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Archives for January 2019

January 2019 SSH News

January 31, 2019 By HKearl

Happy 2019, Friends!
We are grateful to everyone who donated to our Giving Tuesday and year-end campaigns. We are putting the funds to use right away and I’m excited to share the following updates with you!

New Research:
We are partnering with UC San Diego’s Center on Gender Equity and Health and the advocacy/research groups RALIANCE and Promundo-US on another national survey about sexual harassment and assault, including street harassment. For the first time, we are asking a question about perpetration and questions about attitudes around reports of sexual harassment. We are also asking a few questions focused on people’s experiences of sexual harassment.

2019 marks five years since our first national study on street harassment. We will create a separate fact sheet highlighting the street harassment-specific findings from this study to provide data, five years later.

We are finalizing the questions with our advisory group this week, and it will go into the field in two waves in February. We hope to release the findings in late March or early April.

Timely Actions:
Yesterday, we joined 200 other organizations in signing a letter to the US Department of Education to voice our opposition to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would amend rules implementing Title IX in a harmful way. (H/T our board member Patrick)

This week, the SSH board of directors issued a statement in support of actor Terry Crews and all male survivors of sexual harassment and assault like him after his experiences were publicly questioned. (H/T our board member Lindsey)

This month, I wrote an article supporting Gillette’s new ad that encourages men to speak up against other male behavior like street harassment. A lot of men were upset about the ad, but I believe we need more ads like it, not fewer.

Sexual abuse / rape like that committed against a woman in Arizona with significant intellectual disabilities is shockingly common. I did a video interview about sexual abuse and persons w/disabilities for NowThis in November, using data from our 2018 research, and they released it this month to give context to this horrific news story.

Transit Campaign
This week, I joined Collective Action for Safe Spaces’ ED alicia sanchez gill and the marketing team at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to discuss the 8th year of our joint anti-sexual harassment campaign. We have a few things we are still fleshing out, but stay tuned for some cool outreach actions and the possibility of a national transit ad campaign!

International Anti-Street Harassment Week
This year will be our 9th year leading an international week of action, from April 7-13!

  • Here’s information on how to participate!
  • If you will be leading action, please complete this form to let us know about it.
  • If you’d like to be listed as a participating co-sponsor, please let me know! Contact StopStreetHarassment@Gmail.com.

We look forward to meeting you on the street to raise awareness about street harassment and strategizing ways to end it!

SSH in the News
Recent news coverage includes:
·  Guardian
·  Isthmus
·  KOLO 8
·  Newsweek
·  New York Daily News
·  Now This News

We look forward to working with you all this year on making public places safer for all!
-Holly
Stop Street Harassment Founder & CEO

P.S. Please consider a tax deductible-donation to support our work.

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Filed Under: SSH programs, street harassment

Meet Us On the Street 2019

January 30, 2019 By HKearl

This year marks our NINTH year hosting Meet Us on the Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week!

April 7 – 13, 2019.

Anyone, anywhere in the world can participate.

If you will be leading action, please complete this form to let us know about it.

If you’d like to be listed as a participating co-sponsor, please let me know! Contact StopStreetHarassment@Gmail.com.

We look forward to meeting you on the street to raise awareness about street harassment and strategizing ways to end it!

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week

SSH stands with Terry Crews

January 29, 2019 By HKearl

All survivors of sexual assault and harassment deserve support and respect. 

Photo by Gage Skidmore

In October of 2017, actor Terry Crews courageously added his voice to a growing wave of survivors breaking their silence about sexual harassment and assault on a global scale.

This week, Terry Crews’ status as a survivor is making headlines again, but for all the wrong reasons, as Crews endures victim-blaming, skepticism, and other forms of revictimization following several celebrities’ mockery of Crews’ sexual assault.

Stop Street Harassment stands with all survivors of sexual harassment and assault, and we know all too well that Terry Crews is not alone in his experience. Our most recent survey research confirms that all genders experience harassment or assault: forty-three percent of men surveyed in 2018 said they’d experienced sexual harassment or assault. Twenty-six percent of men reported experiencing some form of physical sexual harassment. 17 percent said they’d experienced unwanted sexual touching, and 7 percent said they’d been sexually assaulted.

There is no “right” way for a person to act when they are disrespected, sexually objectified, made to feel unsafe, or touched without their consent. When someone comes forward and courageously shares a story of harassment or assault, the last thing they deserve is to have others speculate on what they could have or should have done, either in the moment or in the weeks, months, or years that follow.

Stop Street Harassment remains committed to ending gender-based public sexual harassment, and part of that work is uplifting survivors of any kind of harassment or assault. Thank you again to Terry Crews for adding his story and his support to a movement we hope will continue making the world a safer place for all survivors.

