Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for November 2011

Togo’s: Reconsider your ad trivializing street harassment

By

Two weeks ago, Dr. Wendy Stock wrote a guest blog post about an offensive ad for Togo’s sandwich shop. The ad trivializes street harassment and and the way some men flash women just to scare or upset them. Dr. Stock did more than just write a blog post, she wrote to Togo’s to let them know that she isn’t okay with the ad.

Here is Dr. Stock’s letter, you can contact them, too (I just did!):

Sent to Togos, 11/5/11

This regards your new TV ad featuring a cartoon sandwich that flashes two cartoon women.  Please forward this info to Renae Scott, your VP of marketing. This so-called “edgy” approach is not innocuous – it trivializes the fear women feel from street harassment, including flashers (exhibitionists). Thirty percent of exhibitionists also commit acts of direct sexual violence against women. Making this a humorous subject wears down women’s ability to object, resist, and to stand up to this form of sexual harassment.

Here is the link to the study reporting the 30 percent figure: http://www.jaapl.org/content/34/3/349.full.  I have posted a blog online about your ad, having received no response to my initial email to Togo ‘s or my phone call earlier this week.  I encourage you to reconsider airing this ad.

Sincerely,

Wendy Stock, Ph.D.

This time Togo’s did respond:

Dear Wendy,

Thank you for contacting Togo’s.

We wanted to make sure you knew that we received your comment regarding our recent TV commercial. It is never our intention to offend anyone.  Our spot was meant to be fun and quirky and to make fun of sandwiches that are all bread and no meat.  I will make sure our Marketing team hears your concerns. I truly appreciate your feedback and will pass it along to our Brand Marketing team.

Sincerely,

Leslie Lopez

Dissatisifed with that response, Dr. Stock plans to send her letter to the local San Francisco (CA) Bay Area station, KTVU, that carries the Togo’s ad.

Here is information if you would like to do so as well:

KTVU is owned by Cox Media Group: KTVU, virtual channel 2 (digital channel 44), is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed to Oakland, California, the station has been owned by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises since 1964, making it the largest Fox affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the network.

KTVU sales contact and KTVU general manager:
Corporate Headquarters:
Cox Media Group
6205 Peachtree Dunwoody Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30328
Phone: (678) 645-0000
Fax: (678) 645-5002

The media is powerful and the images we see on tv, the images that children see, influence behavior and influence what we come to think of as okay behavior.  It’s important that we hold them accountable when offensive behavior is made to see funny or normal.

Share

“It’s obnoxious and I shouldn’t have to put up with this”

By

I cycle to and from work every day. Almost every day, either some guys standing around outside a shop holler at me, or someone stops his car to honk or yell at me. I wear headphones and shades and try to ignore it, but I’ve had it up to here.

When I talk to my coworkers about it, they say that’s just what guys in Miami are like. I don’t understand it. I’m not out trying to turn people on, I’m sweaty and on a bicycle and I just want to get to work. It burns me.

If someone yelled at one of those guys when he was just walking down the street minding his own business, he’d probably start a fight! And what if someone talked to his mom or sister like that? It’s obnoxious and I shouldn’t have to put up with this bullshit.

– Anonymous

Location: Miami Gardens, FL

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.

Share

“Stares”: Spoken Word by Philly Youth Poetry Movement Members

By

This is POWERFUL. Hear Safiya Washington and Kai Davis perform “Stares,” a spoken word piece about receiving unwanted male attention in public and not receiving wanted male attention in public and the similar way it makes them feel about themselves.

Both of these articulate, passionate young women are part of the Philly Youth Poetry Movement, which is a non-profit organization committed to helping the youth of Philadelphia discover the power of their voices through spoken word and literary expression. Through free weekly workshops, monthly slams, national/local performance opportunities, mentoring and community service, PYPM provides a safe environment for at-risk youth ages 13-19 to use poetry as a vehicle to express and advocate for themselves, explore their identity(ies), enhance literacy and critical thinking skills, and become agents of social change.

Their piece reminds me how for many women (especially young women), interactions with men in public are either as the target of unwanted attention or nonexistent because we are invisible because we don’t meet the traditional beauty standards. The notion that women’s worth is based on how men view them is damaging; we are more than our bodies, we are more than what others think of us and how they treat us. We should be respected and we should be visible.

[Thank you @NualaCabral for sending the video]

Share

Bus stop harassers in Athens, GA

By

I walk about two miles to work everyday, and everyday something happens. The least pleasant place to walk by is usually the bus stop because there is typically a group of men there. If one man says something sexual, then a few others will laugh or join in. I try to avoid eye contact while walking past the bus stop.

– Anonymous

Location: Athens, Georgia

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.

Share

“I still have panic attacks and think people are following me all the time”

By

I am an Australian living in Paris and this place seems to have very different expectations of how to treat women. I am harassed every single day (whether touching, grabbing or verbal harassment).

A year and a half ago (after already being followed a couple of times before, but luckily I noticed and went into a shop until they left), a young guy tried to talk to me in the train station as I was on my home. He asked if he could talk to me and I said ‘no’ and walked away. I then got on my train. I changed twice and walked all the way through the stations, got out at my stop and walked up my little street. It was late at night and there was no one around. I was at my front gate, and was halfway through putting in my security code to open it when I felt someone close behind me. I turned and it was the guy who had tried to talk to me. I was so shocked and when I realised the lengths he’d gone to follow me, I was terrified. I called out in a very strong, firm voice to go away (not very politely!) in French and English and he just stood there and laughed at me.

I realised he was serious about this and it wasn’t just a game so I ran as fast as I could down towards the train station, but I didn’t get very far as he ran faster than me and ran in front of me, stopping me and trapping me. Then he pulled down his pants and laughed. I don’t think he expected me to run, because that’s what I did, very fast, up to my gate and I had time to put in my code and get through before he had time to pull up his pants and get there too.

I was pushing the gate closed from the inside and he was pushing it on the outside and shouting at me. I pushed it so hard and managed to close it and ran for my life up to my apartment. I was so scared to leave my flat as I knew he knew where I lived and could be waiting for me. I went into shock the next morning and was shaking and cold and scared. When I reported it to the police, they said that it is common and that as soon as they get you into the courtyard of your apartment building, they rape you as you have nowhere to go and are trapped.

I felt very alone and unsupported after it happened and after two weeks I was telling a friend that I was still not coping very well with what had happened and she told me I really should be over it by now… after that I repressed it and didn’t talk about it anymore and put on a happy face. I sunk into a very bad depression which affacted me very badly, emotionally and physically. After a year, a man pressed against me on the escalators at a train station, and it all came out. I realised that I certainly was not over it and needed to deal with it.

I still have panic attacks and think people are following me all the time. But, I am trying to face it and address it, and after reading and joining sites like this one (and others) I realise that I am certainly not alone and that how I feel is very common. And I also know that it’s not my friends’ fault for not knowing what to say to me. Unless you’ve experienced something like this, you wouldn’t really understand how much it affects you.

When men would harrass me on the streets before, I would usually just walk away and not say anything, but now I turn around and scream at them to ‘f*** off’ and usually push them very hard if they touch me. The anger is getting to me, but I just don’t want to put up with it anymore. The thing I hate the most though is that when I respond like that, they just laugh.

– Anonymous

Location: On my street, outside my flat in Paris, France

 

Share