Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Washington, DC area #EndSHWeek actions

By

International Anti-Street Harassment Week was huge… groups in at least 40 countries took a stand. In the Washington, DC-area, where SSH is based, we were also busy five with offline actions.

On April 14, we joined the Georgetown University Women’s Center in distributing information and encouraging people to write white board messages for social media and attended a talk on rape culture (including street harassment) by writer and political pundit Zerlina Maxwell.

 4.14.15 GU in DC2 4.14.15 GU in DC
 4.14.15 Zerlina Maxwell talk at GU wtih womens center staff and volunteers. DC 4.14.15 Zerlina talk GU in DC

April 15, several of our board members (Liz, Layla, and Maureen) and volunteers, staff and volunteers with Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) and the DC Rape Crisis Center, and staff from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority distributed flyers, tshirts, and bracelets at five Metro stations about harassment on the transit system and how to report it. We were able to reach hundreds of people.

4.15.15 WMATA DC

 4.15.15 CASS WMATA DCRCC flyering  4.15.15 Metro Center WMATA DC

April 16, we celebrated the achievements of our friends CASS at their six year anniversary party!

 4.16.15 CASS Party 4.16.15 Chai at CASS event in DC

April 17, we hosted Nigerian LGBT/HIV activist Bisi Alimi at the meeting of the Gay District group at the DC Center. He talked about discrimination against LGBT individuals, including in Nigeria, and how that includes harassment and assault in public spaces. SSH board member Patrick, Bisi and I put up a few Stop Telling Women to Smile posters afterward as part of the International Night of Wheat Pasting!

 4.17.15 Bisi at DC Center  4.17.15 Bisi, Patrick, me STWTS in DC

Finally, on April 18, we joined Batala, CASS, and Defend Yourself for street action. From drumming to flyering and chalking (watch a 90 second video clip), we were able to raise a lot of awareness about street harassment. Batala was particularly amazing and drew crowds to hear their beats, giving us an opportunity to talk to people about street harassment, etc.

 4.18.15 SSH Batala  DSC_1284
DSC_1300  IMG_6703
IMG_6729

Share

UK: This Doesn’t Mean a Yes Campaign

By

4.11.15 London - ThisDoesntMeanAYes“A short skirt is not a yes.
A red lip is not a yes.
A wink is not a yes.
A slow dance is not a yes.
A walk home is not a yes.
A drink back at mine is not a yes.
A kiss on the sofa is not a yes.
The only ‘yes’ is a ‘yes’.”

On the eve of International Anti-Street Harassment Week, our friends Rape Crisis UK teamed up with fashion photographer PEROU on new campaign #ThisDoesntMeanYes to dispel the myths around what constitutes consent. They photographed nearly 200 women and officially launched the campaign at www.thisdoesntmeanyes.com on April 15.

In their press release they wrote: “PEROU photographed women who were chosen at random in a pop-up street studio, capturing and empowering each individual in a composition that each felt natural to them. Our aim: to show through our collection of images, that no matter what a woman is wearing, she is never ‘asking for it’ and the mentality ‘she wants it’ is fundamentally wrong.”

Rape Crisis UK explained: ‘No one should be able to blame rape on a short skirt. A short skirt can’t talk – a short skirt can’t say yes’.

Join the campaign by posting your image on social media using #thisdoesntmeanayes.

4.11.15 London - ThisDoesntMeanAYes from PRThe four women behind the campaign are: Nathalie Gordon is an Advertising Creative, Lydia Pang is a Creative Art Commissioner, Abigail Bergstrom is a Commissioning Book Editor and Karlie McCulloch is an Illustration Agent.

Share

Preliminary #EndSHWeek 2015 Update

By

Hello!

Wow, it’s been a tremendous week of activism for International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2015!

More soon, but here are a few numbers to recap what has happened!

* 1 member of parliament talked about street harassment (Australia)
* 4 transit campaigns or studies launched or were released (London, Los Angeles, Paris, Vancouver)
* 6 main hashtags were used on Twitter: #Endsh #Endshweek #plutotsympa #everydaysexism #AcosoEsViolencia#NoAcosoCallejero* Anti-street harassment efforts took place on 6 continents
* Co-sponsoring groups in 40 countries took action
* 50 street signs against “catcalling” went up in NYC and Philadephia
* 75 media hits* 485 photos of actions

THANK YOU everyone who was involved!

