Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for August 2013

USA: Don’t Tell Me to Smile

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By Angela Della Porta, SSH Correspondent

By Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

I don’t get it – why do men want me to smile so damn much?

I have two states of being: laughing at something hilarious, and Bitch Face, which is really just a neutral face that means nothing hilarious happened. I, personally, don’t use the word “bitch,” but it is the most common description of this phenomenon. Now, I always thought that Bitch Face was something I had to do intentionally, like when I don’t want someone to sit next to me on the bus or I want to show someone who was rude that I don’t appreciate their comments. But, I’ve learned that Bitch Face is what I look like neutrally, and I’ve accepted it. Not everyone has gotten to that same level of acceptance.

Men of every age seem to be so bothered that I don’t constantly look ecstatic. Their obvious grievance with my face is enough to intensify Bitch Face, but often they take it one step further – they tell me to smile. For all you dudes who can’t stop telling women to smile, you should probably know:

1. Women are not dogs. They don’t sit and lay and smile on command. They don’t want your treats, so please stop with the commands.

2. Women, just like everyone else, have a wide range of emotions. Perhaps a woman is angry and upset. Perhaps she is not. It’s none of your business which emotions women have, feel, or display, and nobody asked your permission to feel their feelings because nobody wasn’t seeking it.

3. Women don’t smile at every moment of neutral feelings. A woman may not be upset at all; she may be feeling nothing particular. However, women are not constantly wowed and amazed with the world around them, broadly smiling at streets, traffic lights, and each and every person who crosses their paths. The world is not pure, bewildering bliss to all women. If it’s a normal day, the average woman won’t be spending all 24 hours smiling.

4. If you see a woman looking less than pleased, it’s likely that someone just harassed her on the street. If not, she may be considering the alternate route she took to her destination to avoid some asshole who usually harasses  her on the street. Nether make most women too smiley.

Plus, can you imagine the reverse? Can you imagine a world where women approach men they don’t know and demand they feel and act a certain way? Doesn’t it just sound silly? And that’s what leads me to my initial question – why do men want me to smile so damn much? Does my smiling face brighten their day? (I’m not here to brighten anyone’s day.) Maybe. My theory is that is has less to do with my facial expression and more to do with a need to assert one’s power and dominance that male privilege affords them.

So the next time I hear, “Come on, why don’t you just smile?” I’ll continue on my way, making whatever face I want, and that might just make me smile… a little.

Angela Della Porta is a recent graduate of Clark University in Worcester, MA. She will join with Teach for America in Detroit in the fall. Until then, she’s spending her time in rural Maine. Follow her on Twitter: @angelassoapbox

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India: Public Transport, Private Harassment

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By Pallavi Kamat, Mumbai, India, SSH Correspondent

The most common and recurrent form of street harassment encountered by any woman in my community is when she chooses to take the public transport. In Mumbai, where I live, tens of thousands of women choose to travel by public transport where distances between one’s residence and one’s place of work/study are significant. Though Mumbai is by and large a safe city and women can travel at any time of the hour by the public transport, it is not completely immune to the phenomenon of street harassment.

When I speak of public transport, I refer to transport by the local bus, train, autorickshaw or cab. Let me elaborate each mode separately and in detail.

In Mumbai, the local buses are almost always crowded, especially during peak times. Though the first five seats are reserved for women, it is no guarantee that a woman who boards a bus will not be harassed. Often, due to the crowd, she is subjected to groping. I have experienced this: a man sits next to me on one of the unreserved seats and tries to fondle or grope. Other than remaining silent, I frankly have no other option. The most I do is get up and go find a separate seat or stand.

A survey conducted by We The People Foundation in early 2012 found that 80% of women in Mumbai faced sexual harassment with the maximum cases taking place in crowded areas such as trains and railway platforms.

One huge advantage of the local trains in Mumbai is that they have separate compartments for women. In addition, there are also ladies’ specials trains being run at specific times. Despite this, women continue to face harassment as they board the daily train. This could be in the form of the men’s compartment adjacent to the women’s compartment from which there is catcalling and verbal harassment. Often times, as a train stops at a particular station, the men on the platform pass lewd comments and whistle at women. Harassment also exists in the form of snatching of purses and bags of women who are perched on the entrance of the train as it approaches a station for alighting. The Central Railway has registered 215 cases of sexual harassment in January-2013 and 314 cases in February-2013.

Compared to the buses and the trains, travelling by autorickshaws or cabs seems safer since it is like a semi-private travel. However, both these modes are not completely harassment-free. Many times, when the rickshaw or the cab is stationary at a signal, men on bikes peep inside and pass comments or point fingers and giggle. There have also been instances of bikers snatching gold chains from female commuters in cabs or rickshaws.

