Archives for March 2016

Are you in Germany? Take a Stand in April!

March 28, 2016 By Contributor

ProChange, Germany, SSH Blog Correspondents

Wir sind wütend, weil wir nicht sicher sind auf unseren Straßen, wie es uns einschränkt, uns unserer Freiheit beraubt. Nicht erst jetzt, nachdem seit der Silvesternacht ganz Deutschland auf einmal Sexismus, Street Harassment, sexuelle Belästigung entdeckt hat. Wir sind wütend, weil sexuelle Belästigung nicht erst Silvester erfunden wurde, sondern schon immer vorhanden war. Wir sind wütend darüber, dass nicht endlich eine Auseinandersetzung mit den allgegenwärtigen Sexismen in unserer Gesellschaft stattfindet.

Stattdessen werden hegemoniale Männlichkeiten reproduziert, in denen wir entrechtet werden, indem uns der Diskurs, das Selbstbestimmungsrecht aus der Hand genommen wird. Wir werden instrumentalisiert für fremdenfeindliche, rassistische Propaganda, die Betroffene benutzt, um gegen Fremde zu hetzen. Wir wurden instrumentalisiert für das verschärfte Asylpaket II, bei dem kurzerhand der Schutz der Frauen vor Gewalt rausgeschmissen wurde, obwohl damit gegen die EU-Richtlinie 2013/33/EU des EU-Parlaments und des EU-Rates verstoßen wird. Unser Sexualstrafrecht ist nach wie vor nicht ratifiziert. Der geplante Entwurf, der jetzt endlich in Angriff genommen wurde, ist weiterhin von einem sexuellen Selbstbestimmungsrecht weit entfernt. Ein “Nein” reicht immer noch nicht als “Nein”. Der Straftatbestand der sexuellen Belästigung ist in Deutschland auch im geplanten Entwurf immer noch nicht enthalten.

Seid ihr auch wütend? Dann bringen wir die selbstverständlichen Normen ins Wanken, lassen nicht zu, dass fehlgeleitete Männlichkeitsbilder über uns bestimmen, uns kontrollieren. Die Straßen, der Park, der Bahnhof, die Bushaltestelle, der Club, die Öffentlichkeit – wir nehmen uns zurück, was uns gehört.

Wir wollen in mindestens 50 Ländern wieder die Welt dazu bringen, uns Zuzuhören und zu Handeln. Macht mit! Internationale Anti-Street Harassment Week vom 10. bis 16. April 2016!

In der Woche selber werden wir in Dortmund auch wieder unsere roten Karten gegen Sexismus an potenziell Betroffene und pinke Karten gegen Homosexuellenfeindlichkeit verteilen sowie Bierdeckel zur Sensibilisierung in Kneipen, Clubs. Die Karten werden direkt Belästigern übergeben. Die Bierdeckel sollen auf gefährliche Situationen aufmerksam machen und ermutigen einzugreifen. Wir werden mit Kreide Plätze markieren, an denen wir sexuelle Belästigung erlebt haben.

Macht mit! Bei uns (Dortmund/Ruhrgebiet) sind “Neue” herzlich willkommen. Auch in anderen Städten und Orten sind Mitstreiter_innen willkommen. Oder – selbst aktiv werden vor Ort als Organisation im Großen oder als Privatperson im Kleinen.

Schickt uns gerne Anregungen und Tipps und sehr gerne viele Fotos.

Mail: prochange@web.de

In English:

We are angry because we aren’t safe in our streets. We are angry about consequently being limited and about how our freedom is taken away. Not only now, that after New Year’s Eve the entire country – Germany – has discoverd sexism, street harrassment, sexual harassment. We are angry because all this was part of our lives already before New Year’s Eve. We are angy because no dispute regarding the omnipresent sexism in our society takes place.