Please let us know how your event went via this reporting form and send photos to hkearl @ stopstreetharassment.org.

-Holly

PS, check out this man who is PRO harassment?!?!
“Another day ruined”

Share

#EndSHWeek Wrap-Up: Day 5

By

So many events today! Read about four examples of actions in the past 24 hours. See the updated photo album. Here is our media coverage (more than 50 media hits) so far.

Studies and Campaign:

* A study released today in France found that 100% of more than 600 women surveyed across the country had faced sexual harassment on the transit system. I spoke with staff at the deputy minister for women’s rights, Pascale Boistard, today by phone and they plan to roll out a comprehensive anti-harassment campaign on transit systems across France in about a month. This would include trains, buses and subways in every city. To my knowledge, this will be the first country-wide campaign!

* The Los Angeles transit authority launched an “It’s Off Limits” anti-harassment campaign on their system!

* Cornell University and Hollaback! released findings from an opt-in survey conducted through their localized sites at the end of 2014. More than 4,000 women under 40 years old took it. While it is not nationally representative nor does it look at men’s experiences or factors like race or sexual orientation (as our 2014 GfK study does), it does provide more insight into the impact street harassment has on harassed persons, which is valuable information.

Virtual Efforts:

* @INBreakthrough, @FemIndProject and @PixelProject co-hosted a Tweet chat about cultural differences in harassment and reactions, #EndSH2015

* Latin American countries are super active this year. Today alone, NGOs in Chile, Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay took photos with anti-harassment, pro-respect messages and posted them on social media. Gracias!

* In France, after a business woman tweeted that getting whistled at is nice, thousands of people shared their street harassment stories using the hashtag #plutotsympa. The hashtag trended for part of the day.

* Today was the 3rd anniversary of the UK-based international group Everyday Sexism. Founder Laura Bates said that today alone, 45,000 people tweeted about sexism, including street harassment, using the hashtag #everydaysexism.

Articles:

* Iranian women’s street harassment stories.

* Kenya: Because I Speak Out I Feel Safer

* An Afghan woman writes about how words matter

* Rhett Butler is a Jerk

* Activists Put Up “No Catcall Zone” Street Signs in NYC and Philly (my article for Feministing). More than one dozen outlets covered the catcall signs too, and cited Anti-Street Harassment Week

Video:

* Our board member Maliyka Muhammad spoke on Fox news in NYC!

Share

Four Examples of #EndSHWeek Efforts

By

There are so many amazing efforts and campaigns happening for International Anti-Street Harassment Week! Here are four examples….

Nepal:

Activista Nepal held a street demonstration demanding safe public toilets at Sundhara, Kathmandu. Yesterday they held a youth workshop on street harassment.

The Netherlands, via Den Haag FM:

“Dozens of men were this afternoon on the square shouted at by a group of women. These women are part of the action group Citizens Street Harassment wants to bring this behavior to the attention and wants to fining.

Anti street “What we do can not make it, but the men who do that to us can not make it. I am a random person who never asks, just as they are. How strange is it that someone in an unpleasant way interfere with you? “Said Jessica van der Pluijm, one of the protesters.

The ladies have collected signatures to eventually submit a citizens’ initiative to criminalize street harassment. MP Ahmed Marcouch (PvdA) has pledged to get started with the criminalization of street harassment.”

Italy:

NO Molestie Di Strada is posting stickers against harassment across Italy!

India, via I am in DNA of India:

“I am in dna of India, iamin.in, a hyperlocal news platform and Safe City, an NGO that provides a platform for people to share their personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces have teamed up to bring you local and concerned voices pained by everyday street harassment.

In our research to find most unsafe zones for women in Delhi, South Delhi’s Lal Kuan area topped the list. It was not just street harassment that we found rampant there, it was a whole lot of issues surrounding it that prompted us to amplify the voices of victimized locals and bring to you their concerns through a dedicated page.“

Share