Archives for 2011

Watch the Anita Hill Summit Live October 15

October 15, 2011 By HKearl

Cross-posted from what I wrote for AAUW’s blog:

Twenty years ago this week, Professor Anita Hill testified about sexual harassment before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearings for then-Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill used to work for Thomas and felt it was her duty to share her experiences of sexual harassment in her workplace. In the end, Thomas was still appointed as a justice, and he continues to be one today.

Two decades later, it is clear that the hearings were a pivotal moment in our nation’s history.

Working women across the nation identified with what Hill said, and her testimony opened up the floodgates. In record numbers, women shared their sexual harassment stories, and in just a few years, the number of sexual harassment complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission doubled.

Hill’s testimony ultimately changed how we think about sexual harassment. Before, it was seen as a personal problem and something women should handle with a sense of humor or thick skin. Hill’s testimony helped people understand that sexual harassment is discrimination and a tactic that both men and women use to oust others from a workplace.

The disbelieving, hostile way the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee treated Hill and the subsequent confirmation of Thomas to the Supreme Court led to several women being elected to the Senate the following election year in what was dubbed the “Year of the Woman.”

Tomorrow, Saturday, October 15, Hunter College in New York City is hosting a daylong summit on workplace sexual harassment, and Hill is the keynote speaker. Panelists will host sessions such as What Happened, What Does Anita Hill Mean to You, and What Have We Learned in 20 Years and What Comes Next?

Stop Street Harassment is one of the many conference co-sponsors, and we will host one of the lunchtime discussions. Ours will focus on the sexual harassment of teenagers in schools and on the streets.

For the majority of you who cannot be there, you can watch via live streaming on the conference website. If you’re on Twitter, follow @anitahill20 and view live updates by following the hashtag #AnitaHill.

“I had put up with stares and harrassment all my life in my own neighborhood”

October 15, 2011 By Contributor

I am 20 years old. I was waiting for the train on 59th street in NYC and rubbing my eye because it was dry, when a middle aged man approached me and leered at me. He said, “Don’t cry baby,” flirtatiously, moving close. I gave him a dirty look and raised my voice, declaring, “Nobody’s crying. And don’t call me baby, I am NOT your baby.”

I moved away from him and everyone was staring at him (and at me). But at that point, I didn’t care. I had put up with stares and harrassment all my life in my own neighborhood and couldn’t even commute without the daily dose of harrassing behavior, including from a guy who sat next to me in an empty train car and told me to take my headphones off because it was “against the law” according to him, since he wished to speak to me.

I am sick of that sense of entitlement that some harrassers have towards women. I DON’T owe you anything, and you need to st op invading my space.

– SA

Location: 59th street & Lexington train station, NYC

“I want it to stop for all women”

October 14, 2011 By Contributor

Yes, indeed, I have a vagina, but I do not need to be constantly reminded of it.

I am a woman. I have been living in Barcelona for 10 years and nearly every day I am harassed by men. Nearly every day, as I go about my daily business, I endure leering, cat calls, whistles, honking, kisses, lewd slurping noises and sexually explicit gestures with the fingers, tongues, hands. This is all unpleasant enough if it weren’t often accompanied by sexual remarks about my body, breasts, and genitalia, offers of sex and other sexual acts, or lascivious details about what the sexual encounter would entail. Sometimes there is unsolicited physical contact, other times the harasser exposes himself or masturbates. The harassment occurs nearly anywhere and at any time of the day. The harassers are of all ages (pubescent boys to aged men) and races (white Catalan/Spanish, South American, Middle Eastern, but interestingly NEVER black). The harassers are ALWAYS male.

I am a woman and I am harassed by men on a daily basis. It never happens when I am accompanied by another male. But it does happen when I am accompanied by my young daughter.

I am a woman and I am harassed. I want it to stop. I want it to stop for me and I want it to stop for my daughter and I want it to stop for all women. We women deserve to be free to live our lives in peace.

I am a woman. I am harassed. I am tired of living a life being harassed by men.

