Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for May 2013

Good Call with Founder of Skirt Chaser 5k

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A few weeks ago, when I launched the “Companies that Trivialize Street Harassment” webpage, SSH community member @DaniParadis alerted me to the Skirt Chaser 5k, where women begin the race before men and the tagline is “Chase. Catch. Party.”  She and I both felt the “chase and catch” language and name sounded creepy and predatory and also could be triggering to women who have actually been chased by men while running.

I e-mailed the company about my concern, blogged about it, Danielle wrote an article about it, and several of us posted information on social media.

Nicole Molzahn DeBoom, the founder of the race, and the founder of Skirt Sports, was responsive and asked to set up a call to discuss it. Today, SSH board member Elizabeth Bolton (a runner) and I (another runner) talked with her by phone.

During the call, I told her more about the work of SSH and what street harassment is and why this issue matters. Then she gave us background information about her, the company, and the race.

She was a pro-triathlete for a number of years and then she founded Skirt Sports in 2004. The idea behind the company was to offer women more clothing options with the hope that if they are wearing something they like and feel good wearing, they will be more likely to feel comfortable exercising and actually exercise.

Nicole founded the Skirt Chaser 5k in 2007, in part to move extra inventory by giving participants skirts and also to create a fun race connected to the brand. People in relationships who run it often wager with their significant other about who will beat the other (with women starting first) and people who are single can get stickers on their bibs to say they’re open to meeting someone at the race. This key component of consent was something I didn’t see in the messaging online, so I was very glad to hear this. Nicole told us that about 70-75 percent of race participants in most of the Skirt Chaser races are female and that the race is so popular, there are many copy-cat races across the country.

Then we talked about the race name and marketing. She noted that this year they had a new team working on the promotional materials and that, once we brought it to their attention how predatory/creepy the new tagline sounded (“chase, catch, party”) they agreed.  They’ve already removed that tagline from the materials for all of the races and they removed the word “chase” from copy about the race (except from the race name). She is open to hearing ideas for how to promote the race with language that is truer to what the race stands for and what actually happens at it (consensual fun).

Also, SSH board member Liz rightly pointed out the heteronormativity of the race with its assumptions that people are straight, that women are slower than men, and that only women want to or should wear skirts. Nicole said that LGBQT people and relationships are welcome and that anyone can choose to or not to wear skirts.

While I would love for the race name itself to be changed, I understand that would be much harder to do, especially since it’s become a brand that has been around for six years and few people have complained. Changing the tag line and trying to focus more on the consensual fun that takes place at the race is significant and I’m grateful that Nicole took the time to listen to our concerns and acted on them. Hopefully the additional new messaging that is being crafted can emphasize consent and can also be more blatantly inclusive of LGBQT people/relationships.

Do you have ideas for a tagline or messaging?

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Take Action To End Gender-Based Hate Speech on Facebook

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UPDATE 5/28/13: The campaign was a success! Facebook is changing their policy.

Stop Street Harassment is proud to support a campaign by Everyday Sexism; Women, Action & the Media; and our friend writer/activist Soraya Chemaly to get Facebook to stop allowing people to post content that depicts or supports violence against women and girls.

They write, “Facebook has long allowed content endorsing violence against women. They claim that these pages fall under the “humor” part of their guidelines, or are expressions of “free speech.” But Facebook has proven willing to crack down on other forms of hate speech, including anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and homophobic speech, without claiming such exemptions. That’s why we’re calling on Facebook to make the only responsible decision and ban gender-based hate speech.”

Read the open letter and take action by contacting companies whose ads appear on offensive content to let them know and to ask them to do something. It’s very easy to contact the companies using the mechanisms the campaign provides. On Twitter, use the hashtag, #FBrape.

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14-Year-Old: “Street harassment is wrong”

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I’m a 14 year old female. Summer is around the corner and the weather is perfect, I’m already out and about riding my bike, taking my dog for walk’s and hanging out with friends outdoors. But this is the first time ever in my life where I’ve felt fear and intimidation at the thought of going outside. You see, for the past month I have been a victim of street harassment.

One day I was walking to a local restaurant to meet up with some friends. I wore jean shorts and a muscle tank because it was scorching hot outside. On my way there, younger and middle aged men passed me in their vehicles about 7 of them whistled at me and made me feel uncomfortable by saying disrespectful comments such as “Hey hottie” or “What a babe!” or “Damn look at that a**!” In case you are not aware, these words can make someone feel very intimidated, frustrated, fearful, uncomfortable, worthless and small.

When they said these things I felt a bolt of helplessness run through me. I felt targeted and like I had no voice. Street harassment is wrong. No one should have to experience such disrespect regardless of how they look or what they wear. Street harassment can happen to anyone and be done by anyone. In result of my experience that has happened repeatedly in the past month I’ve grown an insecurity of walking or biking alone. I’ve grown a fear of being intimidated by others in public. I got scared of being a victim. I stopped going outside. My parents were concerned why I had stopped going out as much as I used to.

How did I regain my confidence and deal with the situation? First off, I decided I wouldn’t let some fear take over my life. I had to face my fears. I started walking and biking outside again, I held my head high and I ignored the bullies that tried to sexually harass me.

I paid no attention to them and I did not respond, they were not worth my attention or time. I didn’t let their words get to me. Pretty soon, I had all my confidence back and I was my old self again. It’s only if you focus on something that it becomes more and more apparent in your life. If you need to address the situation verbally then do it, you need to make a clear message that you will not tolerate being victim of street harassment.

Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?

Don’t stand for sexual harassment. Take control of the situation and keep moving forward. You deserve respect and you deserve to be treated fairly. You are not an OBJECT to be glorified, you are not EYE CANDY for pleasure, you are not a PIECE OF MEAT to be used. You are a human being who should not be publicly shamed based on gender. Most of important of all, never let someone blame you for their repulsive actions ex. “It’s not my fault I whistled and called her that, she was wearing that slutty skirt!”

That is the equivalent of saying, “It’s not my fault I raped her, she was asking for it by wearing that tight dress!”

– Anonymous

Location: Camrose, Alberta

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Bare Escentuals learns more about street harassment

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A few weeks ago, Sara Alcid, a Washington, D.C. resident was at the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in DC where she discovered that BareMinerals by Bare Escentuals enlisted a group of fraternity brothers to hold up inappropriate and sexist signs saying things like, “You Look Beautiful All Sweaty,” “Hello Gorgeous.”

Sara launched a successful Change.org petition in coordination with Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) and Stop Street Harassment. A call with the company led them to apologize and agree not to use that type of messaging again.

The interaction could have stopped there, but when Alison Reid and Stephanie Lin from the company’s marketing team made plans to be in New York City (from San Francisco) this week for the next leg of the BareMinerals tour, they included a quick stop to Washington, D.C. to meet with Sara, Renee from CASS and myself.

That meeting took place today.

Alison and Stephanie were gracious and great listeners as we each talked about the work we do to stop street harassment. They talked about the mission and vision of the company and how Bare Escentuals aims to have meaningful connections with their customers and helping them feel confident in their lives. They emphasize personal connections with their customers and even invite customers who are visiting or live in San Francisco to stop by the office for coffee. They do not use airbrushing in their ads and really focus on women’s empowerment. Thus, they had no intention of making women feel uncomfortable or sexualized by the signs and so they were quick to address our concerns. They thanked us for the opportunity to learn more about the issue of street harassment and how it impacts people’s lives, and I gave them a copy of the Stop Street Harassment book so they could continue to learn more about the issue.

It was really refreshing to see a company go above and beyond to fix offensive messaging, take the time to listen carefully and thoughtful to our concerns, and strive to serve their customers better. Thank you, Alison and Stephanie and the whole Bare Escentuals team! You set a high bar for other companies to follow 🙂

L to R: me (Holly), Alison, Stephanie, Sara, and Renee at a coffee shop in Washington, D.C. on May 20, 2013.
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“Then they began making remarks on my figure and my breasts”

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Now, anybody who has ever been to Italy knows that there are people on every corner of any tourist destination attempting to sell you a variety of useless baubles, knickknacks and designer knockoffs. Despite however many times you tell them you aren’t interested in buying a bracelet or a “prada” bag they’ll be up in your face a few seconds later once again attempting to sell you the same piece of garbage you declined to buy earlier. My story begins in Pisa, one of the absolute worst tourist traps in all of Italy.

At this point on my trip I was full of excitement, we had just left Rome earlier in the day, and we were en route to Florence when we stopped at Pisa to see the sights and to grab a bite to eat. Our time we had to allotted was quickly spent and I was doing a bit of window shopping with my grandparents back on the way to our meeting place. We finally arrived there and there were more vendors than when we got off of the shuttle. There were at least eight men and one woman vendor waiting for our group. My grandma, being the crafty devil she i,s decided to distract them by carrying on a casual conversation with the group of male vendors, while I sat talking to another woman in our tour group. I really didn’t notice that several men had drifted away from my grandma until I found a tray full of sunglasses shoved in my face. I politely told him no several times, being as timid as I am.

It was around the fifth or sixth time the woman beside me aggressively told him no. At this point I noticed there were about three or four men now grouped around me telling me how nice and funny my grandma was. I would quietly tell them no whenever they would shove a “Gucci” bag or “African” bracelet in my face. They then began complimenting me in an attempt to get me to buy something. It started out innocently enough, complimenting my eyes, my hair… Then they began making remarks on my figure and my breasts.

I already being as uncomfortable as I was before hand was now absolutely terrified. Here I was a fifteen year old girl, in a foreign country, and the only two people I actually knew were holding off the other four or so vendors from everybody else. The woman beside me had started another conversation with a friend of hers who had just appeared. So when they began to call me “sexy” I was on the verge of tears and attempting to get closer to my grandparents.

I eventually stalled halfway to them and curled up on the ground. My grandpa thankfully heard the harassers and swooped in and rescued me. Shortly afterwards the shuttle arrived. When we got on the shuttle to take us back to our bus I sat as far as possible from the doors knowing since not everybody had shown up yet we would be there for a while and they would still be attempting to sell their merchandise. Apparently one of them had given bracelets to my grandma for being so nice to them. He wanted her to give them to my grandpa and me. My grandma heard what had happened and was cracking jokes about how they had “complimented” me. It was then that I actually started to cry. She immediately began to comfort me apologizing for the joke. My grandpa on the other hand insisted that I at least wear the bracelet until I got back to the bus to be polite. As soon as we got back I threw it away. I didn’t want to look at it and just be ashamed of that entire experience.

– April

Location: Pisa, Italy

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