Running Stop Street Harassment is my part-time unpaid job — and unfortunately this week travel/event for a paid job overlapped with International Anti-Street Harassment Week. So I’m in Arizona, multi-tasking as much as I can, and also jetlagged.
I woke up earlier than needed today and had time to go for a quick four mile run along the sidewalk of a trafficked road (and to also quickly write this!). I really needed it after a 21 hour day yesterday that was preceeded by four hours of sleep and a 17 hour work day (#EndSHWeek + regular job = a lot of work!). I only had a mile left and my mind felt clearer, my body stronger, when I heard a beep from an approaching car. I was on the sidewalk and not in the way so I looked up surprised… only to see a white middle-age man making a creepy/vulgar face at me. At 7:15 a.m. UGH.
I wasn’t in danger and he was gone in a second, before I could react,, but it was demeaning, disgusting, and annoying. What did he hope to accomplish by doing that? To show he is a man in public space and can demand my attention in a creepy way? To treat me like a piece of meat?
It’s pretty ironic, huh, that the founder of International Anti-Street Harassment Week can get street harassed during International Anti-Street Harassment Week?
It happened last year during the week too, while I was helping hand out anti-harassment flyers at a Washington, D.C. Metro station. A man kept asking me if I was married and could he talk to me after I said no. He even had an anti-harassment flyer in his hand he had picked up from someone else.
I heard about other female activists getting harased while speaking out against the issue last year during the week – women from Oregon to New York were the target of men’s harassment as they wrote anti-harassment sidewalk chalk messages and participated in rallies. So far this week, I’ve heard about an #EndSHWeek tweet chats getting attacked by anti-women tweeters.
That’s the thing about this issue — no woman is immune. You never know when it will happen or why or how far it will escalate. You never know why you’re being targeted. You may not always feel safe to respond or have time to, like in my sitation this morning.
I’ve given close to 150 talks on this topic alone and many of them are at night. I hate that after we talk about the issue and what we can do, the reality is, many women who hear my talk still leave the room and worry about getting home safetly. They talk about checking the back seats of their cars, going to bus stops in groups, and strategize which streets to avoid while bicycling home.
I HATE that I can’t stop my friends, family members, the people who attend my talks — or myself — from being harassed, even though I work on this issue every day.
One reason why I founded International Anti-Street Harassment Week was to try to harness actions and work of small groups around the world who are working on this issue to garner more attention, to get larger groups and organizations and governments on board.
And it is working. When the United Nations, New York Times and Everyday Health are tweeting about the week, writing about the week, and participating in it, we’re making progress. But we do need more groups, more people to be involved. I hope anyone out there reading this will pledge to take a stand. Will share a story or talk about this issue with one person today. Make everyone aware that this is a problem.
Yesterday I was at an Arizona high school doing art work against street harassment with students and one student’s poster slogan was this – “I want to be able to walk down the street safely at night — or anytime.”
That’s all we want. To be safe. To be unharassed. To be respected.