Sometimes, the auto/cab driver has tried to molest the woman passenger. To deal with this menace, women-only cabs (such as Viira Cabs, Mumbai Gold Cabs, Priyadarshini Taxi Service, etc.) have been launched in Mumbai and heartily welcomed by women commuters especially when travelling during odd hours of the day or night. Additionally, when a woman hails a cab from the domestic/international airport, a police official notes down her phone number with her destination and the number of the taxi for security reasons.

While women continue to experience varied forms of street harassment, the important thing is not to get dejected or depressed but continue to find ways and means to deal with it. These could be in the form of raising an alarm, filing a complaint or helping out a woman in need. It could also be in the form of working with the local authorities to make public transport safer and enjoyable for women. Women have as much right to public transport as men and there is no reason why any form of harassment should discourage or scar them from using it.

And it is equally critical for men to pitch in as well. After all, a woman being harassed is somebody’s mother, daughter or sister. Both genders need to work together to eliminate the monster of street harassment specifically in public transport.

Pallavi is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Commerce Graduate from the University of Mumbai, India, with around 12 years of experience working in the corporate sector. Follow her on Twitter, @pallavisms.

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“Really know how to make him want it”

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I was going out with my friends one day and was feeling pretty bad about how I looked so I put on a nice outfit and a little make up to hide the spots and its amazing what that can do for your self esteem.

On the street a guy comes up taps me on the shoulder looks at my chest and asks me if he can tap my ass as I’m a “damn girl and really know how to make him want it.”

I’m 14.

– Anonymous

Location: New Castle, UK

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UK: Harassment – and Worse – at Music Festivals

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By: Levi Grayshon, Manchester, England, SSH Correspondent

Kate Nash, photo by Alice Baxley

Sometimes, being a woman with an interest in music can be difficult. From being a fan to being a musician, you often find yourself doubted, harassed, and disrespected.

Whenever I wear a t-shirt of a band such as Joy Division, I’m am always approached by men who doubt my knowledge of the bands, and who feel the need to tell me about that time they saw them play at Eric’s in Liverpool, how they remember when Closer was released, or even worse, start quizzing me on what tracks I know.

The assumption that I have to prove that I like a band, just because the fanbase is predominantly older and male, is sexist, simple as that. Constantly having to prove yourself, as a music fan, is tiring and frankly, I am sick of it.

The sexism, however, doesn’t stop there. One of the main places, where I feel under threat as a female music lover is at festivals and gigs. Don’t get me wrong, I adore festivals. Most of my favourite moments have taken place at festivals, from seeing The Libertines reunite at Leeds in 2010, to being on the barrier gazing up at Ryan Jarman getting carried off stage at possibly one of the most exciting shows that The Cribs have played, just this month at Y Not Festival.

Festivals are amazing, but there can be a downside to them.

An example – the group queued behind me and my friend to get into Y Not Festival behaved grossly. Every time a young woman who weighed less than 12 stones wearing shorts walked past, they’d loudly discuss her figure, shouting “nice arse!” and sniggering.

My friend and I were left alone by them, thankfully, probably because we both kept sighing, rolling our eyes in disapproval and tutting at everything they said. Either way, their behaviour was gross and highly unnecessary.

Another time, we witnessed a group of “LAD”-types chanting, “I, I Will Tear You Apart!” at girls and women walking around the campsite. What a way to completely destroy a beautiful song and use it for your misogynist bravado, fellas.

What is perhaps more shocking is the fact that these incidents happened at the calmest, most friendly festival that I have had the pleasure of attending. Even more shocking than that is that this behaviour is seen as normal. Fun. A laugh.

Recently, this article was published on Thrash Hits, where Tom Doyle discussed what he witnessed in the crowds this year at Download festival, where young women who sat on men’s shoulders for a better view were pressured into flashing their breasts both by festival-goers and camera crew.

Unfortunately, this behaviour is not a one-off – I saw it happen again and again both times that I attended Leeds Festival. What’s worse is that the young women are usually booed when they refuse,  and even worse (yeah, it gets worse) is that some have had their shirts pulled down/lifted up. Sometimes even by “friends” (if a friend is willing to do that to you then newsflash – they are not your friend).

