Archives for 2011

Street Harassment Snapshot: August 7, 2011

August 7, 2011 By HKearl

Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week and find relevant announcements and upcoming street harassment events.

Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read new street harassment stories on the Web from the past week at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

Hollaback Buenos Aires

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

"Eve teasing" in India — Via Deccan Herald

* Deccan Herald, “No safety for women anywhere…“

* Venus Genus, “‘I didn’t want to give a strange man…my phone number and got slapped for my troubles“

* Feministe, “The Politics of ‘Hello‘”

* Daily Bhaskar, “Youth murdered for objecting to eve-teasing of sister“

* Care2, “Should Seoul’s Subway Have Women-Only Sections?”

* Gothamist, “Upper East Side Serial Groper Strikes Again!“

* XO Jane, “True Tales of Street Harassment (And My Anger Issues)“

* Cluth Magazine, “Ladies Beware: Flasher Website Targets Black & Asian Women“

* The Times of India, “CISF leads drive to check eve-teasing in Delhi Metro“

* My High School Journalism, “Harassed on the Subway? Say Something!“

* SexGenderBody, “Growing into Street Harassment“

* IBN Live, “CISF undertakes anti-eve-teasing drive in metro stations“

Announcements:

New:

* Next Sunday, August 14, the Washington Post is publishing a major piece on street harassment in the magazine!

Reminders/On-Going:

* Do you have a stare that can turn #streetharassers to stone? Then participate in the Medusa Gaze Project! http://tinyurl.com/6fhh3tz

* Sign Mend the Gap’s petition to address subway harassment in Delhi, India

* Are you in Egypt? Use HarassMap to report your street harassers

* Have an iPhone? Download the Hollaback iPhone app that lets you report street harassers

20 Tweets from the Week:

1. butilovememore it’s not a compliment. its harassment. #streetharassment

2. ruthie_dee Reading tweets about #streetharassment… I’m SO angry that this happens to so many women and girls. Our bodies are not your property!

3. jennpozner Started w/me@ 12, too! MT @thehotnerd #StreetHarassment must stop, esp 2kids. Like pedophiles. Didn’t need 2know how nice my boobs were@ 12

4. Karnythia I see a lot of guys who are struggling with hearing about this, but #streetharassment is coming from men that you know too.

5. lashonp I’m thankful guys don’t grab my arm anymore. I’ve cut mofos w/words & wanted 2 do more yrs ago. #streetharassment is real & dangerous

6. resistasista #arentyoutiredof sexual harassment in the workplace and on the street #feminism

7. originalMiss_R Wlking thru southend hi street wiv shorts on equals HARASSMENT rite now

8. NajmMyriam Dear soldier standing on the sidewalk, just keep your mouth shut when i pass by! Sincerely, tired of street harassment. #fb

9. Bell_Bajao RT @womensweb: #whatareyoulookingat street sexual harassment needs no reason cept that a woman is around. presence = reason. cc @Bell_Bajao

10. ArriannaMarie Leaving the house, at one time, was a point of great anxiety b/c I hated to be subjected to the gauntlet of street harassment.

11. jAD0ReQUi @dreamhampton guys don’t understand how scary that is & the extra constant precautions we have to take as women because men don’t accept no

12. LilEsBella When you can’t walk down the street because some man old enough to be your grandfather is trying to touch you there’s a prob @dreamhampton

13. dreamhampton I was 5, in a bathing suit at a beach, when a grown ass man interrupted me from sandcastle building to tell me ‘damn! I wanna meet yr Mama!’

14. ttaraturk @dreamhampton I stopped riding the Detroit buss because some OLD dude exposed himself . I was traumatized. My parents couldn’t explain it.

15. dreamhampton As a mother of a teenager blk girl Id like to say: blk girl gets harrassed by adult blk men a trillion xs more often than blk boy do by pigs

16. Cx87 Why do some men think hollering at a woman is acceptable? How would they feel if it was their wife/daughter/mother? #streetharassment

17. thehotnerd #StreetHarassment needs to stop, especially toward children. No better than pedophiles. Didn’t need to know how nice my boobs were at 12.

18. PoshBirdGabi Did you know #streetharassment is not allowed in Libya? #hollaback @iHollaback #nwo

19. asrichardson I wish I could rt @dreamhampton‘s entire timeline. I’m enraged by the harassment women face but empowered by the sharing of our experiences

20. Crislex @dreamhampton I agree with you. Black women on a DAILY BASIS are dehumanized and degraded in broad daylight by their own counterparts. sick

“The point is I want them to stop”

August 6, 2011 By Contributor

I have always been able to walk my dog and feel safe, comfortable. I have even walked my dog at 10 pm. at times. But lately I have received cat calls from guys when I’m walking down the street. Cars Honk and whistle. I used to think nothing of it.

