By Terris Schneider, SSH Correspondent
I’m a total music nerd. Any time I step out from my apartment, my headphones are attached to my ears.
Then there was the week where I lost my headphones in a pile of all my stuff. Now I couldn’t listen to the 90’s One-Hit-Wonders station on Songza. Devastating. Even worse, that was the week where I discovered just how bad street harassment was in Vancouver because my headphones couldn’t protect me.
That particular week, I was cat-called by guys in cars on three separate occasions. The worst incident was when I was walking down my street and a group of men started grunting at me à la Tim the Tool Man Taylor. My instinct was to sprint down the street.
A couple weeks back, I went to a girl’s night with some of my lovely friends where we delved into the topic of street harassment. They all felt the same way that I did – they hated it, it was threatening to them, and they wished it would stop. Each one of them had a horrifying story to share too, unfortunately. And of course, there was the incident with my best friend last year. She was waiting at the bus stop at Richards and Hastings and a man looked at her and then pointed to his erection. She called me in horror, not sure what to do except get away.
What’s also disturbing to me is people’s laissez-faire attitude when it comes to street harassment. When you bring it up to certain people, they don’t really see the big deal. Unfortunately, it’s been burned into our brains that we have to accept street harassment, that it’s harmless, and that we should take it as flattering.
So what’s the deal with street harassment? (said in a Jerry Seinfeld-esque voice). Why should we stand against it? Here are a few thoughts of mine.
Threat of Rape
If we turned the tables on men and harassed them on the streets, there is little threat of rape to them from women. Plus, there are so many trauma victims roaming the streets day or night, suffering from hyper vigilance. The statistics in British Columbia are mind boggling: 1 in 2 women in B.C. will have experienced sexual assault or attempted sexual assault in their lifetime, and aboriginal women in Canada are five times for likely to be sexual assaulted than non-aboriginal women. Not to mention, a rape crisis center in Vancouver has a wait-list of 9 months for one-on-one trauma counseling.
Which brings me to my point, you don’t know who is going to feel really threatened and traumatized when being street harassed. That being said, victim or not, a woman should be able to walk down the street in peace without being harassed.
Harassment Turned Life Threatening
Earlier this month in Vancouver, a woman named Claudia Rylie was harassed on the SkyTrain when a guy took unwanted pictures of her. He then proceeded in stalking her down the street, making it one of the most terrifying experiences of her life. The Surrey police did nothing about it, but now the VPD is looking into it because it might be related to another sexual assault. You can read the story from VanCity Buzz to get a better idea.
What truly disturbs me is some of the comments left after this story. Mostly blaming the woman (shocker!) because she is an alleged sex worker, and claiming that she was doing the whole thing for attention. Yet another way to excuse rape culture. Notice, there is no one putting the blame on the harasser, who may have assaulted another person and was so creepy, that a woman followed Claudia from the SkyTrain to make sure she was okay.
Here are some of these disturbing comments (remind me never to read comment threads):
darkeclipseCollapse
fuck this girl she wants attention
Whistler
This woman is a thrill-seeker and getting readers riled up with this story is exactly the fuel she wants. She loves being photographed, but I’m sure usually for money. This has been a great promo for her line of sex work, and the VPD would also have her pegged immediately. A streetwise woman carries pepper spray, knows NOT to make contact with her stalker, and many other ways to be safe, like walk beside a stranger and explain what’s happening. A smart businesswoman would not publicize an incident like this, pleading for public sympathy. Claudia, there are video cameras throughout the transit system and you know it. I’ll bet there never was a man in black except in your fantasy.
But then there are awesome people like Kevin to give us some hope:
Kevin
And this is exactly the reason we have this problem is this mindset. Just because someone models or works in the sex industry as a professional does NOT mean it’s ok for them to be sexually harassed.
Thank God For Headphones
I’ve since found my headphones and will no doubt continue to use them as my security blanket against creeps. I wish I could live without them, but hopefully one day I can roam the streets fear-free if people finally start cluing into this stuff.
Terris is a professional wordsmith (freelance writer) based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. You can read more of her work on her blog, or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
