Joe Samalin, New York City, NY, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent
March 30th – April 5th is Anti-Street Harassment Week so come out and Meet Us On The Street!
Can’t make it? Don’t know anything about street harassment? Don’t know what to do? Not sure how to make a difference? There are limitless ways to make a difference. Here are just a few to start us off…
1. Learn how often street harassment actually happens (spoiler alert: it happens a lot. Informal studies and more formal research show that the overwhelming majority of girls and women experience it often.)
2. If research and numbers are not your thing, try this. Ask three women in your life (three women you trust and who trust you) about their experiences being harassed in public. If they don’t mind sharing you can ask where it happens and how often, what is said or done, how they react (if they do), and how the harassers react back. Ask them how this affects them, and how they feel about it. But don’t forget to…
3. Listen to their answers, without judging, disagreeing, or arguing. Just listen.
4. If you do not get harassed regularly, think about what that means for you. Recognize that as a privilege we have. And then choose something else on this list and do something about it.
5. Challenge myths about street harassment.
6. For example, don’t bring up your one female friend who likes street harassment to show that it is ok to harass women. It is a slap in the face to the millions of women who don’t like it. And you can’t tell who might like it by looking at them anyway, so it’s kind of a moot point to begin with.
7. And ask that friend who likes it if they always like it, or if it depends on context.
8. Talk to (male) friends who don’t harass women. Ask them if they ever notice it, and what they think about it. Ask them what they do or can do to challenge it. And what you can all do together! Remember to challenge myths (see #5 above) and don’t defend it (#27 below).
9. Understand that street harassment and other forms of violence in public are common against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people and people of color, as well as women and girls. And understand too that all those categories are not mutually exclusive.
10. Support organizations like Girls For Gender Equity, Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, Stop Street Harassment, Hollaback, Center for Anti-Violence Education, Anti-Violence Project, RightRides, and others working to support those affected by street harassment and other related forms of violence.
11. Safely and respectfully intervene when you see harassment in public. Be creative!
12. Practice practice practice what you can say to friends, co-workers, teammates, classmates, and family members when they harass women:
“Cut that out, it really makes me uncomfortable.”
“Don’t do that in front of me….or at all. It’s not right.”
“You really shouldn’t do that. It’s disrespectful and it is called harassment.”
“(Insert witty line here.)”
13. Practice what you can say to strangers when they harass women
“Hey man I heard what you said to those women and it’s really not ok.”
“Don’t do that around here.”
“Can you please cut that out? People are just trying to get through their day and you are bothering them.”
“It’s not a compliment.”
“Don’t tell women to smile – they can feel however they want to feel.”
“(Insert another witty line here.)”
14. Print up tee-shirts with messages like ‘her name isn’t baby’, ‘it isn’t a compliment, it’s harassment’, ‘respect women and girls in public’, and more. Give them to men you know. Or sell them and give the profit to organizations addressing violence against women.
15. Join/support/get trained by agencies promoting healthy non-violent masculinity – Men Can Stop Rape, A Call To Men, Men Stopping Violence, Coach For America, White Ribbon Campaign, and others.
16. Contact men in leadership positions (coaches, politicians, business owners, teachers, etc.) and get them to make public statements against street harassment.
17. Figure out fun creative ways to interrupt street harassment on your block and in your neighborhood.
18. Practice your ‘hell no’ look for when other men turn to you in public and try and get you to harass women and girls with them, or to have your back when they get called out for it.
19. Film and release your own hometown video about men challenging street harassment to try and match the coolness of NYC, California, Northern Azerbaijan, and Egypt.
20. Use art, theater, music, or whatever else you are good at and enjoy doing to raise a little awareness about men challenging street harassment.
21. Join us for anti-street harassment week this year and every year.
22. Actually, make every week anti-street harassment week.
23. Think of one thing you can do today that would challenge street harassment, and then…
24. Do that thing, and then…
25. Share that thing you did with others, so they can try it too.
26. Add to this list and share it with others – at home, at work, at school, at church, at practice, everywhere.
27. Don’t defend it.
28. Don’t ignore it
29. Don’t do it.
Copyright: Joseph Samalin. All rights reserved. Reprints or reposts with the permission of the author and Stop Street Harassment.
Joe Samalin has been addressing gender-based violence for over 15 years, including as the Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator for Men Can Stop Rape. He is currently the Outreach and Training Manager for the Disaster Distress Helpline and is examining among other things gender-based violence in the aftermath of disasters. Follow him on Twitter, @joesamalin.
