Archives for November 2016

Late November 2016 News Round-Up

November 30, 2016 By HKearl

November 25 was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and groups globally commemorated it with events, marches, and online campaigns.

Plan International Australia and CrowdSpot created a digital campaign “Known as Free to Be” and invited young women aged 15 to 19 to mark public spaces on a map as either “happy”, where they have had good experiences or “sad”, where they have experienced feeling unsafe or unwelcome.

Barbadian women have been using the hashtag #LifeInLeggings to share their personal experiences of street harassment, as well as sexual and other forms of abuse and now women in other Caribbean countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad are using it, too.

Student and faculty at the University of Belize donned orange clothing and marched against street harassment.

In Toronto, Canada, there were 577 reports of sexual assault on the transit company’s property or vehicles between 2011 and 2015.

A new anti-harassment transit campaign launched in Vancouver, Canada, with the posters reading, “Unwanted touching is a crime. Keep your hands to yourself.”

Prajnya Trust is highlighting street harassment by covering a mannequin with stickers (with slogans) in the Chamiers Cafe in Chennai, India.

Four young women have a Youtube channel “Morras” where they post videos in which they talk about street harassment in Mexico and show hidden camera footage of harassers.

A regulation has been proposed in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) to make it illegal to “bother others buy jeering or offensive language, gestures, noises or behavior” in public spaces.

Women in New Zealand say no to street harassment.

Thousands of women in Turkey rode bicycles to claim public space.

A new poll of 14,000 students in the UK showed that 95% of women and 61% of men had been groped against their will at a nightclub.

A new bill in Georgia (USA) will outlaw “upskirt” photos and video recordings.

Post-Election Map of Hate, Including Street Harassment

November 30, 2016 By HKearl

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a new report yesterday on the more than 860 post-presidential election hate incidents that have been reported so far in the United States. You can see the breakdown and learn more about the types of incidents they are tracking here:

Here are examples of the Anti-Woman incidents, which they classify as street harassment.

“Since the election, the frequency and tone of street harassment of women seems to have changed. Women — about 5% of the total reports — reported that boys and men around the country are parroting the president-elect’s sexist and vulgar comments from the now-notorious 2005 audio tape.

In Minneapolis, middle-school boys leaned out of a school bus to yell, “Grab her by the pussy!” to a man walking with a female colleague.

A 50 year-old woman from Venice, California, reported that she had not been “catcalled” in over 20 years. The day after the election, three white men in a pickup truck bearing a Trump sticker shouted at her, “Do you want us to grab your pussy?”

In Arlington, Virginia, a woman crossing the street reported that two young white men yelled at her from their car: “You better be ready because with Trump, we can grab you by the pussy even if you don’t want it.”

In New York, a girl on her way to school reported that a man on the subway told her he was “allowed to grab my pussy because it’s legal now.”

A woman in Spokane, Washington, reported that she encountered young men who she described as being “‘liberated’ from normal behavior since the election.” They shouted “We’re going to rape you!” from a Jeep with the word “TRUMP” emblazoned on its side.

And in a Brooklyn, New York, restaurant, a woman who voiced her support for Hillary Clinton was punched in the face by a male patron.”

If you’ve experienced any of these types of harassment (e.g. anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-LGBT, anti-woman), you can report it via this URL or the hashtag #ReportHate.

Related, here is a Ms. Magazine article by Carly Lanning about how Trump is a “trigger” for sexual abuse survivors.

H/T our board member Patrick!

Ireland: Breaking the Silence and Opposing Gender-Based Violence from Square One

November 30, 2016 By Correspondent

Grace Gageby, Dublin, Ireland, SSH Blog Correspondent

Trigger Warning – Sexual assault, rape

When gathering stories about harassment and sexual assault from my friends for my first article published on Stop Street Harassment, Beatrice told me about her first encounter:

“My uncle tried when I was four. It was only my mom who stood by me when I told my family the story. My dad and the rest of the men refused to let me speak. My great-grandmother resented my mother for speaking up”.

Sexual assault is a topic that is, of course, always difficult to talk about. Speaking up is just the start of a process that can take years, a journey through the justice system that won’t necessarily end in justice, and it can require repeated retelling of a traumatic event. Victim blaming is still rampant across the world, as is women’s fear of their claims being doubted or ignored. Speaking up about sexual assault is not only difficult because of the severe mental distress it causes, but because the abuser is often known to the victim, and a familial relationship can further hinder the victim from making their abuse known.

Too often sexual violence and harassment are viewed as something men do out of attraction, rather than a desire to dominate and hurt women. This is seen in the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. For example, more than 20,000 Muslim girls and women have been raped in Bosnia since the fighting began in April 1992, according to a European Community fact-finding team. More recently, Islamic State has used rape as a weapon to terrorize communities, particularly across northern Iraq. In these cases, rape is used to traumatize victims, to control, to undermine individual’s autonomy, and to spread mass distress. Combating sexual assault in a global context requires an understanding of how gendered and socially constructed the world is.

Similarly, street harassment, something too often dismissed as a ‘compliment’, is really about displaying dominance. It is about reminding women of patriarchal power structures in our society, reminding subordinated groups of their vulnerability, and sending the message that public spaces do not belong to them. Men who harass women and members of the LGBT community also bank on women remaining silent, on not asserting themselves. Harassment is not an unfortunate digression, but a manifestation and preservation of the systematic oppression and maltreatment of women.

