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Archives for September 2015

Volunteer Opportunities for Fall 2015 (and beyond)!

September 29, 2015 By HKearl

Be a street harassment star!Do you want to do something about street harassment?

Do you need volunteer hours?

Are you a student who needs credit hours doing work for a nonprofit?

If you are any of these things, I have a solution!

Did you know that all of the work that SSH does is by volunteers? It is, and we need a few more volunteers to help out with several important projects!

CAN YOU HELP US?

If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please get in touch with me, Holly, hkearl@ stopstreetharassment.org.

Social Media:

I’m looking for five individuals who are willing to help manage the SSH social media accounts, one day/week (it will be “your” day). Primarily these are the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr pages, and you will also have access to our Pinterest and YouTube accounts. I especially need help monitoring the Facebook page comments section — as it has grown so too have the detractors and I want it to be a safe space. Volunteers will receive a guide with instructions, etc. People can come from anywhere in the world and knowing more than one language is a plus so we can share content and in more than English.

If you are interested, please email me info 1) about your experience with social media (which platforms, how many years, if you’ve volunteered or worked for an organization managing social media accounts), 2) a few sentences about who you are, 3) where you are based, and 4) and your availability (for how many months are you available and are any days of the week that you typically will NOT be available).

Ideally, I’d like someone who can start by mid-October and help out at least through the end of 2015, but ideally into the spring.

Accessibility:

I need occasional help transcribing videos to make them accessible for all. For example, these four videos. No prior experience with transcription is necessary, but if you have it, let me know about it. Please also send 1) a few sentences about who you are and 2) where you are based.

Research Projects:

I’d love to have one or two people who can assist with a few projects this fall. The amount of work/hours can be flexible. Here are examples of possible projects.

1. Research what cities have LGBT liaison units for their police departments.

2. Look for new laws and update the 2013 Know Your Rights toolkit.

3. Help track new anti-street harassment groups, organizations and campaigns worldwide.

4. Conduct interviews for the SSH blog with groups/activists doing interesting work.

Please send 1) information about relevant work you’ve done, 2) a resume), 3) a few sentences about who you are and 4) where you are based.

Campaigns Against Companies:

For a while I was tracking companies that promoted and/or trivialized street harassment in their marketing and/or product labels but I haven’t been able to keep up with it. I’m looking for someone who can help look for examples, update this webpage, and occasionally take the lead on campaigns, such as creating Change.org petitions (we will work on a strategy and select ones that we think we have the best change of winning and that can have a big impact).

Please send 1) information about relevant work you’ve done, 2) a resume), 3) a few sentences about who you are and 4) where you are based.

** If you have ideas for other ways you’d like to help with SSH’s work, feel free to be in touch with your suggestion. **

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Filed Under: SSH programs, volunteer

Romania: When We’re Taught that Women are Not Equal to Men

September 29, 2015 By Correspondent

Roxana Geru, București, Romania, SSH Blog Correspondent

Silenced no more bannerAs a woman raised in Romania, I have been taught that I am not equal with a man. It is not necessarily my family who taught me, but my school, my friends, the church, and the SOCIETY. For a long time, I really believed it. I believed that I cannot do or I am not supposed to do some things, just because I am a woman. Like if a woman wears short pants she is considered a sexual worker, who “asks for it.” Or if a woman dares to drink a beer with a man she is an alcoholic. Or it a horrible thing to see a girl eating in McDonald’s.

Instead, it is believed that all a woman is supposed to do is be pretty, cook and give birth.

During my teens I felt upset. I did not understood why it was forbidden for me to do some things that were not for my best friend, who was a guy. And I cried. But after a few years I accepted that people have different points of view. I started to see equality as a thing which involves rights and obligations as well. And to accept that men can naturally be more physical strong than women, but that does not mean that all guys have to be strong or all the girls have be less strong. That maybe we are not born equal, but we should all have an equal chance to get where we want.

A few months ago I was at a university helping students who wanted to join the Psychology Faculty. At the beginning, we had to explain to them that they had to pay a fee and then come back. Everything seemed to be okay until one guy came back in this public institution and started to yell at us that he did wrong because of us. This “us” refers to a group of six women and a guy. Some of us tried to calm him down and explain to him that he was wrong and he misunderstood. We even came to him with some solutions for his problem. When a woman, a friend of mine, tried to speak to him, he yelled at her, “I do not speak to you. You are a woman. You are a woman and you do not have statute.”

My friend and I did not have any idea how we should reply because he became very verbally aggressive toward us.

I was shocked to see a guy around my age say that women do not have any statute. That women are nothing but objects who have to be pretty and produce kids. I wonder how that guy acts at home with his mother, his sister, his girlfriend. How will he act with his daughter? What he will teach his daughter? How will he react when his daughter comes home and says that another guy punched her. Will he defend her? Or he will congratulate the other guy?

I know my story is not exactly about street harassment, but it shows what it is like to be a woman in Romanian society. It is about how some of us are educated. It is one of the reasons why women in Romania are street harassed. It can be an answer to the question of “Why, as a woman in Romania, can someone touch my back?” or “Why, as a woman, in Romania, do some guys whistle after me?” and “Why does no one do something when someone rapes a girl?”

We have to see our culture change if we want to see street harassment and other forms of sexual violence end.