Instead, male supremacy disfranchises us, takes away the basis of discourse, and, last but not least, our right of self-determination. We are being exploited for xenophobic, racist propaganda that uses affected persons to agitate against foreigners. We are being exploited for the exacerbated 2nd legislation on asylum from which the protection of women against violince was kicked, although this infringes upon the EU guideline 2013/33/EU of the EU Parliament and the EU Council. Our law against sexual offenses has not been ratified until today. The long expected draft which has finally been projected is still far away from including sexual self-determination. A “No” still does not count as a “No”. The element of sexual offense is still not being included in the German projected draft.

Are you angry, too? Then, let’s shake the system, let’s not allow to dominate erratic male stereotypes over us, to control us. The streets, the park, the train station, the bus stop, the club, all public space – let’s reconquer what’s ours.

We want to make the world listen to us and take action with us in a minimum of 50 countries. Join in to the International Anti-Street Harassment Week from April 10 to 16, 2016.

Across the week, we will distribute our red cards against sexism and pink cards against homophobia in Dortmund, Germany, as well as beer coasters in pubs and bars to sensitize people to the subject matter. The cards will be directly handed out to harassers. The coasters shall point out to dangerous situations and encourage people to take action. We will mark places where we have been sexually harassed with chalk. Details.

Join in! In Dortmund, and anywhere else, “Newbies” are always welcome. Of course, you become active yourself, no matter if in a big organisation of as a private person.

Please send us your ideas and also lots of photos!

Mail: prochange@web.de

ProChange is a group of people between 20 and 64 years of age who have been active for several years or decades now. ProChange consists of a small group of core members (pictured left) in a network of other activists. Our main focus is on street harassment, sexism and sexualized violence. We are opposed to all forms of exploitation as we believe that they are all connected.

Translated by Marlene Margolis

USA: A Response to Rush Limbaugh’s Comments on Street Harassment

March 26, 2016 By Correspondent

Kathleen Moyer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

On Wednesday, First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a powerful speech in Argentina for her “Let Girls Learn” initiative. During the speech, she shared her experiences with street harassment and how she overcame those experiences by strengthening her voice through education. While her speech inspired people around the world, conservative radio host and infamous misogynist Rush Limbaugh felt that he had to set the record straight about women and street harassment.

Whether the issue is street harassment, birth control, domestic violence, abortion, our appearance, or our needs, Limbaugh always seems to know what’s best for women. Below are four comments made by Limbaugh during his radio show on Thursday, in response to Obama’s speech and the issue of street harassment, as well as my responses to those comments.

“She’s sitting as first lady of the United States and she can’t get past it, she can’t get over it, I’m telling you these people are bitter. They have not gotten over it, all of this is personal, and they haven’t gotten rid of their anger.”

Yes, we’re bitter. If Limbaugh were ogled, groped, and followed down the street by strangers, from the time he hit puberty, he would understand why we’re bitter. The reason why we don’t “get over it” is because it seems to be a never-ending problem. Women of all ages, in all areas of the world are affected by street harassment, to the point where it’s just seen by many as part of being a woman. We can’t get over a problem when that problem, itself, is never over.

First Ladies, like Michelle Obama, are not free from harassment either. With her Secret Service detail, she may not have people yelling obscene things at her anymore, but she still has many strangers commenting on her body and her clothing on the internet regularly. Limbaugh says that she hasn’t been able to “get past it”, but he seems to have missed the point she was making. Although she has experienced street harassment throughout her life, she has not allowed the way others have viewed her to define her. Instead, she has listened to her own voice, and I believe that’s how many women overcome the harassment they are faced with.

“Here’s the bit about sexism, do you know how many women would love being whistled at walking down the street?”

Probably the same number of women who enjoy listening to this sexist drivel. Believe it or not, women like to walk in public without being objectified and threatened by strangers. Some women find it irritating, some find it aggravating, and some find it frightening, but very few women find it flattering. Having to hold your keys like a weapon or carry pepper spray or a taser in order to walk safely in public is not an enjoyable experience.

If Limbaugh’s claim that women love street harassment were correct, I wouldn’t be writing this and organizations like Stop Street Harassment wouldn’t exist.