– Anonymous

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Sexism in Movies

October 13, 2011 By Contributor

I am writing in to tell you what I think of movies which sexualise women. Yesterday I watched a movie called “Grown ups”. It was supposed to be a comedy, yes some parts were funny. But I noticed there was some sexism in it too. And when putting it all together, I don’t think the movie sends a good message out to young men. (or women)

Heres what I noticed. In one scene, two men are talking and the one man asks the other man if the woman by the car is his nanny. The other man denys she is, claiming she is just “someone his wife knows” who is staying at their home.Then the other man said, “Your wife’s into chicks? Nice.”

Another scene later on in the movie features two young women (possibly teenagers) whom look like super models. Both are skinny with perfectly toned bodies, flawless skin, beautiful hair etc. Then theres a third girl who looks different, sslightly bigger in size, plainer but still pretty. However, the third girl is painted as unattractive whist the other two are “hot” and are sexually objectified by the men in the movie.

Theres also a child in the movie whom keeps mentioning “boobies,” which I felt was inappropiate for his age.

I generally felt that these scenes in the movie were sexist and rather degarding towards women. I particularly disliked how the two “hot” women were deemed as sexually appealing but the third girl was “fugly”. I feel that this gives out a message that all women should have super model looks otherwise you are not socially accepted. The movie also gives out an example that women are sexual objects to be enjoyed by men. I know there are lot’s of movies with sexism towards women but I just wanted to have my say on this one.

– Clarice

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.

Toronto police are at it again…

October 12, 2011 By HKearl

How would you feel if someone violated your privacy and space by following you, leering at you and then looking up the skirt of your school uniform while you were going to school? Then how would you feel if the response of local police was to tell you and your classmates to stop wearing your school uniform during your commute, indirectly blaming YOU for the victimization?

That’s exactly what happened to two female students at Greenwood College, a private high school in Toronto. After a man harassed them and looked up their skirts while they were taking the subway to school, the Toronto police advised the school principal to tell the female population to put on their school uniform at school instead of at home in the morning. The principal apparently supported the sentiments and shared the message with the whole school.

Via CNews:

“This bit of guidance was given to Allan Hardy, the school’s principal, by an investigating officer from 53 Division on Thursday after two of Greenwood’s female students — both decked out in the school’s uniform of skirt, shirt and blazer — were allegedly followed around and ogled by a man while on the subway earlier that morning.

The girls, who were on their way to school at the time, were travelling northbound, Hardy confirmed, adding that the suspect had been looking up the girls’ skirts.

Hardy relayed the officer’s advice in an e-mail to parents and teachers informing them of the incident. The Toronto Sun obtained the e-mail from a confidential source.

“This person was looking up the girls’ skirts,” said Hardy, who would not divulge the ages of the two students. “So the advice is given … if they had, for example, jeans or sweatpants on, it wouldn’t be an issue.”

This is not okay.

While sadly schoolgirl outfits are inappropriately sexualized and fetishized (e.g. see Britney Spears’ “Hit Me One More Time” music video, Halloween costumes, and video games) and that sexualization and fetishization does nothing to prevent the harassment of REAL schoolgirls, telling girls to not wear their uniform on the subway is not the solution.

Street harassment—including harassment on public transit systems—happens to many high school students regardless of what they wear. It happens even when they wear jeans and sweatpants! It happens to women who wear business suits, exercise clothes, and burqas! Since it doesn’t matter what we wear so dictating clothing choices as a prevention method is NOT okay or effective. And even if it was effective, the focus should still be on the HARASSER not the person facing harassment!

When someone sent me this story this morning, I was exasperated and shocked. Of all places for a police officer to say such an inappropriate comment, it happened in Toronto?!

In January a representative of the Toronto Police stated, “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” This remarked sparked SlutWalk Toronto and scores more SlutWalks around the world.

But apparently that message wasn’t clear enough. What more do we have to do so demand that police officers in Toronto and people around the world stop telling girls and women how to dress and inspire them to focus instead on solely stopping harassers and assaulters and ending the culture that fosters such harassment and assault?

Here’s an important op-ed by Monica Bugajski in response to the police’s reaction.

[Thanks Katie B. for the news tip]

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