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Archives for February 2015

“You’re gonna make me cum!”

February 28, 2015 By Contributor

On my way to work, I heard a man yelling “uhh!! Uhhh!! You’re gonna make me cum!!” and looked up to see a man violently masturbating at me with his pants down around his knees. I called 911 to report this, and waited 45 minutes before anyone showed up to take down any information. It was 9 a.m. in broad daylight on a Thursday.

– Alice

Location: Brooklyn, NY

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

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Filed Under: street harassment

“I’m just trying to go home with you”

February 27, 2015 By Contributor

On Friday, February 20th, a man started verbally harassing me in the Prospect Park Q train station, asking if he could get inside my coat with me. I abruptly walked down to the platform to be around more people. When the train arrived, I got on and noticed he’d sat down across from me. Three stations later, I got off at my stop and he got up and did the same. Hoping to leave with the crowd, I left the train station and walked across the street and down one block.

I looked behind me and saw he was following me from across the street. I walked back towards the train station to ask the attendant to call the police. The man cut me off at the corner and I yelled, “What the f*** do you think you’re doing?!” He responded “Nothing I’m just trying to go home with you.” I threatened to call the cops if he kept following me, and he backed away and walked down the block.

An older woman saw what happened and was nice enough to accompany me home. When I called the precinct to file a report, the attendant told me that nothing had actually happened, then proceeded to hang up on me, laughing. It was 2 a.m. I called 311 to see if there were any resources, and was given the same treatment by two different people after being put on hold for 10 minutes.

– Alice

Location: Brooklyn, NY

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

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Filed Under: Stories, street harassment

UN Please Include Street Harassment in Beijing + 20

February 26, 2015 By HKearl

We’ve joined the following organizations in asking the United Nations and all member states to make a commitment to eradicating street harassment in Beijing + 20: Chega de Fiu-Fiu, iHollaback Bahamas, iHollaback Bogotá, Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Chile, Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Colombia, Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Nicaragua, Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Uruguay, Paremos el Acoso Callejero.

You can sign the petition and add your name to the request.

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Filed Under: street harassment

Australia: Mental Health and Street Harassment

February 26, 2015 By Correspondent

Tara Willoughby, Canberra, Australia, SSH Blog Correspondent

Like street harassment, mental illness is a subject that does not get enough serious discussion. In 2007, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimated that almost half of all Australians would experience a mental illness in their lifetime, and 1 in 5 Australians will experience mental illness in any 12 month period. And yet there’s still a huge level of stigma around talking about mental illness in our community – three quarters of Australians with mental illnesses reported experiencing stigma.

Also like street harassment, mental illness often has disproportionately difficult effects on more marginalised members of our community like LGBTIQ people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, among others. As a queer woman who has struggled with mental illness, I am quite familiar with some of the ways that street harassment fits into the larger puzzle of prejudice, violence and mental ill-health in our communities.

There are two areas of intersection between street harassment and mental health that I’d like to talk about here: the effects that street harassment can have on people dealing with mental illness, and the possibility that street harassment could contribute to people developing mental health problems in the first place (spoiler alert: it does).

Effects of Street Harassment on People with Mental Illness

We often talk about the way that street harassment makes public spaces unsafe and unwelcoming, especially for women. The way that harassment impacts on mental illness is a key way that this takes place.

In Australia, women experience higher rates of mental illness in a given 12 month period, and in particular they experience much higher rates of anxiety disorders. Street harassment can play into the narratives and fears that run around in our heads. It can keep us cooped up on our houses, debating whether to go out and do the things that would otherwise be good for us (exercising, seeing friends and maintaining social connections, being in nature) and risk having our whole day or week crushed by a stranger, or stay inside where at least we know the people who demand we smile.

Street Harassment as a Cause of Mental Illness?

Street harassment is part of the larger spectrum of violence that’s present in our society. It sits in the same group as other more acknowledged violence against women, with homophobic and transphobic violence, with racist violence. We know that violence against women is more damaging to the health of Victorian (Australian) women aged 15–44 years than any other well-known risk factors. And when we look at that health damage, the majority of it manifests as mental ill-health.

Many people have written about the impacts that street harassment has on them, and the way that it has affected their own mental health, through to the development of PTSD symptoms or other negative mental health outcomes.

The Moral Responsibility to Consider Mental Illness

The world over, it is not surprising for a street harasser to change in a second from giving so-called ‘compliments’ to declaring their targeted woman a ‘crazy b*tch’. People who look to deny our experiences also occasionally find it convenient to question our mental health – to suggest that ‘only a crazy person would find a simple hello to be harassment.’

My response to all of these suggestions and allegations and shouts is: so what?

So what if your behaviour would only hurt someone who is experiencing mental illness? So what if I’m crazy? I’m also hurt. There are a whole bunch of people in Australia who are dealing with mental illness at any one time. And it is entirely well publicised that street harassment behaviours hurt people with mental illness. So if you choose to engage in street harassment, you choose to risk exposing someone with mental illness to increased harm.

I find this discussion reminiscent of the massive arguments that are periodically had online about trigger warnings. People often say that we just don’t know what may trigger someone – should we give trigger warnings for the sound of rustling papers and the smell of peanut butter? But on the other side of the coin, there are a whole bunch of things that we write about that we know can often negatively affect people. And we know that, because the people who are affected keep telling us.

We need to listen to the voices of the people who are hurt by street harassment on a daily basis. If we don’t listen, then the hurt is on us.

Tara works with AWAVA (the Australian Women Against Violence Alliance) indulging her love of social media. You can find her on Twitter as @angelbird72 or @Tash_Because or being silly as one half of the ‘slice-of-life’ podcast Heaps Funny But.

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Filed Under: correspondents, street harassment

#MySafetySelfie Project

February 25, 2015 By Contributor

Conceived by site-specific narratologist and writer Jay Pitter, #mysafetyselfie is a project that is curating selfies + stories from women highlighting spatial and social factors compromising their safety in public spaces. After establishing a career as a public funder and then a corporate marketing communications director, Pitter earned a graduate degree at York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies.

Her experiences of compromised safety as a young person coupled with her passion for inclusive city building led her to focus her research on environmental design, crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), and urban placemaking. Pitter is excited about the ways that #mysafetyselfies, can be used to create a space for women to participate in conversations pertaining to urban design, architecture, and public space policy. Also, she is adamant about presenting the stories of women in a high-quality, responsible and dignified manner. The goals of this project goes beyond the collection of selfies; Jay plans on creating an online platform, community engagement series, published work, exhibitions, and curricula.

Find out how YOU can participate. 

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Filed Under: Activist Interviews, Resources, street harassment

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