Street harassment activism is NOT new. Check out what happened in 1986 in Washington, DC! #HassleFreeZones
Thanks go to Defend Yourself for sharing this important historical document.
1986: A Call for Hassle-Free Zones in Washington, DC
Archives for December 2014
New Study: Street Harassment in Vietnam
After a new study on street harassment in Vietnam, government agencies are considering the band aid solution of sex segregated transit. Since most people said they were harassed on the street, are they going to consider sex-segregated roads and sidewalks too? UGH.
“ActionAid Vietnam, an advocacy group, and the Hanoi-based Research Center for Gender, Family and Environment in Development released the results of a survey of 2,046 people in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City early this month that gave voice to those concerns.
According to the survey, 57 percent of women (aged 16 and up) said sexual harassment is most likely to occur on the street, while 31 percent of female students said they have been harassed on public buses.
The survey also identified parks, bus stations and public bus terminals as risky places…
Nguyen Hoang Trung, deputy director of the state-owned Hanoi Transport Corporation, said they have been told to explore gender-segregation on certain problematic routes after recent research suggested the city’s female commuters are vulnerable to sexual harassment…
Trung said a bus just for women is “very new and will lead to many complicated issues in management.” Dinh Thi Thanh Binh, director of the Institute of Transport Planning and Management at the University of Transportation, said she fears the plan will prove “hard to carry out.”
Binh said more men than women use Hanoi’s public bus system. Female commuters are sexually harassed on numerous routes and the city can’t hope to resolve the problem by segregating the whole system along gender lines, she said.
“Hanoi should explore other solutions, such as cooperating with the police, raising passenger awareness and encouraging victims to file reports,” she said.”
Happy Holidays from a #HoundAgainstHarassment
“My boyfriend didn’t notice what the man said at all”
I was eating at a local place with my boyfriend. A woman was just leaving after picking up an order as a man was walking in. He immediately started to make very lewd and objectifying comments about her body to her as she was leaving. I was shocked and disgusted he’d act like that. He then proceeded to go up to the counter and continue to make these comments to the workers at the counter. It made me lose my appetite, and I wanted to leave immediately to avoid receiving the same sort of comments.
Optional: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?
Something interesting about this story is that my boyfriend didn’t notice what the man said at all. I think many men don’t grow up noticing these comments or knowing when harrassment is happening around them. Men need to be more understanding of why women are afraid or upset after being harassed, and learn how to recognize harassment. Just understanding what it is and what it looks like, even if you cannot intervene can go a long way and it can help those who don’t often experience street harassment provide better support to those who do.
– Anonymous
Location: University Area, Charlotte, NC
Download DC Now’s Anti-Harassment Cards
You can download copies of these anti-street harassment cards from DC NOW’s website!
Our board member Lindsey has cards too, at Cards Against Harassment.