Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for April 2014

USA: “Stop Telling Women To Smile” Comes To Baltimore

By

Brittany Oliver, Baltimore, MD, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Brittany and Tatyana

During the week of April 21st – 27th, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh traveled to Baltimore to introduce Stop Telling Women To Smile (STWTS), which is an on-going traveling public art series that attempts to address gender based street harassment.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is an illustrator and painter based in Brooklyn, NY who is mostly known for her oil paintings, but recently branched out into public art as a muralist. STWTS started in the fall of 2012 and was born out of the idea that street art can make a difference.

On two different days, Hollaback! Baltimore co-sponsored an open discussion and artist talk at Station North Chicken Box in Baltimore City. The process of STWTS consists of shooting photographs of local women, using them as references for drawing, and composing them into a design with captions that speak directly to offenders of street harassment. The large black and white prints that feature local women are then wheat pasted throughout cities all over the country and aims at raising awareness of the unwanted, unwelcomed, and dangerous treatment of women in the public.

The open discussion was held on Monday, April 21st and allowed women share how street harassment affected them in different areas and what was so specific about it. The more I listened to other people’s stories, the more comfortable I became to share my own. It has never been easy to discuss my experiences with street harassment, but this discussion provided me with a safe space to vent and connect with others who felt the same.

Afterwards, I met with Tatyana to tell her what I wanted to say to my harassers and to have my photo taken. After discussing a few ideas, we both decided to use “Men do not own the streets,” which would be the quote used if she did my portrait.

The artist talk held on Thursday, April 24th involved Tatyana discussing her background in visual art and how STWTS was created along with questions from the audience. This session was specifically interesting to me because I too have a background in the arts and have recently decided to incorporate feminist art into my work as an activist.

A couple days after while browsing through Instagram, I discovered a photo of Tatyana wheat pasting her very first piece at Station North and noticed that the mural included my portrait. I had no idea I would be featured in the first mural and was overwhelmed with empowerment and emotion when I saw it.

STWTS coming to Baltimore is one of the most memorable experiences I’ll ever have. This powerful campaign allows women to stand up to their harassers and it sends a strong message that street harassment is a serious issue that affects women worldwide.

The message is clear: Stop Telling Women To Smile.

Brittany Oliver is a recent graduate of Towson University and works in the non-profit communications sector and supports local anti-street harassment advocacy through Hollaback! Baltimore. She blogs at brittuniverse.wordpress.com and publicly rants on Twitter, @btiara3.

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“Why don’t you think about your health instead of bothering young ladies?”

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I am the kind of person that just ignore “compliments.” I don’t feel shame or angry when I receive them, I just forgot as I pass away because they don’t deserve any of my feelings.

But this time that man went too far.

It was morning and I was going to my office. An old man (about 60-70 idk) in his car yelled at me “Hey baby!”

As always, I pretend not to hear. He continued: “Hey, need a ride? Come here I’ll PAY you! How much is it?”

And that was the moment. That was an insult. I HAD to fight back.

I turn back, big smile on my face, and said with loud voice, “Hey you! How old are you? 80? [I know he wasn’t that old]” and I continued, “Your life is very near to the [natural] end*, so why don’t you think about your health instead of bothering young ladies?”

I saw his face turn red to purple. I walked away, smiling.

Was I rude pointing at his oldness? Yes, indeed. And I’m proud of it. You know why?

Because he “ASKED FOR IT.”

*There is a proverb in my dialect for saying this but I do not know how to translate it

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

I think education is the key, especially for young boy. Then I would educate young girl too, not to be ashamed of what they are. There is no way a girl “ask for it.” But most important of all, media should stop to objectified woman. I think this constant advertising on the virility of men who come out only by subduing women, has affected both men and women in their stereotypes.

– EZ

Location: Italy

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USA: Don’t Let Their Sexism Fuel Your Racism

By

Heather Frederick, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Race has always been an issue in the United States, and even now everyone from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to basketball legend LeBron James are talking about its impact. From how we speak to how we’re educated to what job opportunities are afforded to us (or not) our race is one of the most impactful pieces of our identity. Feminism has recently learned the importance of examining intersectionality–how the intersection of each facet of one’s identity comes together to create an individual who is simultaneously privileged and oppressed by life in America.

