This is cross-posted with permission from the Design Action Collective website.
On International Women’s Day this past March, Design Action Collective, based in Oakland, California, produced a poster to highlight the struggles against gender violence. The process of creating this poster sparked conversation within our shop about how patriarchy plays out on the global scale and and in the daily experiences of all of us here in Oakland. This lead to a heightened awareness of the way things like street harassment have become a normalized part of our daily lives.
Inspired by the work of Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, we felt that creating stickers and flyers people could post would help shift the power on our streets. Messages like “I didn’t ask for your opinion on my body” will not necessarily change a harasser’s attitude, but it would show those who experience harassment that we are not alone.
Photos of the sticker sightings were posted by Oakland Street Art on Facebook. Within 24 hours it was shared over 700 times. People added personal stories of harassment — describing the fear and frustration of their experiences. The images were also shared with encouragement and a sense of empowerment. When this issue is discussed in a public forum, male allies step up and interrupt this culture of misogyny. And those of us who experience harassment every day gain a little more confidence in raising our voices instead of staying quiet and accepting it.
To make your own stickers, download this PDF and print onto 8.5×11 label paper sheets.
Design Action Collective provides graphic design and web development for progressive, non-profit and social change organizations. We seek to contribute to building a broad and effective progressive movement and participate in the struggle for social justice. We are a majority women and people of color owned cooperative.
