This is a guest blog post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week, by Alan & Beckie, Florida, USA
“Men, help women feel safe in public spaces: Don’t Harass Women”
“Men, think of your mother, your grandmothers, your sisters, daughters and wife…..Don’t harass Women”
“Saying, ‘Hey Baby’ isn’t a compliment to anyone”
These are some of the many chalk messages my wife, Beckie Weinheimer and I wrote on Sunday on sidewalks in the area of Lincoln Blvd. and Washington Ave. in South Beach, FL.
Sunday was the first day of the third annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week and we decided to make kits including: a piece of chalk, a Stop Street Harassment sticker and literature about ways to address Harassers and what the movement is about.
We live in West Palm Beach, but decided to drive to South Beach because my wife has been harassed on the street many times there and the public there is generally much younger and probably more in tune with street harassment.
We found people to be largely disinterested, focused on their vacation plans, etc. But as long as one of us was chalking, we had a steady stream of lookers and a few who wanted to engage in the dialogue.
Since my wife’s knees couldn’t take the kneeling and writing, I wrote from a male point of view and was happily amazed at all of the things I came up with for men.
After about an hour, we gave out many of our kits, engaged several people in dialogue and had dozens stop and read!
For those who are interested in doing something similar, here are short videos about what we did: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3.
Alan Kearl and Beckie Weinheimer, just moved to West Palm Beach, FL from New York City. While Beckie has often been the object of harassing comments in public spaces, she mostly just endured it, until a few years ago. Inspired by their daughter, Holly Kearl, and her Street Harassment research and activism, Beckie realized she could stand up for herself. Alan and Beckie have become increasingly organized and active in promoting safe streets and bringing attention to the horrible consequences for women of harassment in public spaces.
