Archives for March 2010

Two street harassment surveys

March 31, 2010 By HKearl

Please help researchers who are studying street harassment by taking their online surveys!

Louise Dreier, a graduate student at Columbia, is doing research on how street harassment affects the ways women use and exist in New York City and how the built environment affects street harassment.Lord knows this field needs more research, and quick! She has agreed to share her findings with Hollaback readers. Help her out by taking her quick survey!

(Note this survey is only for women in NYC to take)

#2: From Dr. Kimberly Fairchild and her students:

I’m conducting a study on the ability to predict another person’s actions and personality and we need participants. Our research suggests that even from limited information people can make accurate judgments about the dominant traits, emotional reactions, and behaviors of other people. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. If you are interested in participating, follow this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/armstudy

(This survey is open to anyone. Also, note that it is a different study from the one I posted about a few weeks ago)

Welcome to 2006…or at least 2009, CNN

March 30, 2010 By HKearl

Warning – Possibly Triggering

On the CNN homepage is an article about the horrible Japanese video game RapeLay. In the game, players can grope girls on the subway and rape them in various locations. I covered this disgusting game twice last year, including linking to Equality Now’s call to action to write to various groups protesting the game. I also cover this game in my forthcoming book in the context of the outrageous problem of men groping women and teenage girls on the subway system in Japan.

I’m glad CNN is reporting on this issue because it’s a ridiculous, harmful game that should not even exist. But where were they last year when women’s groups and blogs were up in arms over it, or even better, in 2006 when it first came out? I get frustrated by how little or how late or how out of context (ie not addressing the context of misogyny and gender inequality these stories take place in) mainstream news tends to address egregious stories about men’s violence against women, usually taking place in real life, but also, as this story, shows, in virtual life.

Three London Harassment Recollections

March 30, 2010 By Contributor

#1: Bus stop on Tottenham Court Road near The Astoria, approx 3 a.m.: I was standing waiting for the bus with my friend when a couple of guys came over and shouted at us, “I’ve never seen a white girl before, I want you to sit on my face!” and did gross hand actions related to oral sex. So disgusting and offensive!

#2: Elephant & castle, approx 9 p.m. : I was walking from the bus stop to my house and it was dark and i had to walk through this deserted area as the only way to get home. A man followed me off the bus into this area and was harassing me for my number, which i refused to give so I kept walking. He followed me but i didn’t feel i could go home because then he would see where i lived, so i walked this really roundabout route until i eventually lost him and could run home. When i got home i kept looking out the window to see if he was there 🙁

#3: Topshop, Oxford Circus, middle of day: I was shopping on the main floor in Topshop on my own, looking at the jewelry when i felt this man sort of thrust into me from behind. Because it was so busy i thought he must just have been jostled and bumped into me by mistake, so i overlooked the fact he had also put his hands on my hips when he did it. So i walked away to another area and a few minutes later it happened again. So I decided to walk around topshop in the most erratic pattern ever to see if he was really following me and sure enough everywhere i went he was there lurking a few feet away. He must have ‘bumped’ me about 3 times at which point i just left. I didn’t feel I could even tell the security guard because i didn’t think they would believe me so i just left feeling really gross and somewhat confused. At the time i was still quite young & immature and didn’t know how to react – just sort of felt embarrassed and thought perhaps i was mistaken. If it happened now, I would turn around and start screaming in his face.

– anonymous

Location: London, UK

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.

“Fat Cow” meets Arsch Lecker

March 30, 2010 By Contributor

I was in the Bahnhoff of a small city in Bavaria on the second floor, headed for the restroom. This guy turns the stairs and walks toward me. He catches my eye and I can see him suck in a breath and get ready to say something. I’m tired, I have to pee, I have to pay 2 euros to take a piss at McDonald’s, and this guy triggers my memory of a man who followed me in Munich. It’s an automatic reaction to nip this in the bud. I jerk my head no–sharply, while looking him in the eye. Maybe I put him off his game, because it took him a few beats to recover from the shock. He walks by and murmurs “fat cow.”

I’m shocked, so I keep walking. I assert my right to not talk to a complete stranger in a public but isolated train station with a curt nod and he thinks it’s okay to insult me? Because I nodded at him!? I really wish I’d have said something back-those words hurt, even two years later. Because I am fat, very fat. But I’m not bovine, or slatternly, or glutinous, or anything else implied by “fat cow.”

Was this my punishment for asserting myself, for denying him access? What an arsch lecker!

– anonymous

Location: Bavaria, Germany

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.

“Can I walk with you?”…No.

March 30, 2010 By Contributor

A block southeast of Newport on the Levee, just past the peace bell, this creepy, really old white guy asks me and my cousin, “Hey ladies, can I walk with you?”

We never seem to see this coming and are always flustered when it does happen. We just sped up and said something like no. Thankfully there wasn’t a car coming. I thought the man was mentally disturbed. There were people behind him in the building who had to have heard him.

– anonymous

Location: Newport, KY

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.