A diminishing of self: women's experiences of unwanted sexual attention

The health effects of everyday occurrences of unwanted sexual attention (such as looks, whistles, and comments) were explored in semistructured interviews with 8 women in Seattle, WA. Participants described the strategies they used for avoiding and dealing with unwanted sexual attention, as well as the effects the attention had on their health and sense of self. Grounded theory techniques were used to code the data and identify themes. The women in this study were affected both physically and emotionally by their experiences and their perceived ineffectiveness in dealing with them. On a phenomenological level, these experiences contributed to a "diminishing of self," which included feeling dehumanized and lacking agency. This project begins to describe the complexities of this seemingly simple everyday occurrence and relates the experience to social science and psychological theory.