Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for January 2011

Street Harassment Snapshot: January 9, 2011

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Story Submissions Recap:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

Image via Washington Post

Events:

  • Jan. 10: Radio show about street harassment by The F Word: Feminist Media Collective, 3 p.m. EST
  • Jan. 10: Discussion on HarassMap at 14 Sleem EL-Ghatas St, Off Sleem the First St. – Hadaek EL-Zatoon, Cairo, Egypt, 5 p.m.
  • Jan. 13: Stop Street Harassment Book Talk, University of California, Irvine, 8 p.m.
  • Jan. 15: First day of 5 week self defense class with the Center For Anti-Violence Education in Brooklyn, NY. sliding scale! call 718-788-1775
  • Jan. 23, Anti-Street Harassment Planning Meeting, In Other Words, 14 NE Killingsworth, Portland, OR, 4 p.m.
  • Feb. 1: Stop Street Harassment Book Talk, Northern Illinois University, 7 p.m.
  • Feb. 12, HollaBack Baltimore Launch Party, Metro Gallery, 1700 N. Charles Street, 8 p.m.

Announcements:

New:

On-going:

10 Tweets from the Week:

  • monaeltahawy “Move away or I’ll smash your face!” a young woman told the man who groped her on a bus in #Yemen (she wrote to tell me). Kickass!
  • DianeMassage Another day of #streetharassment in #nyc, whilst wearing my red puffy jacket.
  • MaxineFrances Street harassment so angers me. Usually I let it lie due to incredulity and fear for my safety. Proud I gave it a bit of lip just now.
  • FatSocialWorker Octopus Pie on #streetharassment http://bit.ly/dJNhZ6 cat-callers don’t make me laugh like Octopus Pie does.
  • bettyslutsky Street harassment is worst when other cyclists do it. A Harvardy 1 made lascivious tongue gestures & ruined the sunshine
  • FatBlackDiva Cab home. Driver says: “Why not invite me in? I like a big woman like you.” Yeah? Do you like fines from the TLC, too? #streetharassment
  • sasaragor Chuffed to see WAG’s ‘Let’s stop blaming victims’ rape prevention campaign on Queen’s Street in Cardiff #streetharassment
  • StreetHarassmnt recntly approached a dude known for yelling at women on the street and told him to quit it. ended w/ ‘don’t fuck with me’! he was speechlss.
  • _sugaHoney Doesn’t matter what you wear. If you have a vagina, you’re going to be harrassed because men don’t know how to act. Period.
  • burnyourbones man in car shouts “I can see your knickers!” at me cycling down hill. At best I’m humiliated, at worst a multi-car pile-up #streetharassment
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Laughing at street harassment during Black Swan

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Image via netkushi.com

I watched Black Swan last night. If you haven’t seen it, in one scene, an old man makes very obscene and sexually explicit and aggressive motions and faces at Natalie Portman’s character while they ride what appears to be an empty subway car at night. She looks alarmed and very uncomfortable. He is enjoying her discomfort. After all, wasn’t that his intent? To humiliate her? To shame her for being female? To bully and exert power over her since she is a young, lone woman on the subway at night?

Alright, nothing new there. Street harassment happens all the time, including on the subway. I would have cheered if she’d yelled at him, reported him, or shamed him in some way, but she didn’t and I so just felt for her. Her reaction is very typical (I know it’s one I’ve had many times) and not blameworthy. She was just riding the subway. She shouldn’t have to make it her vendetta to shame all harassers she encounters if she doesn’t want to.

What shocked me wasn’t the scene, but the number of people in the audience who laughed very loudly during the scene, like it was a funny joke.

Why is a woman’s obvious discomfort and humiliation funny?

(Side note, similarly, why are prison rape jokes still considered funny? They aren’t. It’s RAPE. I’m disappointed every time I see that “joke” in movies and tv shows, like when I recently re-watched Arrested Development).

It really upset me to hear the laughter. I know street harassment is often portrayed as a joke (when it’s addressed at all), especially when it’s an “ugly” or “poor” man harassing a “beautiful” or “wealthy” woman (or in this case, an old man harassing a young one), but I haven’t had to actually witness people treating the issue in such a blatant hahaha way. I didn’t like it.

And I know there are times when street harassment can be funny – like some of the ridiculous things harassers say and the contexts when they say it or when a woman is able to stand up to them in a clever and empowering way – but usually it is not. It’s a pretty serious issue that prevents women from having the same access to public spaces as men and that often makes them feel less comfortable in public spaces. It’s just rarely treated that way in the media.

If you’ve seen the movie, what did you think? Did you laugh? Did others in the theater laugh? Is there some humor there that I’m just not seeing?

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Harassers don’t hibernate!

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I love Twitter! Via @FatSocialWorker, I was directed to this gem, a winter street harassment comic strip by Meredith Gran of Octopus Pie.

She writes, “New York is a city that never shuts down, and the lechers are no exception. In my time away from the city I’d forgotten just how persistent they are, even in the coldest weather. Those brave souls.”

By Meredith Gran
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New police initiatives in Delhi to deal with rise in reports of eve-teasing, rape

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Women’s reports of rape and molestation rose in Delhi during 2010. In response, this week the Delhi police force held a press conference to announce several new initiatives to make the city safer for women.

Via Sify News, here are what the initiatives include:

  1. All Police Control Room (PCR) vans had been ordered to help stranded women at night and women “in distress” can call 100 and get dropped off at the nearest safe spot.
  2. PCR vans with women police officers will be deployed around women’s colleges and schools.
  3. There will be a women’s help desk at all police stations, managed by women officers.
  4. Women police beat staff have been deployed in areas prone to crime against women.
  5. A 24X7 specialized mobile team will deal with domestic violence.
  6. Police teams will also conduct surprise checks in buses, markets, universities and areas prone to eve-teasing, especially in the mornings and evenings.

This is quite a lot of activity. Hopefully it will deter some of the street harassment and assault that is rampant in Delhi (just as it is in so many major cities around the world) and also provide survivors with ways to seek justice.

UNIFEM and Jagori are also working on initiatives to make Delhi safer for women.

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Harassers with x-ray vision

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This happened last night while driving :

I had my window cracked open because i was smoking in my car and we were stopped at a red light. Two mouth breathers in a blue Honda Civic started yelling: “I LOVE YOUR TITS!”

Because they were so noticeable in my three layers of winter clothing and my scarf whilst I am behind the wheel of my car… Right. You like that I have tits and you could hypothetically look at them, because that’s why they’re there – AMIRITE??!

Idiots.

I cranked up the metal, flipped them off and drove away.

– Anonymous

Location: Edmonton, Alberta

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