“Okay you have your average American construction site, and you have your average American construction worker, and every woman in the world knows you go walking by there, you’re going to get whistled at. And yet they walked by.”

If a woman happens to be walking by a construction site, why should she have to go out of her way in order to avoid being the target of sexual comments? This statement clearly exhibits victim blaming. Limbaugh’s logic that it’s a woman’s fault if she is harassed at a construction site is the same logic that has been perpetuating rape culture for years. If street harassment at construction sites is so common that Limbaugh just assumes that it will happen, women walking by are not the problem. In addition to this comment fueling the toxic practice of victim blaming, it is also an unfair generalization of construction workers. Surely not all construction workers share the misogynistic beliefs of Limbaugh. I’d like to believe that the majority of people agree that no one asks to be harassed by simply existing in public.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Obama, but God made me a man, and as such I can’t help noticing a woman who I think is attractive. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to shut up and not tell her so.”

Everything about this argument is wrong. Firstly, the idea that men cannot help harassing women is harmful and completely ungrounded. Plenty of men go out in public, every day, and manage not to harass anyone. It’s called being a decent human being. Implying that men are incapable of this is sexist and promotes the practice of not holding harassers and abuses accountable for their actions.

Secondly, Limbaugh’s refusal to stop harassing women is despicable. If someone does something that makes another person feel uncomfortable or threatened, he/she should stop immediately, without question. Limbaugh’s inability or unwillingness to grasp this shows that he puts his desire to reduce women to sexual objects above women’s safety. This idea is at the core of the problem of street harassment.

While reading Limbaugh’s comments, it occurred me that he may have simply said these reprehensible things for publicity. Despite this, I chose to write a response to his remarks, because I’ve heard his arguments echoed by others on a regular basis. If these ideas were limited to Limbaugh, they would not have a significant impact, but because many others share these adverse opinions, they must be addressed and debunked.

The first step in ending street harassment is thinking critically about this issue and making our voices heard, as suggested by Michelle Obama.

Kathleen is a full-time graduate student studying professional and business communication. She plans initiatives to increase awareness of sexual assault, domestic violence, and other related issues through her university’s anti-sexual violence group, Explorers Against Sexual Violence.

“He yelled out ‘SEX PLEASE'”

March 26, 2016 By Contributor

I was walking home in broad daylight at approximately 5 p.m. and was 100m from my home when I heard wolf whistling in my direction. I turned and looked at the man who stopped. He then kept looking at me and yelled out, ‘SEX PLEASE’.

I stopped walking and stared at him, before saying in a loud voice, “EXCUSE ME?”

He just smiled and kept looking. I decided it was better to leave the situation than remain and so walked the rest of the way home, but double checked to make sure he wasn’t following me just to be safe. There were plenty of people around but no one said anything!

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

Help others in the same situation, don’t be a bystander!

– Liz

Location: South Brisbane, QLD, Australia

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

Germany: Street Harassment in Germany – Current Situation

March 25, 2016 By Correspondent

ProChange, Germany, SSH Blog Correspondents

Street Harassment, meaning the harassment in public space, is a problem in Germany that affects women* and girls as well as LGBTIQ*. It limits people in their participation in social life as it dictates when and where they leave their home and can even affect the choice of their place to live, their shopping opportunities, work options and hobbies.

According to a study conducted by the EU regarding sexual harassment, three out of five women* had experienced sexual harassment in Germany since they reached the age of 15. It is striking that according to that study, about one-third of the women experiencing sexual harassment did not regard it as “severe”; they accepted it without speaking about it to others. They mentioned shame as a reason for this, as well as a feeling of powerlessness for not being able to change something about their situation.

Street harassment is about power and control – and as the reality shows: street harassment is the entering crime and breeding ground for even more violent crimes.

Since the incidences on New Year’s Eve in Cologne and other cities, where women* were surrounded, sexually assaulted and robbed by supposedly brown men, street harassment and sexual assault are in the focus of public attention. The society is sensitized and the courage and willingness to report it has increased among the affected.