Roxana is a 21-year-old who is studying psychology and plans to do a master’s program in Sexuality and Gender Studies. She hopes to one day work within the LGBT community, with sexual workers and/or with people who are suffering from sexuality disorders.

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Filed Under: correspondents

“Does the carpet match the curtains?”

September 28, 2015 By Contributor

I get verbal abuse from strangers on a weekly basis, not just on the street but also in the supermarket while I’m doing my weekly shopping.

Why?

Because i have pink hair! What a pathetic reason to abuse someone! There are two types of people who do this: 1. The people coming up and saying they hate my hair, or just simply laughing and pointing and 2. The men who ask me, “Does the carpet match the curtains?” or comments about how i must be kinky in bed.

I’ve also had people come up and touch my hair without warning. I’m not going to change my hair colour because i like it and also the advantage is that with people behaving like this, i can weed out the people i don’t want to associate with very easily! They make it easier for me to identify who is an ******* without me even having to spend any time on them 🙂

– Anonymous

Location: Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham, Coventry, UK. On the street, in shops/supermarkets

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

Nepal: She ‘Almost’ Lives

September 27, 2015 By Correspondent

Smriti RDN Neupane, Nepal, SSH Blog Correspondent

She almost runs, in the drizzling rain,
towards the last bus of the evening, or so they said
Up the road
She almost runs under the drizzling rain
Her body putting in all the strength she has onto the ‘almost’ running,
crying out silently, for some rest, for peace,
Her body aching to be not- groped, on her way

Her body has a Saree
Draped around it like a vine creeping up
the only thing that covers her ‘dignity’,
A whisk of strong wind would blow the shield away,
She ought to hold it with her hands,
her hands, she can’t put it free, cannot fling it while she walks,
Her coarse, broad hands trying to grip to the hope that she is safe

Her hands have a bag
and bangles that jingle with her every step,
She gropes to them; the saree and the bag,
as if her life depends on it,
She walks hastily, almost running, her feet trying hard to move fast
but the vines around her not giving them enough space
Her feet trying so hard,
Hoping the path she travelled was as dry and clean as she would like

Her feet have slippers,
They keep slipping on the slippery slope
Sometimes plunges in the puddle
while her feet desperately trying to stay steady
She cannot miss the bus
when it’s already getting dark,
Not when she has probably five eager, hungry adult stomachs to cook for, at a place called home

Other adults around her,
they look, keep looking, at her vines,
and the lines beneath those vines,
The lines that peek through the vines when a gust of wind blows it,
The lines, she is desperately trying to shield
with those vines from the prying eyes,
Her eyes, mapping those eyes
She almost runs to the bus,
The bus isn’t still, keeps rolling away slowly,
slow enough to jump in

The bus has a small door
and it’s open, yet jammed,
Seven of them trying to get in, twelve trying to get out
at the same time
She can’t leave now,
not after the second bus just got missed, not when it’s turning dark
On her attempt to get in
She feels a hand pushing on her behind
Pushing her to go inside and that hand is not trying to be discreet

That hand also has a mouth
Tells her to get in fast if she wants to go
She recognizes the tone,
and the way those hands push her every time
She manages to get inside.
manages to grab the handle- too high for her
Her hands high up towards the handles,
Her lines exposed, the vines would not protect her
No

There are bodies all around her
Bodies have hands
and other parts
There is an occasional pull and push, occasional tug
Her vines and her lines
also her hair,
all exposed
There is frequent touch,
and pokes she doesn’t want to talk about
She dissociates herself from the present
Becomes numb to the happenings around her,
To her.
She thinks about work
She thinks about the struggle to prove herself every day, every time, every where
The bus rides along, oblivious of what is going on its inside and her inside.

She gets down on her stop
And the bus with a small door swirls along the road,
Away
With her
Dignity,
Self-confidence,
Happiness
Few parts of her

She thinks about tomorrow
“Tomorrow is going to be a better day”
She dreams while she walks towards the place she calls home,
The roads, rides and respect she deserves
She will get
because
She has hope!

Smriti coordinated Safe cities campaign in Nepal with a team of feminist activists of various organisations, networks and community groups from 2011 to 2014 and is still voluntarily engaged with it. She is currently engaged in an action research and advocacy on women’s leadership in climate change adaptation focusing on women’s time use.

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Filed Under: correspondents

Queer in Public Ends

September 26, 2015 By HKearl

Queer in public

After 2+ years of posting photos of queer couples showing affection in public — “a simple idea built on the foundation that visibility begets change” — Queer in Public has published its last post, closing out on the high note of being included in the book anthology Feminist Utopia Project.

Founder Courtney writes:

“To the three men in 2011 who whispered sexually explicit homophobic slurs in my ear, who shouted homophobic slurs loudly across Union Square, who stood closely behind me as I refilled my metro card, angrily ranting: this is for you.

To Mollie and and Mary, the couple, both shot in their heads on a summer night in Texas, 2012.

To Marc Carson, shot dead in the West Village in 2012.

To Keyshia, Jasmine, Tamara, Shade, Amber, and the number of other trans women of color killed this year alone.

The better world needs continuous creating, I am thankful to my peers who are doing the work and I’m proud QUIP has been a part of that creation…. Thank you to every single person who gave/gives a damn about this project. It’s been the best run.”

Thanks for your work, Courtney!

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Filed Under: public harassment, Resources

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