USA: Interview with the Director of Hollaback!PHILLY

By: Erin McKelle, Jan. – June 2013 SSH Blog Correspondents

Rochelle Keyhan is the Director of Hollaback!PHILLY, lawyer, activist and writer. She started working on anti-street harassment non-profit Hollaback! in 2010 when she incorporated the organization as a non-profit 501(c) (3) pro-bono. She’s been an active feminist since her undergraduate years at UCLA, where she was the Editor in Chief of the university’s feminist magazine. She’s truly remarkable and I wanted to get her take on street harassment, working as a feminist activist and her work with Hollaback!

Erin: Can you tell me a little about yourself and your work both with Hollaback! and outside of it?

Rochelle: My passion is fighting gender-based violence and inequity. My day job is as a criminal lawyer, and I do all of my work on Hollaback! in my free time outside of work. I first became aware of Hollaback! while working with a different non profit, running their social media pages. Hollaback! posted a request for assistance with filing their 501(c)(3) application, which I had just learned how to do. In filling out that application you learn everything there is to know about the organization, and the more I learned, the more I became enamored with the movement. Soon after completing the application I joined Hollaback!’s Board of Directors and am currently the Treasurer on the Board. A year later in April 2011 I started HollabackPHILLY and have been the director ever since.

Erin: I saw that you first got involved with Hollaback! by volunteering to incorporate them as a non-profit. What drew you to the organization and what led you to start a chapter in your city?

Rochelle: At the time I discovered Hollaback! I was already a pretty outspoken and passionate feminist, but had been so desensitized to street harassment that it was an epiphany for me that I deserved to be angry about street harassment. The fact that it was such a new, less-explored issue, got me excited to be a part of it almost immediately. After a year on the board, I was more familiar with the organization and its long term activist goals, and I just knew that I needed to bring the movement to Philadelphia, which has its own serious street harassment problem. By raising awareness about street harassment, we’re expanding the reach of the fight against gender-based violence by going after the behaviors across the spectrum, instead of just focusing on the most physical forms of the violence.

Erin: Street harassment is obviously a huge problem and it is often not taken seriously by the police. How do you think that the laws around street harassment can be written to better serve women and LGBT folks? How can we better educate law enforcement to make them aware of the problem?

Rochelle: I don’t think that laws are the solution, so I actually wouldn’t suggest any form of legal revision. The focus now should be on education and mindset change. A big part of that is bringing in men and law enforcement, recruiting them as allies and equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to spread the message. I wrote an article for COPS, a department out of the USDOJ on how law enforcement can help the cause, which is pretty responsive to this question.

Erin: Hollaback Philly’s SEPTA Subway Advertisement PSA Campaign has gotten a lot of press this spring. Have you seen any changes that have happened because of it? Did you see an increase in public awareness?

Rochelle: The ads had a significant local impact, putting our efforts on the radar of the larger feminist organizations in the city. They also got the attention of City Council, which opened the door for conversations about potential partnerships. We also have had a large outpouring of local support via email and social media, thanking us for our effort and commending our transit authority for extending the advertisements. The ads helped people start conversations by providing an ice breaker. They also encouraged people to think through the issues on their own, and in their own ways, by giving them the freedom to process the ideas individually, without forcing conversations. Beyond the impact in Philadelphia, the ads went viral online, with over 500,000 Facebook impressions and 100,000 Tumblr re-blogs, expanding the conversation to a global dialogue about what cities can do to help spread the word about making our streets and transit systems safer for women and LGBTQ folks.

Erin: Do you see street harassment as being a potential defining issue of 4^th wave feminism? Do you think it’s important that it be?

Rochelle: It’s already a large part of the fourth wave narrative, with organizations all over the world organizing around and marching against street harassment, while openly condemning the behavior online. People rising up to regain their rights to safe access to public spaces, fighting discrimination based on their gender, and holding their communities accountable, is of course an important part of any wave of feminism, so the 4th wave is no exception.

Erin: Street harassment comes from the difference in power and acts as an oppressor and reminder for oppressed groups that they are such. It’s a way for the dominant group to assert power. Do you think it will take ending sexism to end street harassment?

Rochelle: I actually think street harassment can end before sexism does, because it’s easier to be angry about violence and disrespect than it is to redefine masculine roles and claims to power by doing things like evening out salaries, sharing household duties, and electing more women into political power. Basically, it’s “giving up” less to eliminate street harassment than to eliminate sexism.

Erin: There has obviously been an increase in recent years in the feminist movement to end street harassment and the movement has been gaining ground. In your opinion, what is the best approach we can take to end street harassment both as activists and everyday citizens?

Rochelle: That’s a difficult question to answer. The “best” way to approach street harassment varies by situation and individual. But what I’ve learned over the past few years is that the most productive and effective conversations I’ve had with men and non believers happens when I come from a place of love and understanding. Curbing the anger goes a long way in creating the conversations as safe spaces for people to voice questions they might be embarrassed to ask, allowing for deeper, more nuanced conversations about the issue and how it impacts people differently. Hopefully the more conversations we have, the more people will join in the effort and the less careful the conversations will have to be to avoid isolating people from the movement.

Erin is an e-activist and blogger based in Ohio. You can find more of her work here and here.