benefits and challenges in current terminology, and exploring the possibilities of reframing the most common dynamic in street harassment as men's stranger intrusions on women in public space.