Much as it can be difficult for someone who is oppressed in many ways to see their privilege(s), when someone is harassed, or worse attacked, it can be difficult to recognize the humanity of the person being violent. While I believe in nonviolence, especially strategic nonviolent action in the form of civil resistance, to create change, I am not nonviolent on principle like Gandhi or King. I believe that I have the right to use violence to defend myself from physical harm, however, if the violence coming at me is not physically damaging but emotional, how do you defend against that?

One thing I make every effort to do is to see a street harasser as an individual. Period. This one person, or perhaps carload of people, is acting alone, not in cahoots with the Universe to make my day worse or make me feel unsafe. As a feminist I recognize that this one individual acting out sexism and misogyny is in cahoots with the Patriarchy to continue to oppress women/LGBTQ folk, but, this individual does not speak for all men, nor does he speak for all people of his race, or class, or education level. He speaks for himself alone.

Because America is still so segregated, it’s common for people to live in communities where they don’t often interact with people of other races. The fewer interactions one has with members of any given race, the more likely the negative interactions they do have will stand out. And because rape culture still encourages the idea that “real rape” is a black man jumping out of the bushes to rape a white woman, the reality that most sexual assaults are committed against someone of the same race as the perpetrator is ignored. While it can be difficult to be logical after being harassed, reminding yourself that not all people of the harasser’s race are “like that” can help you keep an open heart to the rest of your community.

The other tactic that has been therapeutic for me lately has been to remind myself, after I am harassed, of how many men, how many cars have passed me up until that point that have *not* harassed me. For those men are the example we want others to follow. We are surrounded by men all the time who treat us with respect, and we should remind ourselves of these men when we are harassed. We should point them out to the guy at the bus stop who won’t leave us alone. We should enlist their help in re-educating men about what masculinity and being a man mean. We should not let their sexism fuel our racism.

Heather Frederick works a Supervisor for The National Dating Abuse Helpline, www.loveisrespect.org. Her passions include intersectional feminism, reproductive justice, languages, travel, blogging at www.FeministActivism.com (@FeministSNVA) and bringing an end to human rights abuses.

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Street Harassment: An Expression of Oppression

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Street Harassment: An Expression of Oppression from Samantha LaFrance on Vimeo.

George Washington University students Samantha LaFrance and Sarah Blugis created a documentary about street harassment for a class project this semester. They interviewed students and professors on campus as well as myself. Great work to them both for bringing forward this important issue and letting people share their stories.

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“Saying things like women ask for it”

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The other night me and my girlfriend went to a party. It was in a suburb in the north of Paris, where I would never normally go as I know it can be dangerous, especially for women. We got out of the metro at about 8 p.m. and walked to the party which was a fifteen minute walk. It was typical of the area with groups of men hanging around in the streets. It made me very uneasy and I was then nervous about leaving the party and getting to the next party we had to get to further inside Paris.

When we went to leave at about 11 p.m. we asked the girl who lived there and she assured us she’d never had any problems walking to the station. We got almost to the station (criss-crossing the street to avoid groups of men) when a car with two young guys in it slowed down and drove next to us slowly. I ignored them, and my girlfriend did what she normally does in harassment situations and made crazy-looking faces at them.

Eventually I looked at them. They were making comments about us and pretending to masturbate. I told them they were ugly, and they said, “like you” and laughed. I knew that it could get serious, and that no one would help us if it did, so I pulled out my phone and pointed it right at the guys face and took a picture. He stopped laughing and sped off very quickly. We were worried they would be waiting for us somewhere so we ran across the road and into a little grocery store.

A man in there asked what had happened and we told him two nasty guys had harassed us. He then went into an aggressive and angry speech about how women always pretend to be harassed to get attention and how it is all lies. My girlfriend argued back talking about women getting raped and he was getting in her face and aggressive and saying things like women ask for it etc, and that we were lesbians so who would rape us anyway? Eventually he left and we walked really quickly down into the metro and onto the train. Not a fun way to start our night out.

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

After having very dangerous and serious harassment experiences in Paris, this is the first time I have ever taken out my phone and taken a picture of the harasser. It obviously wouldn’t work in every circumstance but it scared this guy and made him leave us alone quickly. I felt very empowered and would definitely use this approach again to be left alone.

– GracieParis

Location: Paris suburbs

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