Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for September 2011

“Well maybe you shouldn’t dress like a skank.”

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In a taxicab, my friend and I were discussing our experiences with street harassment and sexual harassment. I had finished sharing one of mine right when we reached our stop. Before we could get out, the driver turned around and said to me, “Well maybe you shouldn’t dress like a skank.”

At the time, we both just laughed it off. But I wish I had tried to convince him that what I wore or looked like was not the point (and indeed, like many women, I been harassed in skirts and also in sweats).

– Anonymous

Location: Union Station, Washington, DC

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“Throughout the rest of my walk I felt extreme fear”

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I was really upset last February, so I decided to go for a long walk to clear my mind. I was fifteen at the time.

After maybe five or ten minutes, I had made it to the elementary school a few blocks from my house. The street it’s on is one of the main streets in the neighborhood, so it’s usually moderately busy.

I was about half way up the block, when I saw a large pick up truck with two guys heading down the street towards me. Instantly I got a weird feeling and felt terrified. They passed me and I noticed one guy looking through the rear view window at me. They turned the corner and came up and drove passed me again, and this time they whistled and yelled.

I would’ve kept walking, but they turned the corner on to the street I was going to turn onto. So instead I walked onto the campus of the elementary school and went to a sheltered area and sat there shaking, figuring I would wait until they left and moved on. After a few minutes, I didn’t see them and started to think that maybe I could continue on my walk.

But I was wrong, they circled the block again and yelled at me and honked, before laughing and driving off. I didn’t want to sit there any longer, so I got on the phone with one of my friends and left the elementary school and turned onto another street. I didn’t see them the rest of the day, but throughout the rest of my walk I felt extreme fear of running into them again.

I ended up taking such a complicated way around to get where I was going and back, I ended up getting lost for a few minutes.

Even though it was already seven months ago, I still feel really uneasy whenever I walk down that street alone.

– Elizabeth

Location: SW Birch St, McMinnville, Oregon

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Harassers to 16-year-old: “Damn, baby, you got a nice rack”

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This happened a couple weeks ago – I was walking down the street to a bus stop in order to go to a rehearsal downtown, and this car with two men (in their mid-20’s to early 30’s) pulled up beside me and slowed down a bit. The guys rolled down their window and began yelling things out to me. Things like, “Damn, baby, you got a nice rack,” “You wanna come with us? Hey, girl, you wanna come with us?” and “Come with us baby, we’ll give you a good time.”

I was creeped out by what they were saying, and I kept walking, only I sped up in an attempt to get away from them. An oncoming intersection forced them to pull into a lane farther away from me, and as I reached a crosswalk, they passed me once more, this time shouting at me “Well fuck you, bitch!” and other vulgarities.

I was shaken! I wish I had said something, but when it was happening my only thought was to ignore them and get away from them. It’s not like I was dressed becomingly either – unless baggy jeans are considered “becoming.”

I hated their comments on my chest, too. Not only do I hate references a girls chest as a “rack” or “tits” or anything like that, which I find vulgar, but I also felt degraded knowing that just walking down the street would get a 16 year old girl like me subjected to such comments. I hated hearing them tell me to “go with them” as if it would be enticing for me. I hated that intersection from that time on.

OH! And when I got on the bus I saw (to my dismay) that the same guy who I frequently saw was there. This guy stares at me every time I’m on the bus – no matter where I sit. And it isn’t glances, it’s him very blatantly turning and staring and smiling at me – and my chest. Reporting it doesn’t help, because he hasn’t said anything to me or in anyway “harmed me,” besides making me incredibly uncomfortable.

– Emmaline

Location: Madison, Wisconsin

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Employers should care about street harassment

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Should employers be concerned about the street harassment their employees face going to and from work?
Yes, while employers aren’t legally obligated to do anything about commuter harassment, they should care about it.

1 – Commuter harassment contributes to job turnover when people get so sick of the harassers along their commute that they decide to quit (this happened to 9% of respondents for a survey I conducted for my book).

2 – It can cause a decrease in work productivity if harassment in the morning makes an employee too upset and distracted to do their job.

3 – The harassment can also mean fewer people are willing to stay late to work or to attend networking events or meetings because of the fear of harassment on their way home.


I wrote about commuter harassment for Forbes.com last year and this past spring, Business and Legal Resource, Inc. (BLR), a leading human resources organization, wrote about it, too.

On Monday, while I was on a business trip in Connecticut, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the staff at BLR. We chatted for about 45 minutes about commuter harassment and they were very interested and open to the idea that employers SHOULD care about the harassment employees face during the commute. In fact, BLR was so interested in the issue that they conducted a short video interview with me for their website, where HR professionals across the country can view it and learn more about commuter harassment.

In the video clip, I offer a few recommendations for what employers can do. The Forbes.com article details a few, too. So view it and feel free to share it with HR representatives at your job.

Have you faced street harassment during your commute? What impact has it had on your job? Has your employer ever addressed that type of sexual harassment?

 

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Male Allies, Take Note

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My fiancé brought an article to my attention this weekend in The Guardian that should make male allies take pause. It describes the current legal action being taken against the London School of Economics (LSE). The suit is being filed by a former student who claims that the master’s program he was in at the LSE’s Gender Institute was “sexist” by not emphasizing the male perspective. As the author of the Guardian article points out, gender studies discipline allows people from across the spectrum to share their ideas and views in an accepting, supportive environment.

A post written by The F Word, a UK-based feminist blog, debunks the claim to sexism by outlining the important role that Women’s and Gender Studies programs have played in the lives of women and LGBTQ folks. In a male-dominated academic landscape, women needed a safe and open space to express their views.

At first glance, this suit just tells another story of radical feminists hatching an anti-male agenda behind the halls of academia and stuffing it down the throats of innocent men. There is a wider and more sinister angle to this story, however. This reaction to women’s spaces as being “anti-male” is symptomatic of a worldview that places heterosexual male perspective as the only valid viewpoint.

Misogynistic practices that dominate both space and discourse, such as street harassment and traditional academic disciplines, are only possible within a society that views men as being more acceptable than women. Women are essentially “renting” space in the park or on the sidewalk in the same sense as they are still renting space in intellectual life. The “landlords” are free to impose the rules and fines.

Male allies can play a role in changing this paradigm. By working to end violation of women’s spaces, we are affirming the validity of those spaces. Our primary goal should be a pluralistic society in which everyone’s space and view is included.

– Sean Crosbie

This post is part of the weekly blog series by male allies. We need men involved in the work to end the social acceptability of street harassment and to stop the practice, period. If you’d like to contribute to this weekly series, please contact me.

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