Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for May 2015

“He was simply told he was not allowed to do that”

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I live in New York City where walking is my usual means of transport, and harassing comments (of varying degrees of aggressiveness and offensiveness) have unfortunately become a standard part of my daily routine. What prompted me to share on this site was an incident which I am finding difficult to brush off.

I was spending my Sunday afternoon reading in a park, when a female police officer approached me and began to scold me saying things like: ʺYou had no idea what was going on?ʺ ʺYou really need to be more careful!ʺ ʺYou didn’t even know, we just ran him out of the park.ʺ I asked her what she was talking about and she told me that there had been a man who was jerking off, while hiding behind a tree below me on the hill, and trying to take photos up my skirt. This incident made me feel pretty violated and angry but what I found the most distressing was her victim blaming attitude, and the how little the police took the offense seriously. The man was not arrested, his phone was not confiscated, nor did they make him delete the images, and I was not asked if I wanted to file a report. He was simply told he was not allowed to do that and that he must leave the park.

I felt completely powerless as I was not given the opportunity to confront him or even to see his face, and in addition I was told that somehow the blame lay with me for something I had or had not done. I would have expected the police officer to know better, as she has probably experienced similar things in her own day-to-day life.

– Emily P

Location: New York City, NY

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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea

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“They might even catch the perpetrator”

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A drunk man on a train grabbed me and planted a kiss on my cheek. I reported him to the Transport Police, they took a statement two days later, and they found him on the train’s CCTV. They’re now going to circulate those images to local police stations and publish them in the local paper.

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

If you experience street harassment, report it to the police. It will make you feel proactive and powerful – and they might even catch the perpetrator.

– Anonymous

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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea

 

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“Make it public, make their behaviour visible.”

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I was rated by a group of middle-aged builders as I was walking home. After spotting me they started to shout numbers and loudly ‘rate’ my attractiveness out of ten. Pretty sad and intimidating to be walking along and a group of adults actually stop work and start loudly proclaiming your perceived value at you. They do this because they think they can get away with it but also because society at large has allowed this type of behaviour to continue/be acceptable. Nobody said anything to them.

Another builder in Bristol shouted patronizing comments at me as I walked down a side road near the University. The pavement had been blocked but I couldn’t see that from where I was walking. I heard, “Oh, well done sweetheart” (sarcastically) and when I did see the sign he shouted, “Well done, that’s it” (sarcastic). Absolutely no problem was caused by my actions. There was no need at all for a professional to shout such sarcastic comments except for the fact he knew he would get away with it and I am a woman in the street, therefore fair game.

There have been a depressing amount of times in my life where similar instances have occurred. I know this is also true of many female friends.

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

I honestly believe that men (but people generally) conduct poor behaviour in the street towards others because they feel they have a right to/can get away with it/society doesn’t do anything to them. Men who go for women in the street know there behaviour is not challenged in society. This is the root cause of much of street harassment – no punishment or shame comes back on those that do it.

We need to educate people in schools/universities, but make it visible in society generally, that any form of street harassment is just that: Harassment.

Educate that such behaviour isn’t correct but further, ask those around the people who do harass to step up. If a guys mates actually told him to stop, that would be powerful.

If someone in any professional capacity harasses you, do not be submissive. Take a picture of the person/where it happened or a company van or whatever and contact that company directly explaining what happened and make a complaint. Write a review explaining what happened on their company website. Make it public, make their behaviour visible.

– Miss Student

Location: Bristol UK

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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea

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“Hid in the grounds for three hours before I felt safe enough to come out.”

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I am a transgender man (pre-hormones and surgery) and I have been homeless since November 2014. I have spent some time on the streets and one day I was sitting under a shelter at the beach, smoking a cigarette and taking in the sea air and just relaxing for a while before having to think about finding a place to sleep for the night.

These two young cisgender men came and sat on the bench next to the one I was sitting on, in spite of there being other free benches further from me, and I felt uneasy about them from the second they sat down. Maybe because they were both drinking beer and being quite brash in their manner. I didn’t want to move though in case they followed me, so I put in my headphones and just stared ahead at the water, although I could feel their eyes on me as they talked to each other in what sounded like South African accents.

Eventually I couldn’t help but look back at them because they’ve been gawping at me for the past 20 minutes, and one of them says, ʺAre you going to get yourself sorted out?ʺ gesturing to my backpack and sleeping bag. I feign ignorance and say, ʺWhat do you mean?ʺ He says ʺI see you have a sleeping bag thereʺ, and I tell him I’ve been camping. He wants to know where, and I tell him it’s none of his business and look away. But I know they have clocked me as a rough sleeper and by now I am really scared because I don’t know what their intentions are. I want to leave but I am still afraid of them following me, so I watch a long YouTube video on my phone and try to distract myself while sending out very clear ʺI don’t want to talkʺ vibes.

The video was 45min long and when it was finished they were still there, still looking. I took my headphones out and one of them asked me if I’m all right and they didn’t mean to make me uncomfortable. (Evidently they knew what they were doing, and if they cared that much they would have moved or at least stopped ogling me!). I lied and said they didn’t, and then said, ʺI am going home nowʺ and got up and started walking off. The seafront road is long and straight and I could feel them watching me still. I tried to walk confidently and forced myself not to look back until I could turn off the main road. They hadn’t followed me, but even so I ducked into a church and hid in the grounds for three hours before I felt safe enough to come out.

I do not identify as female, but I am still read as female and as such I face many of the same issues. One day I will start hormones and eventually I will pass as male 100% of the time. When that happens I will be even more mindful of how I interact with women and those with feminine gender expressions in order to ensure their comfort and safety. I just wish I had told those men that yes, they WERE making me uncomfortable and I would appreciate being left alone. But maybe if I had, the outcome would have been worse. Who knows?

I am moving to a new town soon and will no longer be homeless homeless, and when I am settled I will become involved in starting a new Hollaback group. I want people to know that street harassment is not something that only happens to women and for other trans/queer people to see one of their own community at the forefront of this issue.

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

Make harassers directly and immediately accountable for their actions. Introduce on-the-spot fines for street harassers and make citizen’s arrests an option, with incentives to encourage intervention and prevent ‘bystander syndrome’. If the harassment occurs from a vehicle, the offender should incur penalty points on their driving licenses. The UK has so much camera surveillance already in place that gathering evidence should not be a problem in most areas.

– Vince

Location: Worthing, England

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

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New Report about Harassment on Twitter

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From our friends at Women, Action, & the Media!

“The vicious targeting of women, women of color, queer women, trans women, disabled women, and other oppressed groups who speak up on online has reached crisis levels. Hate speech and violent threats are being used to silence the voices of women and gender non-conforming people in the public discourse everyday. Examples of the impact these attacks are having on women’s lives are everywhere.

A recent Pew research study found that fully 25 percent of young women online have been sexually harassed online and 26 percent have experienced stalking. Moreover, Pew found that women overall are disproportionately targeted by the most severe forms of online abuse including doxxing and violent threats.

This is why WAM! launched a pilot project to support Twitter users experiencing gendered harassment and abuse on the platform, including abuse that intersects with racial, LGBT, and other kinds of oppression….

Reporting, Reviewing, And Responding To Harassment on Twitter was produced by researchers from the fields of computational social science, anthropology, sociology, network science and computer science. It was reviewed by five academic researchers in a double-blind, revise-and-resubmit peer review process. WAM’s report provides a baseline for Twitter and other technology company decision makers to make structural and policy changes. View the report.”

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