BEEEEEEEEEP. I gasp and jump a mile. “Hey baby, come over here,” a voice screams, “You’re looking hot!” Maniacal laughter follows as the man revs up his car and drives away. I sigh inwardly … yet another run interrupted.

The experience that I just wrote about boils down to one thing — sexual harassment. According to Dictionary.com , sexual harassment is defined as “the persistent unwelcome directing of sexual remarks and looks, and unnecessary physical contact at a person, usually a woman, esp. in the workplace.”

Sexual harassment happens more often than people realize. Sexual harassment may come from a stranger or someone that you know. It can happen to anyone. It often involves honking, leering, whistling, sexist comments, vulgar gestures, sexually explicit comments, kissing noises, and so on.

According to a national survey conducted by StopStreetHarassment.org, in which 2,000 people were questioned, 65 percent of women in the United States reported being victims of street harassment. Every single woman that has experienced it is one too many.

I personally know some girls  that get harassed at JC about once a week from a specific group of boys that think it is funny to yell profane comments at the girls as they walk down the hallways. The problem is, it’s not funny.

This type of behavior is unacceptable. Girls should be able to walk down the hallways in their schools without having to deal with catcalls and harassment. Sexual harassment should not be part of getting a quality education.

According to TheWashingtonPost, a young actress, Shoshana B. Roberts, allowed herself to be secretly filmed while she walked around New York city for ten hours. She remained straight-faced and silent the entire time. In this time, she was catcalled and harassed over a hundred different times.

Men may believe that rudely telling random women that they are hot is a compliment, but it is not. It is creepy and disgusting. It’s not an okay thing to do.

More often than not, women do not appreciate it. It is objectification in the most basic sense.

Women do not ask for it just by going running or wearing certain clothes. If you’re confused about whether or not a women is asking to be sexually harassed, then there’s a simple test you can do. Listen. If she verbally says, “please sexually harass me,” then she is asking for it. If she doesn’t say that, then guess what? She’s not asking for it. It’s really that simple.

Many people feel pressured to ignore sexual harassment or laugh it off. We live in a society where sexual harassment is considered “normal” and happens to almost every single woman at least once. But that does not make it okay.

This tendency to laugh it off is in stark contrast to its many serious occurrences. The news is full of dire instances of serious sexual harassment which goes beyond getting honked at, some of which involved cyber abuse. Many severe forms of harassment and prolonged abuse can have very damaging effects.

Severe sexual harassment has more of an impact than people realize. It can have long term effects.  According to an article from  Livescience.com  about a study conducted by a sister site, My Health News Daily, sexual harassment can cause depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, higher blood pressure, sleep problems, neck pain, and suicidal tendencies.

There’s a simple way to end the problem of sexual harassment — people should keep their opinions about other people’s bodies to themselves, unless they have a relationship with them or the person asks about it. There is absolutely no reason to blurt out unwanted comments about someone else’s body.

Rachel Amrhein is an Opinion Columnist for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.