In tolerating street harassment, we set a precedent for other acts of gender-based violence to occur, and to be condoned. It is the duty of all to stand up to harassment and smaller instances of gendered intimidation, so that more grievous violence can be opposed.

Grace is a student. She writes regularly for her school newsletter and yearbook, and has been published in Inis Magazine. Grace is currently involved with the socialist feminist group ROSA (for Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism & Austerity), and their campaign for abortion rights in Ireland.

Keep the Street Harassment Hotline “Going and Growing”

November 29, 2016 By HKearl

We would be no where without our generous supporters! Thanks to donations made last year, we were able to launch the first-ever National Street Harassment Hotline and cover the monthly costs of running it since July.

Here’s what one caller shared with us (and she said we could share it here):

“I am very excited to find this program exists. It feels a niche that has needed to be filled for a long time. I spent days searching the Internet before I found this program and it is a beautiful thought. There isn’t much support for people who experience street harassment and even friends can have a difficult time coming up with words to say. I hope the program receives enough funds to keep going and growing forever.”

In its first four months, the National Street Harassment Hotline has served more than 125 people like her, all across the country. It is offered toll-free, 24/7, in English and Spanish, by phone and IM chat.

Today, for #GivingTuesday, please donate to help us keep the hotline going and growing!

All money donated beyond the hotline fundraising goal will help fund the 2017 Safe Public Spaces Mentoring teams and allow us to hire a consultant to update the laws relevant to street harassment that are listed state-by-state in our Know Your Rights Toolkit (which we released in 2013).

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. Everyone who donates at least $15 will receive these stickers! Our work is possible thanks to the generosity of people like you!

You can also make donations by check to:

Stop Street Harassment
P.O. Box 3621
Reston, VA 20195

USA: Post-Election Street Harassment in New Orleans

November 28, 2016 By Correspondent

Sequoya La Joy, Louisiana, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

After GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump won the votes of the electoral college this November, the climate for women in New Orleans has changed. As a university student, our on-campus counseling center has been extremely busy and overbooked since after the election. As a sexual assault advocate on campus, I have received an increase number of calls from people who are scared to be assaulted and scared to go out in public.

I walk a small six block commute from my parking garage to my workplace and while on this commute have had an increase of unwanted comments on my body parts than I have even in the summer when I wear less clothing. I have died turquoise hair at the moment and have had multiple men stop me to tell me they like my hair and then ask me if the carpet matches the drapes. I also had a man walk closely behind me for 6 blocks at 2 am until I stopped to pretend to make a phone call. When I stopped, I made sure I was in a well lit place and the man stopped too. He asked if I spoke Spanish and if I had the time and could help him. I answered back in Spanish and told him the time and he told me he was visiting from Central America and then invited me to follow him and party. I told him I was on my way somewhere and waited until he walked a few blocks ahead before I turned the corner to walk towards my parking garage. I realize I feel much safer knowing that my parking garage has 3 entrances that need keycodes to be opened but I still do not feel safe on the six block walk from my work to my car that I have taken hundreds of times.

I also recently went thrift shopping with a friend of mine. A male employee of the shop stopped us several times while we were together and after we had separated. It seemed as if the man had an intellectual disorder or impairment but he still touched my shoulder and back in a way that made me uncomfortable and complimented my hair and clothing. He also told my friend multiple times that he liked her legs and how nice her legs looked in the boots. When we exited the store, he held the door for us and whispered in her ear about her killer legs and told us to both be sweet. In this situation, I knew the employee was overstepping boundaries by continuing to find us in the store and initiate conversation. I also knew by his sexual comments about my friend’s legs and his touching of my shoulder and back that this would be considered sexual harassment. However, as I read this man may have been intellectually impaired, I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t want to cause a scene or come off as mean and the friend I was with who would have normally told someone who was making her uncomfortable to get lost also didn’t know what to say to this man.

I thought a lot about this after getting home and I thought about the Republican state I live in. It made me think if I had any place to tell this man not to talk to women like that when the president elect had publicly shamed, assaulted, harassed, and insulted women. I have personally experienced more street harassment this month than in other months and now am at a crossroads about how to deal with it. Also, after the incident of being harassed by the store employee, I wonder if women will ever be able to escape being subjected to harassment. In this political climate, what are politicians and the media doing to try and reduce instances of sexual harassment and assault?

Who is responsible for educating harassers on how to treat women?

Is it the job of the harassed to constantly educate and inform their harassers that what they’re doing is wrong, uncomfortable, and scary?

I feel as a woman who has dealt with a lot of harassment in public and private spaces over the years, that it is not my responsibility to prevent my own harassment or educate my harassers. Sometimes, I am tired and cannot grapple with the mis-education our patriarchal society has given my harassers and I believe that that is okay.

It is not our job to educate our harassers.

Sequoya is a Native American and Italian woman from Chicago who fell in love with New Orleans. She’s currently a Sociology Major at Loyola University New Orleans and supports her higher education habit by slinging drinks to the masses. She aspires to attain a PhD and write a best seller. She currently operates a small blog.