Yvonne Ní Mhurchú, Limerick, Ireland, SSH Blog Correspondent
Harassment isn’t something that just happens on the street. It isn’t just confined to ‘outside’, it is something that happens everywhere; outside, inside, work, school, university, bars, concerts, sporting events and nightclubs. It is happening everywhere in every city and every country around the world. For proof of this, look no further than the Stop Street Harassment blog, it has stories and reports of harassment by various people from across the globe.
Last month I wrote about how I walked home for the first time ever without any fear of street harassment. This month I want to write about socialising without being subjected to harassment. I currently run a feminist group in my town, we frequently liaise with other likeminded groups. It is through this communication I heard about the Good Night Out Campaign.
Originally the brain child of Hollaback London, the premise of the Good Night Out Campaign is simple: we want nightlife venues to adopt and promote a zero tolerance policy when it comes to the harassment of their patrons – particularly female and those from the LGBTQ community. Venues show their commitment by displaying official GNO posters around their establishment and training staff to deal with any complaints that might arise.
The reason I feel so strongly about this campaign is because I am all too aware of how problematic nightlife harassment can be. My feminist group had a meeting to discuss the campaign. I shared some of my own experiences as did the group, and the stories just kept on coming. Comments, groping, sexually aggressive behaviour, being followed, yelled at and assaulted. It is difficult not to get angry after hearing what all of these people had to put up with. So, we decided to channel our anger positively and bring Good Night Out to Limerick.
The support we have received so far has been amazing. Local newspapers have written about it and a local radio station did a short piece on it too. Two weeks ago we asked the public to share their stories with us to help highlight just how serious a problem harassment in nightlife venues is. Here is an example of two incidents that people were kind enough to share with us (TW):
“I was on a night out with some friends, a few of them were dancing while I was minding the drinks. I saw a guy on the dance floor start to follow one of my friends around, he was trying to grind up against her and touch her. She was not interested in the slightest but he wouldn’t leave her alone, eventually she got fed up and left the floor, as she did he pulled up her skirt. My ass was grabbed 3 times that same night.”
“I was in _____ during my freshers week. I didn’t know many people, but I was there with a solid group of people. I was upstairs dancing and some guy started grinding on me. I tried to back away and he and a friend pinned me up against a wall. They were laughing, I was shouting at them to let me go. A friend of mine was also pulling at them to get them off me, to no avail. I ended up biting one of them so he’d take his arm off me and running outside, closely followed by my friend who hugged me while I hyperventilated. To this day I regret not going up to security or something, because I doubt those guys even realised how much they terrified me.”
Stories like these are regular occurrences for a majority of people when they go out. Not only can harassment completely ruin a person’s night out, it can also leave a lasting negative effect on them. We want venues and patrons of these venues to send a message that this sort of negative behaviour won’t go unchallenged and will not be tolerated. The more people that get involved the louder that message becomes. If you would like to bring Good Night Out or a version of it to your town/city please feel free to contact me via twitter and I will do what I can to help get you started.
Yvonne volunteers as a SATU (psychological support) worker for her local Rape Crisis Centre and is an advocate for women’s issues and equality. You can follow her, her feminist group or her anti-harassment campaign on twitter: @YvonneNiMhurchu, @lmkfeminist and @GNOLimerick.
