(These are a few posts I saw today…I know I must have missed a lot so please add a link in the comments if you posted on 3/18 for anti-street harassment week!)
“…For some men, I think being female is enough to warrant
their attention. During my same walk through Oak Park, I got “holla’d” at by a group of men that were gathered at least a block and a half away from where I was walking. A block and half. Who does that? Apparently those dudes. They couldn’t see my face to gauge my attractiveness. I was wearing a long Maxi dress, with a jacket tied around my waist, so they really couldn’t see my figure. The ability to see me from that distance and make out that I was a woman was enough to garner all types of “Hey ma! Hey ma! Yooooooo! Slow up!” from them.
I lived to tell about it, but 16-year-old Adilah Gaither wasn’t so lucky. Black Woman Walking is dedicated to the memory of young Adilah, who was shot and killed in 1998 while standing at a bus stop because she wouldn’t give a boy who was trying to holla her phone number. Almost as heartbreaking as the incident itself is the fact that there is very little information about Adilah’s story on the Internet. In 1998, social media wasn’t a phrase in most people’s vocabulary, so it’s not surprising. It is still very unfortunate, nonetheless.
I hope that during this 2012 observance of International Anti-Street Harassment Week (March 18-24) women and men will take time to talk candidly about street harassment and send a prayer up for Adilah and all the young girls and women like her just trying to walk through life unharmed.”
“Since puberty – not adulthood, PUBERTY- I have been routinely subject to sexual, agressive comments by men in the street, on public transport, in the workplace, day and night. Walking home from work, I run a gauntlet of barber shops, pubs, cafes, bookies, outside each one a group of men smoking, watching, staring, every day every day (please please please don’t notice me, please don’t say anything to me)…
Sometimes, men have touched me around my waist, breasts, arse… often, without speaking to me (not that it makes a difference). Once, in a bar a man grabbed me between my legs – labia, everything – then laughed when I turned around: “I was only joking…you’re really fit…”
NYE man also probably thought he was paying me a compliment of some sort. Or maybe he thought that because I was walking down the street (our streets!) on my own I was also up for a shag. I don’t know. Someone explain it to me please. Where are the men – the good ones, right? the ones I’m mates with, yeah? – speaking to other men and calling them out for what this is? HARASSMENT.”
“…So my experience last week brought me back to that place as a young 12 year old girl afraid of the leering eyes of adult men. Devising different ways to walk home to avoid the harassment. Internalizing the cat calls and blaming myself, thinking “maybe if I would not have worn those pant, he would not have said that to me”. Believing my worth lied in how I was shaped and nothing more. But above all else feeling violated, ashamed and unsafe. This cycle must end. We must hold each other accountable. We must create sisterhoods and brotherhoods among each other where safe spaces exist.”
International Planned Parenthood Federation Western Hemisphere Region:
“…Based in Argentina and coordinated by Redmujer, the Cities Without Violence Against Women, Safe Cities For All project is being carried out in several urban areas throughout Latin America — such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. “The project is based on an assessment that shows that public safety policies in Latin America do not take into account violence against women in both the public and private spheres,” said Liliana Rainero.
After the assessment is complete, Redmujer will present city officials with concrete strategies on how to design safer cities. In the meantime, they are also engaged in public awareness campaigns and provide safety training for women, young people, and the police. Some local organizations involved in the project have also started neighborhood revitalization and public art projects to bring the community together to fight violence against women.”
“…Now, 16 years on, I am openly furious about street harassment. For me this has included whistling, staring, shouting, whispering and following. I’m one of the lucky ones, I have not been physically groped as far too many women have…or worse (because wolf whistling is the thin end of a much bigger, more sinister wedge). On the occasion where I have mentioned my disgust at this to others, I have on far too many times been met with ‘but you like it really don’t you?’, ‘take it as a compliment’, or ‘it’s just flattery’. (*SCREEEAAAMMMS!!!!!*) NO! NO! and NO! NO, no, no, no, no, no, no!!!
I don’t like it. It is not a compliment. It is not flattering. It makes me feel intimidated. It makes me feel uncomfortable and unsafe. It is uninvited and unwelcome. It is disrespectful. It is derogatory. It is sexist. It is humiliating. It is reducing me to something for you to look at and makes me feel like a piece of meat. It is not how you’d want your mother/sister/daughter/wife/girlfriend to be treated. It intrusive. It is rude. It is power play. It makes me feel like less than I am.”
“…From March 18-24, 2012, thousands of women and men across the United States and throughout the world in cities such as Cairo, Delhi, Istanbul, Montreal, Oslo, and Sana’a will participate in International Anti-Street Harassment Week to collectively raise awareness about gender-based street harassment.
By age 12, nearly 1 in 4 girls worldwide experience unwanted sexual comments, leers, touches, and stalking in public places by strangers. Nearly 90 percent of women have that experience by age 19″
