Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
When I was about 10 years old, a man came up behind me on the sidewalk and groped me.
– anonymous
Location: Lakeland, FL
Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.
“What should be a leisurely stroll through Cairo’s streets, for some women has become more like a gauntlet run… Campaigners say the male-dominated society leaves women feeling vulnerable and unprotected by traditional forces like the police.
Al Jazeera’s Amr el-Khaky met one group in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, who are taking the fight into their own hands: they are taking lessons in karate.” – AlJazeeraEnglish
I’ve written about street harassment in Egypt a lot across this past year. To add to the list — here’s an interesting video called “Egyptian women fight harassment” on the AlJazeerEnglish youtube channel that’s definitely worth a look. Many related videos show up after the end of the video clip if you’re interested.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb3x39Ud7cI]
Dr. Kimberly Fairchild is one of the few academics studying street harassment. Check out her article from 2008, written with Laurie A. Rudman: “Everyday stranger harassment and women’s self-objectification” in Social Justice Research, 21(3), 338-357. Her article is based on research she conducted at Rutgers University about street harassment and its relationship to women’s self-objectification. In a one-sentence summary, she examined the question: if men objectify women in public, are the women likely to internalize that view of themselves and objectify themselves?
Currently, she’s examining whether or not changes in context alter women’s responses to street harassment and she’s also studying women’s emotional responses. She’s conducting an online survey as part of her research and is working to gather more responses, especially from men (for contrast). Please take it and share the link. Thanks!
Offensive Women’s Rachel Feinstein interviews & street harasses men in NYC. I love how she and her friend have the male posturing down when they’re leaning against the wall, “catcalling” (“dogcalling”?) men walking down the street. What do you think?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwpGdV5MQhY&hl=en&fs=1&]
I live in a rural suburb outside a very small WV town and that definitely doesn’t stop me being harassed on the street or even at work. I’ve had men yell out their cars at me, even had someone throw beer bottles at me two separate times.
However what happened today was at my work. I work at a fast food place and today took the cake for harassment of half the girls working that day. After one of my coworkers explained that we were out of chicken breasts for about 10 minutes to a customer, he looked her up and down and said, “Sure you have some, right there on your chest” he laughed and then left without buying anything.
Later two older men came in and asked the cashier (who is 17) why her name and number wasn’t on his reciept. The manager asked me to take something to their table later so the other girl wouldn’t have to and they asked me why they couldn’t have my name and number.
If I was the manager at a restaurant and someone treated my workers like that I would kick them out immediately but the manager just told us to ignore them because they were paying customers.
– anonymous
Location: West Virginia
Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.