Archives for June 2016

“I was so nervous I was shaking”

June 9, 2016 By Contributor

I went on vacation to Italy with my mom. It was a dream, we went to multiple cities and we fell in love with the country. On our last day in Florence we decided to visit one of its most renown galleries. Around an hour in we noticed this young man…he was in every room we entered and we started getting suspicious. My mom told me he’s following us and I thought there’s no way. She was right, though. This man was in each and every gallery that we were in. He went out before us and magically reappeared in the next area.

We thought maybe he wanted to rob us, but that didn’t take away the fact that we felt harassed as we have never felt before. We decided to wait for 5 minutes seated, and again he was seated two galleries down waiting for us. We talked to an employee and she said if he doesn’t touch or rob you we can’t do anything.

Our last resort was to wait inside the gallery for 30 minutes, but not to our surprise he was there when we finally decided to leave the gallery. When we came back, the man at the door said he couldn’t do anything, just go out and find the police. We decided to find a group of tourist with at least one man that spoke English so we could explain our situation. We found a couple with their mom, they were extremely nice to us and escorted us out of the gallery. The young man was still seated there, outside waiting for us. But he did not look up or even dare to follow us anymore.

This experience really made our trip a bit sour. I was so nervous I was shaking. We lost the rest of our day. We bought something to eat and ate it at the hotel. During our way back I couldn’t stop looking back and making sure we were not being follow. That happened two weeks ago and I still can’t shake off the feeling of impotence.

– Anonymous

Location: Florence, Italy

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

“He just wanted me to hear it”

June 8, 2016 By Contributor

I was walking home in the middle of the afternoon, on the edge of my neighborhood. From across the street, a man was walking in the opposite direction, and I heard the words, “Oooh blonde chick, I’d like to put a stick right up your ass.”

There was no one else in sight, and since I wasn’t even on the same side of the street, I don’t think he even wanted me to have the opportunity to defend myself. He just wanted me to hear it, wanted the satisfaction of knowing he infected my thoughts, that he had control over a single moment in my life, enough to ruin it with ugliness.

– Anonymous

Location: 18th and Walnut, Boulder, CO

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

USA: Popularizing Safe Spaces through Corporate Responsibility

June 7, 2016 By Correspondent

Turquoise A. Thomas (Morales), Kansas, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Trigger Warning: Rape and other sexualized violence

It should be very clear to those involved with or interested in the prevention of street harassment and sexualized violence that there is a clear intersection between sex trafficking and street harassment. The U.N. and other global forces are even developing task forces and support groups specifically to combat sex trafficking and sexualized violence.

It’s an abhorrently common habit of those in the U.S. to say that certain women are targeted for street harassment because they “look like a hooker”; furthermore when women are dressed this “certain way” in lower income neighbors they are told to expect street harassment and solicitation because it’s the “norm”. Regardless of a woman’s style of dress or the neighborhood she’s in, no one deserves or should expect to be harassed. The idea that women or children should expect sexual advances from strangers in public (or private) based on their dress and location reeks of victim blaming and further allows those who walk among us everyday with a predatory eye to have the ability to move through society unchecked.

It’s widely accepted that traveling and stopping at a gas station can be a very dangerous act in and of itself. Gas stations are a hot spot for street harassment, particularly those adjacent to interstate highways. Highways are widely known in the U.S. as a lucrative tool of sex traffickers. In 2014, Sacramento and Oakland were named two of the largest sex trafficking hubs in the world by National Public Radio. Both cities are located directly along the heavily traveled Interstate 80 which spans from San Francisco, CA, into New York City, NY, allowing predators who harass, stalk, and traffic women to move almost effortlessly across the states.

Violent incidents involving street harassment, trafficking and domestic violence occur at gas stations. Women and children have commonly been kidnapped, molested, raped or even at gas stations, rest stops and truck stops. With this information in mind, some gas station companies have developed on site “safe spaces.”

In the Midwest, Quiktrip (QT) is one of those companies. As summer approaches, festivals and other events occur, schools are out and families are traveling in higher frequency than during any other season creating more opportunities for people who seek to harass or traffic others.