Maybe it is because of these circumstances that people did not turn their backs in this case: On the 25th of February, three young women* were observed, followed, photographed and filmed by two Afghan men*. The accused send the data to others, so that some time later up to 30 people showed up. It is not clear though if those people were further perpetrators or if they showed up out of curiosity. Physical assaults luckily did not occur. Attentive bystanders informed the security and called for police.

The extensive media response in politics and society is sadly not out of concern about the suffering and injustice against the affected. There is no outcry because we are suffering from diverse structures of power and hierarchy worldwide. Instead there is an outcry that those crimes are collectively committed allegedly by people described as foreign.

How about the law? What punishment do perpetrator have to expect?

Workplace

The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) puts sexual harassment in the workplace under penalty. The employer has the duty to protect the affected employee from sexual harassment. Perpetrators can expect disciplinary consequences.

Public Sphere/Street Harassment

In contrast, the public sphere is nearly a zone of impunity when it comes to the sexual harassment of women*. The penal code does not regard street harassment and sexual harassment as a criminal offence even though many organizations keep pushing for it for years now. The perpetrator who grabs under the skirt of a woman when getting on the metro does not, legally speaking, make use of coercion, nor does the one intentionally grabbing a woman’s breast in a crowded bus. When it comes to determining sexual attacks, it is not even always the offence of insult that can serve as catchall element.

Self-Defense?

Only few people know that the affected is allowed to defend her or himself during the attack. The right to self defense vanishes the very moment the attack is over and no further violations of the victim’s rights can be expected. If the perpetrator, for instance, kisses the affected on the mouth or touches her between the legs and then turns away, the affected, as long as no further attacks are to be expected, has no right to punish him or her back as the right for self defense has vanished. If the affected slaps the perpetrator in the face, this falls under the offence of bodily harm under the penal code.

If only the ones that recently proclaimed that women should button up their shirts^ , stood up for sexual self determination, the affected might have had the chance that perpetrators could be accused and sentenced.

Female Asylum Seekers in the New Asylum Legislation

Germany violates compliance with EU guideline 2013/33/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe since July 2015 by not granting female asylum seekers the protection they deserve. The new asylum legislation (“asylum packet II”), overruled all protection measures, even intended minimum standards, although the existing shortcomings have been addressed over and over again. Women* do not only suffer sexual violence by fellow asylum seekers, but also employees of the security service can be perpetrators.

Our Conclusion

Street harassment cannot be reduced to certain cultural or religious groups. The reasons can in fact be found in domination of people over people and are a product thousands of years of patriarchy which exist in different manifestations worldwide.

We will continue to work for a change in the law and hope that the incidences of the New Year Eve and the resulting increase of public awareness will promote change.

Next to legal measures, it is of high importance too that we work for long-term changes in the perception of justice and shared responsibility within communities. This can be achieved by solidarity, raising awareness, networking, campaigns such as International Anti-Street Harassment Week, from 10th to 16th of April, with information, actions against street harassment, against everyday sexism and sexual assaults.

———–
^ Birgit Kelle, Dann mach doch die Bluse zu: Ein Aufschrei gegen den Gleichheitswahn, 2013.

First Lady Michelle Obama Talks About Her Street Harassment Experiences

March 25, 2016 By HKearl

Last week, President Barack Obama talked about street harassment for perhaps the first time publicly… and then this week, it was First Lady Michelle Obama!

Via Huffington Post:

“First lady Michelle Obama spoke about her own experiences with sexism during a speech on the power of education and her “Let Girls Learn“ initiative in Argentina on Wednesday….

‘As I got older, I found that men would whistle at me as I walked down the street, as if my body were their property, as if I were an object to be commented on instead of a full human being with thoughts and feelings of my own,’ Obama said. ‘I began to realize that the hopes I had for myself were in conflict with the messages I was receiving from people around me.’

Obama said the comments made her question herself, telling the crowd she had doubts for years, until one day she grew tired of worrying about what others think.

‘I decided not to listen to the voices of those who doubted or dismissed me. Instead, I decided to listen to my own voice,’ she said.”

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