–Stop Street Harassment Board of Directors

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Filed Under: male perspective, national study, News stories

“I felt so uncomfortable I had to get off the train”

January 24, 2019 By Contributor

I was on a subway in New York City when I was 15 years old in the summer holidays in the middle of the day with my sister my mum, my dad and our friend. We got to a stop and an old man probably about 65 looked me up and down and said, “Very pretty! Ooh if only I was 45 years younger!”

And then continued to look at me for the rest of the journey. I felt so uncomfortable I had to get off the train and wait for the next one.

Optional: Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?

We need to educate young children so that they don’t grow up to be so ignorant towards people’s feelings and how their actions can make someone afraid.

– LH

Location: NYC

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.

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Filed Under: Stories, street harassment

We Need More Ads Like Gillette’s

January 16, 2019 By HKearl

Gillette’s new advertisement “The Best Men Can Be” is making some people mad. But we need more ads like theirs, not fewer.

The Gillette video released this week encourages men to speak up and take action when they witness sexual harassment, bullying and fights. It also encourages them to model positive behavior for boys who are watching them.

“We believe in the best in men,” the narrator says, “To say the right thing, to act the right way. Some already are, in ways big and small. But some is not enough. Because the boys watching today, will be the men of tomorrow.”

This messaging may seem non-controversial: be your best self, help stop bad behavior. Yet, a scroll through the video’s comments on Facebook show that a vocal group of people — mainly men — are deeply offended by the message, with some encouraging a boycott of Gillette. One man called the ad “sexist against men.” Other men said they are mad that Gillette for “lumping all men into one group” and challenging what they see as “normal, healthy masculinity.” A few others said the company is “lecturing” them on morals, with one saying, “if I want a preacher I’ll go to church!”

Many of the positive commenters, mainly women, pointed out that those who take offense with the ad’s message or feel attacked by it may want to look at themselves in the mirror because they are probably part of the problem. I agree.

The reality is, aspects of our culture do need to change when it comes to what is seen as acceptable male behavior, and companies like Gillette can help. “Boys will be boys” should no longer be an excuse for fighting and bad behavior. Sexual harassment should no longer be framed as a joke nor a form of flirting. Bullying should not be a rite of passage. The more places these messages are said, hopefully the more likely it is that they will stick, and change will occur.

I work to end sexual harassment, particularly in public spaces. As someone who also has experienced literally hundreds of instances of sexual harassment in school, work, online and in public spaces by boys and men, I am especially grateful that the Gillette ad encourages men to be active in preventing and stopping that behavior.

The personal #MeToo stories plus research show that sexual harassment is a widespread issue, and it is mainly perpetrated by men. A national study Stop Street Harassment spearheaded last year found that 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men had experienced some form of sexual harassment or sexual assault in their lifetime. Respondents of all genders reported men as the main perpetrators. In the school setting, a national study I co-authored at AAUW found that 56 percent of girls and 40 percent of boys in grades 7–12 had experienced sexual harassment, and again, the main perpetrators for all genders were boys.

Most efforts to address sexual harassment traditionally target women, telling them to speak out and share their stories, report it to authorities and learn to defend themselves with self-defense and mace. But we can all do that until we are blue in the face, and it won’t necessarily stop sexual harassment from occurring. Men must also be part of the solution and companies like Gillette can encourage them to be.

The ad shows possible ways that men can intervene in instances of street harassment, sexual harassment and bullying and that is particularly important. Research shows that bystander training can be effective at addressing sexual harassment, more so than something like a traditional sexual harassment training. Bystander training invites people to be part of the solution — as does the Gillette ad to men — and model possible ways to act.

Showing fathers modeling positive behavior in the ad was also a good move. Joyful Heart’s national study on redefining manhood conducted last year found when describing a male role model, nearly two-thirds of young men (65 percent) said they are describing a male relative, with nearly half (48 percent) choosing their father. Men need to think about how they act — or don’t act — in front of boys and what message that sends.

And of course, women are not off the hook when it comes to raising a respectful next generation. Mothers and other female relatives must also model appropriate behavior and give age-appropriate guidance on treating others. I am the mother of an eight-month-old boy and one word you’ll often hear me say to him right now when he wants to touch the humans or dogs in our house is “gentle” and then I show him what that means. His father does the same for him.

As my son grows older, I want him and his peers to see a range of messages about men and masculinity, messages like men can be gentle and kind and athletic and strong. Men can be intelligent and helpful and speak out against injustice.

An ad like Gillette’s gives me hope that those will be the sorts of messages with which he grows up, as he strives to be the best man he can be.

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Filed Under: male perspective, street harassment

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From the Blog

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