On Twitter, I asked for friends and followers to share a few stories of incidents at music events. Tales included being groped in mosh pits, being touched inappropriately, and more violent cases such as being assaulted in the form of threats and hair pulling. Seeing and hearing, and being at the receiving end of this kind of abuse highlights the fact that environments such as gigs and festivals are still very much a “boys club” and that women are about as welcome as a faulty speaker. Here are just a few of the tweets that I received:

However, it’s not just music fans who suffer from harassment at performances. Many artists that have unfortunately experienced this include Courtney Love, who had her dress ripped from her, when crowd surfing, as well as having someone attempt to sexually assault her in a much worse way, Kate Nash, who was groped at her gig, and managed to call out the perpetrator, and both Beyonce  and Florence Welch have come under attack. Florence was reduced to tears.

When watching Paramore play at Leeds festival, a man in the crowd repeatedly shouted to Hayley Williams that he was in love with her, and asked her to marry him, which was laughed off by the crowd. When young girls scream this sort of thing at One Direction, it is viewed as hysterical, so why is it funny for a grown man to behave in this way – it is really necessary for a “fan” to do this to an artist? And is it really necessary for fellow music fans to treat each other so badly?

Levi graduated from university with a degree in Film and TV screenwriting this summer. As a freelance writer, she has been writing for The F-Word and Gamer-UK. You can follow her rants and ramblings on Twitter, @part_heart.

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UK: New Campaign Addresses Transit Harassment

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By: Tilly Grove, London, UK, SSH Correspondent

Via www.BTP.police.uk

As a student at a London university, the city’s transport system is something I use daily during term time. Consequently, I stand alongside the 15 per cent of women who responded to a Transport for London (TfL) survey and reported that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault on the London transport network. In fact, I consider myself to stand alongside a much larger percentage of women. That 15 per cent is only of the women who responded to the survey, and only those who felt comfortable talking about what had happened to them in the first place. Often, women do not even realise that what has occurred to them is sexual harassment. Either way, 90 per cent of the women in that survey said that they had not reported what happened to them to the police, and TfL have rightly identified that this is a huge problem.

Project Guardian is the initiative that seeks to change that. The British Transport Police (BTP), working closely with TfL, Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police, have recognised that sexual harassment on public transport is a major concern for travellers, and vastly under-reported. Having studied a similar exercise in Boston, and with guidance from women’s campaign groups like the End Violence Against Women coalition, Everyday Sexism, and Hollaback London, Project Guardian will see all 2,000 of the officers working on the public transport network receive training in victim awareness, and selected officers given extra training on sexual offences courses.

The core aim of Project Guardian is to increase awareness of sexual offences, and encourage victims to come forward. By clearly outlining what constitutes a sexual offence, the BTP are taking a good first step. A lot of women – myself included – will likely not have been aware, for example, that any comments or actions that make them uncomfortable on their journeys constitute harassment. When I have had men actively stalk me across platforms and through carriages, or make obvious efforts to stare up my skirt, or make sexually charged comments about my appearance, I would certainly never have thought that this was something I should report, and not just something I had to shrug off. The BTP insists that any offence of this nature will be taken “extremely seriously”, and urges anyone who has witnessed or experienced something to come forward.

While not the primary objective of the initiative, a reduction in instances of sexual assault would certainly be desirable too, as has been seen in Boston. Project Guardian seeks to deter offenders by deploying up to 180 officers to stations at a time, using undercover officers, creating a high police profile at vulnerable times and places (like quiet stations late at night), working in partnership with railway businesses, using CCTV footage, and publishing details of all successful prosecutions. Judging by the figures from its first week, it might be set for success: reporting of sexual offences increased by 26%, and 10 arrests were made. This may see the initiative rolled out elsewhere across Britain.

The Twitter hashtag #ProjGuardian illustrates clearly that experiences of sexual harassment are not a rarity, and not a one-off. There are thousands of women sharing their stories, all of them demonstrating that this has become an accepted part of our experiences as women in public. Even when it is not physically happening to us, the possibility of it is always hanging over us. If Project Guardian can change one thing, it can change the idea amongst so many of us that it has to be this way, that we must be silent and accept it. Ideally, it will change more than that. When Ellie Cosgrave had a man ejaculate on her on the train, she took matters into her own hands and put on a brilliant and intelligent protest, Take Back the Tube; she did this because she had reported it to TfL, who did not even respond. Women deserve more than this. We deserve organisations that listen to us and take us seriously, and most importantly, we deserve to be able to use the public transport network without constant fear and anticipation of someone violating us in the first place. Let’s hope Project Guardian is the start of that.

To report sexual offences to the British Transport Police, talk to staff or officers at the station, text 61016, or call 0800 40 50 40.

Tilly is studying for a BA in War Studies at King’s College London, where she is writing her dissertation on the effect that perceptions of gender have on the roles which women adopt in conflict. You can follow her on Tumblr and Twitter, @tillyjean_.

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