Arguably, companies like Quiktrip are leading social responsibility in their industry by providing a bonafide safe space. Simply knowing that QT has this space available means more individuals or families can plan safe trips with QT safe spaces on their route. We need other companies to follow suit and join the fight against street harassment; safe spaces should be widely available in commercial spaces like gas stations, grocery stores and other places where people are street harassed. Non-profit organizations like United Way can easily assist corporations in building these spaces, but it’s up to us to demand they do so, after all…the customer’s always right!

Turquoise is a 26-year-old freelance journalist, a program manager at the Wichita Women’s Initiative Network, and a junior at Wichita State University. She is the founder of SHERO Coalition (SHERO Co) and you can follow her on twitter @anthroisms.

“I got something for mean Bitches like you”

June 6, 2016 By Contributor

This incident happened about four years ago. I was living in South Philadelphia back then. I would ride the Broad Street subway to and from work. A few weeks prior to the incident, a young woman had been stabbed by some man on that same line that I rode because she ignored his advances.

I rode the subway everyday and rode home after work during peak hours. This meant full to capacity trains. I was starting to get nervous riding the subway alone, but I didn’t like to drive into the city, parking was expensive! After hearing the story of this young woman I bought a taser.

One night after work, I’m riding the train, usually I keep my headphones in. I had been harassed before and I just made it a habit to wear the headphones so maybe men wouldn’t approach me. I get off at my stop and begin walking home. It was about a ten minute walk. Not too bad. It wasn’t dark so I wasn’t too worried. It was summertime though, and in my neighborhood it seemed like groups of men just sat on their steps, got drunk and hollered at the passing women all day. I tried to always be careful, be aware of my surroundings, keep my music low enough to hear anyone approaching, cross the street just in case the group of men was too large.

Well this night, it was only about 6:30 p.m., I’m walking past these men. I just got off of work and I worked in an office so I had on slacks and a button up blouse. One man started whistling. The kind of whistling you do to call a dog. I was pissed. I wanted so badly to say something but there were about six of them so I keep going. He whistles again, maybe three times. When I get by him he blocks my path, so I tried to cross the street.

Upset that I didn’t react to his “advances”, he decides to grab my arm. He screams, “Yo Bitch, I’m talking to you!” I yank my arm away, but by this time he decides to grab the back of my neck. He whispers to me, “I got something for mean Bitches like you.”

His “crew” were all like man what are you doing? When he turns his head to respond to them, I dig my taser out of my bag, I always kept it within reach and tased him right in the chest. He let go and went down. I stood right there and called 911. Crazy thing was, when the cops got there, they took our statements but I got in trouble because the voltage on my taser was too high. Nothing was done to him, NOTHING! the officers just kept saying, “BUT YOU TASED HIM” I was so angry. It took me a long time to recover. I started driving to work after that.

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

Although, I got in trouble for mine, I would recommend a taser. Maybe research if they’re legal where you live first. I don’t want to think about what might have happened if he would have taken me inside the house that night. I’ll gladly take a ticket for defending my life, then who knows what….defend yourselves stand up for yourselves. Don’t let anyone get away with disrespecting you.

– SP

Location: South Philly, PA

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

Attention Artists: Have Your Work Featured by SSH and Feminist Apparel

June 5, 2016 By HKearl

I have an exciting opportunity to share —

Feminist Apparel is setting up collaborations with nonprofits like SSH where they will sell shirts and related products for us and the nonprofit will get a portion of each sale, to be split with the artist who creates the shirt designs. Also, the artists will get shoutouts/link love on the FA and SSH websites.

We’re looking for artists who are interested in having their designs considered for the products!

What file type/size should I send my design in?

Send vectorized files or photoshop or TIFF files, no less than 300dpi at 12 inch by 12 inch Also, make sure all images are on a transparent background.

Note: They already partner with Hollaback, so don’t want to duplicate any of their designs.

Send design ideas to Holly at HKearl @ Stopstreetharassment. org

« Previous Page