Then came the weird questions when the guys are driving. They ask stupid questions such as “you wanna fuck” and “how much do you charge.” At that time I just got nervous whenever it happened,

But lately guys have been coming up and started having conversations with me. I don’t know them but they come up and ask me questions I usually just ignore them, but then there like “don’t be like that, I’m just trying to get to know you” that’s when i usually speed walk out of there.

I don’t know why they talk to me. I’m not wearing anything hoochie I just wear t-shirts and sweats. I tried wearing jeans and t-shirt but they come even more, so eventually i went back to my old clothes. My family even says i dress like a hobo.I tried wearing jeans and t-shirt but they come even more, so eventually i went back to my old clothes.

The point is I want them to stop.

– Anonymous

Location: Chicago, IL

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.

He had to add “babe” to the question!?

August 5, 2011 By Contributor

I fought with my husband and walked down my street and sat down at the edge of the woods near the street, trying to get a moment’s peace and stop crying. Then I hear a dude behind me saying, “You okay, babe?” And I have to tell him I’m fine, then get up and find another spot where I might be left alone.

– Anonymous

Location: Pennsylvania

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 buy big bags I can hide behind to protect myself as a barrier”

August 4, 2011 By Contributor

I am a very curvy woman gifted in both top and bottom areas. No matter what I wear on my way to work ranging from khakis and a polo shirt to a business casual dress that is loose fitting to slightly hugging, I always get the chicken mumbles, baboon grumbles, and all other sorts of weird and rude sounds, noises, stares, and etc. It makes me feel like a piece of meat on the food stand or at the grocery store. Basically I feel as though I am an object and not a human being.

Weird perverts have played with themselves in front of me, licked the glass where I sit on the train, and have made all sorts of catcalls. I was even called a female dog (bit**) for not responding in the anticipated way by a man, of course with his friends around. In that circumstance I was also told, and I quote, “Well I wasn’t trying to talk to/holler at your ugly a** anyway.”

It really perplexes me and makes me scared and uncomfortable to dress the way I want and to be my self. I have always been a conservative person so I don’t wear particularly revealing outfits; however these insulting jeers makes me want to just completely cover myself as I stand there and blush in shame and embarrassment which some guys seem to get off on. I’m highly suspicious walking around men especially in or near crowds of men and I buy big bags I can hide behind to protect myself as a barrier.

– T.H.

Location: Redline train in Washington DC, near 20 Mass Ave NW, near home in hyattsville MD, at grocery stores in DC and MD (PG County) , and etc

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.

Video clip: anti-street harassment march in Afghanistan

August 3, 2011 By HKearl

Here’s a dose of inspiration this Wednesday:

As I’ve written about before, on July 14, 50 women and men marched against street harassment in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan. To learn more about why and what happened during the march, here’s a good news clip from an Australian station. It includes an interview with the march organizer.

To gain even more inspiration from their march, here’s an article for The WIP that I wrote about the march, which includes quotes from an organizer and participant. Here’s an excerpt (full article):

“Carrying banners and signs with messages like, “We will not tolerate harassment,” “Islam forbids men from insulting women,” and “I have the right to walk freely in my city,” on July 14, 50 brave women and men marched together from Kabul University to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. As they marched, they handed out fliers to raise awareness about the problem of street harassment in their country.

Most of the bystanders stood shocked, openly staring as the marchers passed by. It is not common to see women and men marching together through Kabul, nor is it typical to hear people speak out on an issue like street harassment. Despite the presence of a police escort, some men even heckled the marchers and called them names. Others were supportive and took fliers or started walking with the marchers.Tabasum Wolayat, a student at Middlebury College in Vermont, said that she was both excited and nervous to participate in the march. “As an Afghan woman who is harassed on a daily basis in the public sphere, I thought, ‘it is me who has to fight for myself, my mother, and my sisters’ safety, dignity, and rights.’”

She noted that her family was very supportive of her participation, but some of her female friends were not. They worried about her safety.

March organizer Noorjahan Akbar, a 19-year-old student at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, also received support from her family. Her entire family, including her mother and father who both have health issues, participated in the march with her. A few days after the march, Akbar said it had gone better than she expected and that she feels “so much stronger” because of the outpouring of support for their efforts.

In the spring of 2011, Akbar founded the Kabul-based group Young Women for Change (YWC) to help increase the political, social, economic and cultural participation of women across the country. Through discussions at their first meetings, it quickly became clear that the sexual harassment women experience on the streets hinders their participation in all these areas. In collaboration with another group, Hadia, they decided to launch an anti-street harassment campaign that began with the march.” (full article)

I look forward to reading about what the women do next!

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