Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
A group of friends in Minneapolis, MN, who were tired of street harassment recently formed the Design Bitches Collective and they’ve been taking suggestions for stickers against street harassment. Check out some of the forthcoming designs!
When I was walking towards the metro station, a guy leered at me the whole time. As I walked by, I didn’t turn when he said something to me. After I was a few feet away, he said, “Stuck up bitch” repeatedly. I was just trying to catch a train.
Optional: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?
Other men need to speak up and say this is unacceptable
– Anonymous
Location: Suitland Metro, Maryland
Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.
Today marks the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Our friends at Collective Action for Safe Spaces are doing a great project to raise awareness that everyone deserves respect everywhere they go, be that their homes or public spaces.
“New posters are going up around the city reminding people they deserve to be treated with the respect and providing resources for survivors of abuse, courtesy of SafeBars and the D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
The posters, designed by Baltimore-based muralist Maura Dwyer, depict a diverse set of people. “We wanted to highlight the faces of some of our city’s marginalized identities,” says Jessica Raven, co-founder of SafeBars and executive director of Collective Action for Safe Spaces.
The images speak to incidents that have taken place in D.C. in the past year. A reported incident of a library officer kicking a woman out of Shaw Library for wearing a hjiab, a breastfeeding patron at Tenleytown Library said she was “warned” by a library assistant that teen boys would be entering the facility, and misgendering at Banneker Pool led to bystander intervention training for D.C. Parks and Recreation staffers.
Volunteers are plastering the 2,500 posters—500 of each of the five designs—throughout bars, coffee shops, storefronts and other locales to mark October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The theme for this year’s campaign is “Spread Love D.C.,” with the idea of generating conversations about what makes for a healthy relationship.”