Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
I was walking down a fairly busy street on the sidewalk, wearing short-shorts, a tshirt, and converse with a snapback. I was at the corner and two guys in a truck with the window down yelled out at me and called me a skank. I’m actually a minor soo…
– Hkc
Location: City sidewalk
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
I was driving on the 101 Freeway in northern Los Angeles. There was a ton of traffic, and we were going about 5-10 miles an hour. I was just driving with my window down and listening to mellow music when a car of young men pulled up next to me and started screaming awful, violent and sexual things at me. They were leaning out the window barking, and filming me. It scared the living day lights out of me!!
I rolled up my window and tried to get away from them, but they moved over and paced themselves with me. They did it all over again. I was really jarred, and couldn’t stop shaking.
I got their plates (7JPF348) and called the police. The police said they’d send out a broadcast, but that they couldn’t file a report because no crime was committed. They called it unpleasant, but freedom of speech!
And here I am the next day at work, hardly able to concentrate. I feel anxious and violated. I can’t believe that someone can behave like this with no consequences!!! I will try again to file a police report.
Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?
Teaching people from a very young age that everyone should be treated with respect and gentleness. It also would have helped if someone else besides me called the police on the freeway. We need to be contributing to our society and standing up for each other!
– CJ
Location: On the 101, just at the Las Virgenes exit. Los Angeles, CA
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
There’s a new Speech Project about online harassment at Women’s Media Center, led by our friend, ally and supporter Soraya Chemaly!!
“The prevalence of online harassment toward women leads them to feel limited in their online interactions, and its frequent dismissal leads them not to take their own harassment seriously. By treating online harassment as the crime that it is, we make women less likely to blame themselves — because going online should not be another item on the list of behaviors women are told to avoid to stay safe….
The website contains a glossary of terms related to online harassment, research and statistics about its different forms, and a wheel demonstrating the different types, consequences, and legal classifications of online harassment.”
UPDATE: Support the film’s Kickstarter campaign!
This new film
is premiering at SXSW!
“The Ovarian Psycos gear up and ride out into the night, fanning out in pairs of two, four, and six. In constant motion, cruising up and down the storied streets of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, and Lincoln Heights, they call out to new riders to join them in a journey through the neighborhood. “Whose streets? Our streets!”
Since forming in the summer of 2011 by activist, poet M.C., and single mother, Xela de la X, the Ova’s have made it their mission to cycle for the purpose of healing, reclaiming their neighborhoods, and creating safer streets for women on the Eastside. At first only attracting a few local women, over the past few years the Ovarian Psycos have inspired a ferocious and unapologetic crowd of local heroines who are a visible force along the barrios and boulevards of Los Angeles.
Ovarian Psycos rides along with the Ova’s, exploring the impact of the group’s brand of feminism on neighborhood women and communities as they confront the violence in their lives.”
Wonderful!
Here’s a sampling of relevant stories from the past two weeks:
BBC, “Iranian youth get app to dodge morality police”
“An anonymous team of Iranian app developers have come up with a solution to help young fashion conscious Iranians avoid the country’s notorious morality police known in Persian as “Ershad” or guidance.
Ershad’s mobile checkpoints which usually consist of a van, a few bearded men and one or two women in black chadors, are deployed in towns across Iran and appear with no notice.
Ershad personnel have a very extensive list of powers ranging from issuing warnings and forcing those they accuse of violating Iran’s Islamic code of conduct, to make a written statement pledging to never do so again, to fines or even prosecuting offenders.
The new phone app which is called “Gershad” (probably meaning get around Ershad instead of facing them) however, will alert users to checkpoints and help them to avoid them by choosing a different route.
The data for the app is crowdsourced. It relies on users to point out the location of the Ershad vans on maps and when a sufficient number of users point out the same point, an alert will show up on the map for other users. When the number decreases, the alert will fade gradually from the map.
In a statement on their web page the app’s developers explain their motives in this way: “Why do we have to be humiliated for our most obvious right which is the right to wear what we want? Social media networks and websites are full of footage and photos of innocent women who have been beaten up and dragged on the ground by the Ershad patrol agents.”
“Police need to provide security for the citizens not to turn into a factor for fear. A while ago, angry with such unreasonable oppressions, we looked for a solution to find a practical way to resist the volume of injustices peacefully with low risk level, to restore part of our freedom.”
The app has rapidly become a hot topic on Iranian social media, with users generally welcoming it as an innovative way to avoid a potentially unpleasant encounter with the guardians of national virtue.”
BuzzFeed News, “Teen Turns Himself In After On-Air Sexual Assault Of Belgian TV Reporter”
“A 17-year-old man has turned himself in to police in Cologne, Germany, after a Belgian journalist covering a city carnival was sexually assaulted during a live television report.
Esmeralda Labye, a reporter for Belgium’s RTBF, had her breast grabbed and neck kissed while reporting from Cologne’s Carnival celebrations.
In a statement released Friday by Cologne police, authorities said the teen, who was accompanied by his mother, told officers he appeared in the images taken of the incident.
Police said the teen denied having approached the journalist with “sexually motivated intentions.”
It is unclear if he has been charged in the incident. Police said the investigation is still ongoing.
According to the BBC, there were 22 incidents of sexual assault on the first night of Carnival.”
Women’s Refugee Commission, “No Safety for Refugee Women on the European Route”
“There is virtually no consideration of gender-based violence along the route to ensure safe environments, identify survivors and ensure that services are provided to them…
There is an urgent need for the Serbian and Slovenian governments, in collaboration and coordination with other countries, the European Union (EU) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), to take control of a hastily developed and chaotic humanitarian response and put in place the policies, programs, services and personnel that will protect women and girls from a myriad of risks from the moment they arrive and through the journey to a safe resettlement.”
