Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for December 2014

DC Justice for All March

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Holly & Soraya Chemlay

I attended the Justice for All rally and march in Washington, DC today. We need police reform and we need to work toward a society where there is no racism, sexism, homophobia, discrimination, etc. #BlackLivesMatter #StandUpDontShoot #JusticeforAll

Via the Washington Post:

“Thousands of demonstrators streamed down Pennsylvania Avenue on Saturday, shouting “Black lives matter,” “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “I can’t breathe” to call attention to the recent deaths of unarmed African American men at the hands of police.

The peaceful civil rights march led by families of the slain and organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network drew a wide range of Americans – black, white, Latino, Asian, young and elderly. They walked east toward the U.S. Capitol in a pageant of colorful t-shirts, banners and signs.

The most poignant moment of the day came when family members of black men and boys killed by police — Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamar Rice, Trayvon Martin and Amadou Diallo — took the stage at a rally at the Capitol.”

Image for poster via Bougie Black Girl.

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“The problem is men’s entitlement.”

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I’ve had many very uncomfortable encounters when out in public in London. Here are a few that I want to share:

I was taking the bus one time and this man loudly starts asking me to sit next to him and refers to me as “darling”. He did this 3 or 4 times. I didn’t want to engage in conversation with him so I ignored him and left that bus at the next stop. He then loudly said “goodbye darling, have a nice day” as I left the bus. The whole encounter made me feel uncomfortable.

Another time on the tube this man who sat across kept staring at me. I thought at first it was just accidental eye contact but I realised it was full on and the whole time he wouldn’t take his eyes off me. He didn’t look zoned out either – he had a menacing look on his face and creeped the hell out of me. I felt so uncomfortable!

Another time on the tube this man starts talking to me and acting flirtatious and quite sexually aggressive. I began talking to him out of politeness and soon regretted it when he got very forward and I felt very uncomfortable. He then began harassing me for my number and I ended up giving him a fake one so I wouldn’t anger him/to get out of the situation.

In every situation it happened out of the blue, when my mind was very much focused on other things and I felt cheap/objectified each time. It also totally goes against this myth of how you dress affects how men act. Each experience in which I’ve been harassed (apart from club harassment stories) have happened when I have been dressed in long skirts with tights/trousers and wearing normal tops (and most of the time had a coat on). It’s ridiculous for people to still believe that how women dress excuses sexual harassment or to victim blame.

 Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

We need to tackle men’s attitudes to women. The objectification/hypersexualisation and dehumanisation of women is the real problem here. The woman’s body is viewed as a sexual object rather than part of a person. We need to re-educate men to not think this way and to respect women as people. The voyeurism is partly from pornography but also women’s bodies always being hyper-sexualised in the media.

We need to stop victim-blaming. It shouldn’t matter how someone is dressed. If I dress a certain way when I go out it doesn’t excuse sexually aggressive behaviour. I refuse to accept that dressing a certain way will even stop sexual harassment. From my own experiences it wasn’t enough for me to be dressed conservatively (which I was). Because the fact that I was a woman was enough for these men to feel entitled to treat me in such a way. The problem is men’s entitlement.

– Anonymous

Location: London, UK

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea

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Egypt: Towards a Safer City Report

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From our friends at HarassMap in Egypt:

“After two years of hard work, HarassMap is pleased to share with you the publication of its study “Towards a Safer City”. This study is considered a pioneer one, as it examines the effectiveness of technologies in gathering data on incidents of sexual harassment in Egypt. The study utilized a triangulation of crowdsourced, qualitative and quantitative data to allow for greater accuracy and build a riches understanding of the phenomenon of sexual harassment in Egypt.”

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Viral Videos from Latin America Address Street Harassment

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Yes! More viral videos on street harassment, this time from Latin America. Via Global Voices Online:

“In Peru, street harassment is a reality that many women have to deal with, even on public transportation.Natalia Málaga, a former volleyball player who now coaches the Peruvian national women’s team, is the face of the “Sílbale a tu madre” (Catcall your mother) campaignagainst street harassment, sponsored by the organization Paremos el acoso callejero (Let’s stop street harassment) and fitness and sporting goods company Everlast.

In the staged video, men make sexual comments at women who pass them on the street (these guys are known as faltosos in Spanish, meaning disrespectful). But the men are rendered speechless when they find out that the women are their mothers in disguise, who then give their sons a verbal lashing for the behavior.

The video has gone viral, with more than 3.4 million hits on YouTube so far”

“In Chile, entertainment YouTube channel Woki Toki released a “social experiment” it called “La revancha de los agarrones” (Revenge of the touchers) several months ago, which has more than 4.2 million views. In the video, a woman gives men she passes an agarroncito (little touch) on the hand or bum, an unwelcome action that some men in the country inflict on women in the street.

At the end, the host says she is surprised that none of the guys who experienced the “little touch” felt uncomfortable (some even asked her out on a date). She tells male viewers not to give women agarroncitos because it makes them uncomfortable and isn’t funny.”

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“Girl in a Country Song” Tackles Street Harassment

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This has been a HUGE year or talking about street harassment, including in country music!

“Girl in a Country Song” just became the #1 country song in the USA and I am loving how the teenage singers Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye call out harassers and men who disrespect women!

“I hear you over there on your tailgate whistlin’ [*whistle*]
Sayin’, “Hey girl”
But you know I ain’t listenin’
Cause I got a name
And to you it ain’t “pretty little thing”, “honey” or “baby” …

Well shakin’ my moneymaker ain’t ever made me a dime
And there ain’t no sugar for you in this shaker of mine
Tell me one more time, “you gotta get you some of that”
Sure I’ll slide on over, but you’re gonna get slapped (Hah!)”

Yeah!!

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