Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

99 Percent of Egyptian Women Experience Sexual Harassment

By

Via Daily News Egypt:

“The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women published a report showing the most recent statistics of sexual harassment in Egypt. The study shows that 99.3% of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment.

The study indicates that 96.5% of women in their survey said that sexual harassment came in the form of touching, which was the most common manifestation of sexual harassment. Verbal sexual harassment had the second-highest rate experienced by women with 95.5% of women reporting cases.”

Share

Teen Reporters Take on Street Harassment

By

“People need to stop viewing harassment of women on the street as complimentary or, at worst, a minor nuisance, and start seeing it for what it is: disrespectful, belittling, objectifying, scary, and sometimes illegal,” wrote Margaret Heftler, a teen reporter for Youth Communication magazine.

She has a great article on street harassment in the May/June 2013 issue of the magazine (also available online). Youth Communication teen reporter Elisabet Rivera made a companion video in which she asks some men on the corner why they comment on girls’ looks as they pass by, and explains how uncomfortable–and intimidating–street harassment can be for girls.

Teenage girls face some of the most frequent and vile forms of street harassment and hearing about the issue from them directly is so important! Well done, Margaret and Elisabet!

Share

Digest of Street Harassment News: April 28, 2013

By

Via Collective Action for Safe Spaces

After a two month (!) hiatus due to a lack of time, the weekly round-up post is back!

** Sign up to receive a monthly e-newsletter from Stop Street Harassment ***

Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read street harassment stories on the Web at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

Collective Action for Safe Spaces

HarassMap in Egypt

Bijoya in Bangladesh

Resist Harassment in Lebanon

Ramallah Street Watch in Palestine

Name and Shame in Pakistan

Safe City India

Safe Streets in Yemen

Street Harassment in South Africa

Many of the Hollaback sites

Everyday Sexism

Street Harassment In the News, on the Blogs:

* The Grio, “Street harassment: No, it’s not flattering“

* Daily News Egypt, “99.3% of Egyptian women experienced sexual harassment: report“

* The Yorkshire Times, “Bradford Residents Urged To Speak Out Against Street Harassment“

* JC Sterns, “Talking to Strangers“

* Youth Communication Magazine, “Street Harassment Is No Compliment“

* Washington Blade, “Fighting back against street harassment“

* DNA India, “Mumbai ladies’ coaches a canvas for perverts“

* Jalopnik, “Japanese Man Accused Of Slashing 1,000 Tires To Pick Up Women“

* Campus Progress, “Moving Beyond Awareness, The Conversation On Street Harassment Continues“

* The Province, “When commuters take back the bus from an abusive passenger, is it part of a growing movement?”

* The Temple News, “Carr: Silence not useful against street harassment“

* Huffington Post, “Hollaback!: Finding Effective Solutions to Street Harassment“

* Gulf News, “Women-only bus trialled in Egypt to curb sexual harassment“

* Bangor Daily News, “Do you catcall women as they walk down the street?“

* News Track India, “Egyptian party launches ‘safe’ women-only buses to ward off rampant sexual harassment“

* WNYC, “Not Taking it Anymore: One Woman Talks Back to Street Harassers“

* Women in the World, “Dear Catcallers, Go Home“

* Sugarbelly, “Nigerian Men, Entitlement, and Street Harassment“

Announcements:

New:

* View photos from International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2013!

* Sign the Change.org Petition to Lego about their pro-street harassment kids sticker.

* Check out @TheeKatsMeoww‘s video on street harassment.

10 Tweets from the Week:

* @TaraBrookeB I find it really sad how almost every girl I know has been a victim of street harassment.

* @chaneldubofsky  street harassment makes getting dressed complicated for me. i know, it’s fucked up. #patriarchy #streetharassment #sexistbullshit

* @sadcypress Street harassment awareness signs on SEPTA? Awesome. http://tmblr.co/ZVSiEyjTRAEG

* @lucyliz  I am getting SO SICK of street harassment. It’s not flattering or complimentary, it’s revolting.

* @hollabackWY #streetharassment witnessed last night, Duncan Street Leeds.Group of men smoking outside pub whistling & shouting at woman walking past

* @La__Rain Street harassment should be banned before 10am. Like, it should obvs be banned altogether but I need to at least have had breakfast y’know.

* @Karnythia I just have to ask why is it more important that women be nice to strangers than that they be safe from #streetharassment?

* @sirjamesa12 What’s crazy in this society is the failure of the education system to educate us on street harassment and patriarchy.

* @BKMovement Have you seen the first of @HarlowProject‘s anti #streetharassment videos? Check out Lindsay’s story http://youtu.be/hhAKmOKGlKk  #bedstuy

* @sassycrass I enjoy being a woman. I DON’T enjoy street harassment, higher rates of sexual assault/violence, and 77 cents for YOUR every dollar.

Share

It’s Neighborday!

By

Gay rights activist Harvey Milk said, “If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods.”

Do you know your neighbors? Too often we live in places where we may only know a handful of neighbors, or not at all. But what if we did know all of our neighbors? Would there be less street harassment?

Today is a good day to find out because it’s Neighborday – time to go meet a new neighbor! Learn more.

Share

Lego: Stop Teaching Kids that Street Harassment is OK

By

UPDATE 5/1: Here’s another – better – update from Josh about Lego’s response. “We would not approve such a product again,” they said and Josh said, “That is an important statement, and I think it constitutes a real win.”

UPDATE 4/29: Read the update Josh Stearns posted on his Tumblr account after Lego responded about his concerns.

Photo by Josh Stearns

Street harassment is normalized in our society, in part because it is regularly portrayed as a compliment, a joke, or no big deal in kids’ cartoons, television shows, comedy routines, movies, commercials, product packaging, and even in kids toys, like these stickers by Lego that are aimed at kids, particularly boys.

Journalist Josh Stearns took this photo and wrote, “My son is just getting into Legos, so I thought he’d love these stickers. Then I took a closer look and saw that one of the construction workers (the only one wearing “cool” sunglasses) was labeled “Hey Babe!” I was stunned…Needless to say, I didn’t buy the stickers.”

Horrible. The stickers perpetuate the idea that street harassment is only done by construction workers and it’s only “benign” comments like, “Hey, babe.”

In reality, street harassment is perpetrated by people of all backgrounds and it ranges from leering, whistling and “hey baby” comments to sexually explicit comments, gender policing, demands for a smile, following, groping, and public indecency.

Street harassment is not a compliment nor is it acceptable behavior and we shouldn’t teach kids – or anyone else – that it is. Instead we need to teach respect on the streets!

You can let Lego know your thoughts by contacting their offices or tweeting a message to them, @LEGO_Group. You can also sign the Change.org Petition.

Share