News, “Woman uses The Force to repel attacker in absurd Finnish anti-rape video”
“Police in Finland have been panned over an absurd anti-rape video which appears to show a woman using ‘The Force’ to repel a would-be attacker….
Some questioned whether the video was a joke or a Saturday Night Live sketch, while others pointed out the obvious Star Wars references.
Many were simply angry. ‘It’s not even funny anymore, but really, really pathetic that it’s come to this,’ wrote Jaana Tuukkanen.”
Independent, “German residents left outraged after mayor says young girls ‘provoke’ sexual harassment”
“Residents of a small German town have been left outraged after its mayor suggested young girls “provoke” sexual harassment.
Jens Müller, Mayor of Bad Schlema, Saxony, made the comments at a council meeting last week, after a grandfather raised concerns young girls were being subject to harassment as they walked home from school, German newspaper FreiePresse reports….
The man, who has not been identified, claimed his granddaughter, who he said was under 10 years old, had been a victim of such behaviour.
In response to the comments Mr Müller said: “That’s easy, just don’t provoke them and don’t walk in these areas.”
“It’s technically not necessary for the girls to walk there,” he added. “There are alternative routes for going to school.”
The comments sparked outrage among residents who accused the mayor of focusing on the victims rather than the perpetrators.”
The Establishment, “Nobody Catcalls the Woman in the Wheelchair”
“Why is my experience so invisible to the feminist community?
When I retreated to online feminist spaces—supposedly safe spaces—looking for community, what I found was endless discussions of the ubiquity of street harassment. Here was a universal consequence of sexism, misogyny, and rape culture. Here was something all women could understand and rally against. Here was our uniting experience.
I found feminism and I thought, Maybe I don’t count here either.
I don’t expect every conversation of street harassment to come with a disclaimer, and I certainly don’t expect to see myself reflected in every essay or article or tweet on the subject. But this admittedly useful assumption that “Women Experience Sexualized Street Harassment” is necessarily exclusionary. That’s not the intent, but as feminists ought to know, intent doesn’t erase harm.”
Broadly, “Big Tits for 600: The Ugly, Sexist Aftermath of Appearing on ‘Jeopardy!‘”
“After my appearance on the theoretically wholesome game show went viral, I received countless lewd and harassing Internet comments. Sadly, my experience is not unique….
when I joined an online group for fellow Jeopardy! alumnae, I discovered that, with the exception of the Turd Ferguson viral thing, my experience had not been all that unique: I began to notice that other women had experienced the same bombardment, and some of them had felt the same crimson-faced confusion about how to react….
Other women—like Amanda Hess, Anita Sarkeesian, and Congresswoman Katherine Clark—have spoken out about the ways women can be the subjects of disproportionate and gendered harassment online. None of the women I spoke to, myself included, had expected their spot in a family-friendly, early-evening trivia show to earn them a toxic mixture of sexualized opprobrium.
And yet, as I set out to better understand my own experience, and those of other women who had sought out America’s most famous trivia gauntlet, I was heartened by the one thing I did not find: regret. Not one of the women I spoke with regretted their decision to appear on Jeopardy!, fulfilling childhood dreams in some cases, paying off student debt in others. Despite the chagrin-inducing—and sometimes downright unsettling—responses we received, each of us had reveled in the change to engage in intellectual competition, to shake Alex Trebek’s hand, and, in my case, to strike a blow for doofuses everywhere.
“Those men don’t own me. I own me and determine how I behave and how I present myself,” said Tiombi Prince. “I refuse to have my accomplishments diminished.”
Oxygen, “Oxygen52: Tatyana Fazlalizadeh Uses Public Art To Fight Street Harassment”
“Her newest portrait series, Women Are Not Seeking Your Validation, is currently on display at the Corridor gallery in Brooklyn. Just as with Stop Telling Women to Smile, it was important for Fazlalizadeh to share the faces as well as the voices of women by incorporating their words into each portrait. Though some text speaks to the viewer and some to the individual woman’s experience and who she is as a person, every piece is an effort to address how women are perceived in public privates spaces – art galleries, school settings, work environments. It’s about reclaiming spaces and raising the voices of women, one portrait at a time.”
Jakarta Post, “Greater Jakarta: Go-Jek driver sacked for sexual harassment“:
“A male motorcycle taxi driver working for smartphone application Go-Jek has been fired for alleged sexual harassment against a young female passenger. The passenger’s sibling posted message about the incident on social media. The now-viral post was initially shared via social media platform Path but has now been shared through other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. According to the post, the Go-Jek driver, Irwan, picked up the 17-year-old victim at her school. During the ride to the young girl’s home, Irwan told the victim stories of his sex life, causing the latter to be uncomfortable. The young girl reportedly ignored Irwan.
However, upon arriving at the specified destination, Irwan took the victim’s hand and hugged her. When the victim refused his advances, Irwan sexually harassed her.
The post also included text messages Irwan had sent to the victim after the incident. Irwan told the victim not to “misunderstand” and said that she still needed “much learning”. PT Go-Jek Indonesia public relations manager Rindu Ragilia said in an official statement that Go-Jek had cut partnership with Irwan, who has confessed to sexually harassing the victim.”
Slate, “Is Catcalling Ever Ok?”
“Through pop culture depictions and beauty norms, women are socialized to believe that one of their greatest contributions to society is sexual desirability, and that when their youthful beauty fades or never materializes at all, they’re worthless, or at least worth less. Women of any age deserve to feel beautiful, desirable, and of great import to the world. Whether she enjoys catcalls or not, she shouldn’t have to use them to measure her value.”