Wishing you a cozy, harassment-free holiday!
Archives for December 2010
“Merry Christmas, baby! Happy holidays!”
Not again!
The same man, who has harassed me on a few occasions (http://streetharassment.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/long-hair-lewdness-short-hair-rudeness/, http://streetharassment.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/guess-who/) and who implied I was “ugly” because I had very short hair was back out on the street again! But get this—he SMILES at me and says, “Merry Christmas, baby! Happy holidays!”
No, I don’t like being called “baby,” but I was shocked at his 180 regarding me. Then I realized that my hair has grown out significantly, making me more “feminine-looking” again and thereby in his warped mind “attractive” now. This mentality has me shaking my head.
I was not in the mood for conflict this morning so I said absolutely nothing and kept walking.
– Tired of Being Harassed
Location: M Street & Wisconsin Avenue, Washington, DC
Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.
“I just can’t…can’t leave this spot without a smile”
I was sitting at the bus stop in front of the San Francisco Main Branch Library with my boyfriend. Another gentleman was sitting, reading, next to me. We had just missed the bus so we had about ten minutes to wait.
A short, (possibly) homeless man with devil horns tattooed on his forehead slowly wandered in front of the bus stop, laughing to himself. He wandered over, standing too close to my boyfriend, still laughing and laughing. He gestures to my boyfriend and calls him “Prince Charming,” and says some other things I couldn’t understand. He was kind of wandering in and out of laughing to himself and annoying my boyfriend, until he started talking to me. First, “Happy holidays, merry Christmas, God bless ya,” which I responded to with, “You too.”
Then he stopped wandering around, stopped far too close to where I was sitting, pointed to me and told my boyfriend, “You know…I can’t leave this spot…can’t leave this spot without a pretty smile from her.”
I rolled my eyes and my boyfriend told him to leave. “I just can’t…can’t leave this spot without a smile,” he says to me.
I told him, “No. You don’t get to demand things from me on the street just because you feel like it.”
He protests and I tell him that he doesn’t get to demand things from women just because he’s drunk and feels like it. He starts to protest loudly and at this point the man next to me and another man nearby were staring at the offender. The offender noticed them staring and started to walk away when I used the phrase “public sexual harassment” and by that time everyone was staring at him.
He must have felt intimidated because he made a punching gesture at me as he left.
– Jen M.
Location: San Francisco, City Hall
Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.
“How come your hand doesn’t slip over a hot oven?”
A guy on a bus in India thinks it’s funny to “accidentally” let his hand slip to touch a female passenger. His buddies seem to think it’s funny, too. Watch what happens when he tries to touch her a second time…
This video clearly shows how a bystander can end a harassment incident and help change the social acceptability of harassment, especially when the woman experiencing harassment may not feel able to respond. The bystander did not back down and he thought fast on his feet with his retorts. (Side note: I am against the use of violence if at all possible).
What other responses do you think the bystander – or the woman facing the harassment – could have given when “Romeo”‘s asserted that his hand slip was an accident?
New Indian study: 98 percent of women report street harassment
There aren’t a lot of studies out there about street harassment, so this week I was happy to read about two more. They were recently conducted in Korea and India.
#1: In a study of 828 salaried employees in an unnamed city in Korea, 43 percent said they experienced sexual harassment during their commute, and 79 percent were women. Via The Korean Times:
“Nearly 72 percent of the incidents occurred on subway cars, followed by buses at 27.3 percent and taxis at 1.1 percent. Nearly 60 percent said they experienced harassment between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. when most workers are on their way to work, while 17 percent were between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. while returning home from work.
About 61.9 percent said at the time of the sexual harassment, it was too crowded for them to move within the subway train or bus. In response to the harassment, 43.2 percent said they did nothing about it, and 25 percent moved to a different place. Only 18.2 percent strongly protested against the assailants and 6.3 percent shouted in anger.”
Unfortunately, the findings aren’t too different from surveys conducted in Chicago and New York City regarding harassment on the transit systems. The growing number of women-only transit around the world plus studies like these are a testament to the global problem of sexual harassment on public transportation.
#2: In the state capitol of Thiruvananthapurm in the south Indian state Keralaas, 1000 women were recently interviewed about street harassment. Ninety-eight percent said they had experienced it and 90 percent said the harassment was either physically or vocally violent. The harassment was notable on public transportation and 62 percent had experienced it there. Only seven percent had reported any of their experiences of harassment.
The study was part of UNIFEM’s safe cities project in India and once they have completed their studies they will work on solutions to make public places safer for women and girls. I met several people working on this initiative within the UN and Jagori at a recent conference in India. I am so grateful for the work they are doing!