A new book on shutting up. (courtesy Holly Kearl)

Holly Kearl, the region's foremost expert on street harassment, doesn't get cat-called as much as she used to. But it's not because Kearl's anti-harassment web site (and now book) "Stop Street Harassment" has already achieved its titular goal; Kearl just isn't alone on the street as much anymore.  "When I was in graduate school"—which Kearl often walked to—"I faced harassment about once a week," she says. Now that her commute follows crowded bus and Metro lines, "I've only faced harassment a handful of times over the last few years" on the way to work, she says. "I find that the more a woman is in public alone, the more likely it is she will be harassed."

Through "Stop Street Harassment," Kearl is hoping to help women feel less alone, even those who still navigate their commutes solo. After the jump: Reston resident Kearl, 27, talks street harassment in the D.C. area, the hazards of exercising as a woman, and what happens when a street harassment activist gets cat-called.

TBD: You write about street harassment all over the world. What have your experiences with harassment been like locally in the Washington, D.C. area?

Holly Kearl: . . . I lived in Fairfax for two years, near Lee Highway and I-66. I am a runner and I dislike running on a treadmill, but I ended up mostly running on the treadmill of my apartment complex because I got harassed so much from men passing by in vehicles. When my male partner and I decided to move three years ago, finding a community where I could run outside without having to run along roads and risk being harassed was a big consideration. I love where we live now—there are many trails for people to use and instead of getting harassed almost every time I go running, I've been harassed about five times in three years. I don't feel unsafe on the trails, either, because there are always people out walking their dogs, with their kids, walking, running, or riding their bike.

TBD: How do you respond to street harassment? How has your career path changed the way you respond to harassment and groping?

HK: Most of the harassment I experience is from men passing by in cars when I'm running or walking and I rarely have a chance to respond before they are gone. That is very frustrating.

One time when I was in NYC and had just started getting into researching street harassment, a man came up to me and my mother in Central Park and was telling us how beautiful we were and trying to engage us in conversation. We were talking about my grandmother, who was in the hospital, and were just in no mood to talk to a stranger. My mother and I are very polite people and were being polite to him and then I was like, Wait, this man invaded our space and we don't have to talk to him. So I told him we were done talking to him and when he wouldn't go away, I had to be forceful with him and tell him to leave us alone. I'd never done something like that before and it was empowering to realize I didn't have to put up with that and I could rebel against the socialization to always be polite.

This past April, when I was on a business trip in Oregon, I was running near the hotel I was staying at and a man behind bushes started yelling really aggressive things at me, including, "Yeah, you better run, girl." He started shouting "Oh yeah, oh yeah." I turned around to confront him, realized I was on a deserted, dead-end road and that I couldn't even see him, and so sprinted the hell out of there. I felt very unsafe and got back to the hotel and cried and was also really angry. I drove back there and took a photo of the house and wrote about it on my blog Stop Street Harassment, and thought about reporting him or putting a letter in his mail box or something, but in the end I didn't. I had to move on to do my job and then went home.

I haven't been groped since college and was too stunned to do anything then. I hope that now I would report the guy and yell or punch him or do something so he won't be able to get away with it.

TBD: You've built a successful career around combating street harassment. When you're harassed now, does that create any sort of internal irony for you? Like, "This guy is clearly not familiar with my work."

HK: Yes! [Last week] I went to lunch with three AAUW co-workers [the day after an event for the new book]. We were walking and a man drove by and whistled at us. There were a few seconds of silence and then almost in unison we were like, "Hey, he just street harassed us! And after we just spent last night talking about this issue!" It was ironic.

With the incident in Oregon, even though I felt too afraid to do anything about the man when he harassed me, later I had this feeling of, Oh, you've messed with the wrong woman, guy. Not only did I write a blog post about it, but the Oregonian published an op-ed I wrote about the incident and how often women are harassed while they are exercising. In an informal survey I conducted, of the 811 female respondents, nearly 1 in 4 said that at least monthly they exercise at a gym instead of outdoors because of fear of harassment. That led to several interview requests on the topic. I know that man still wasn't impacted by it, but I felt empowered knowing I had a voice and could raise awareness about not only my experience, but the experience of all women who exercise outside.