Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

End-It Super Bowl Commercial Bingo

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Will you be watching the Super Bowl this Sunday? I will be sort of watching it (probably doing something else while it’s on in the background and my partner and possibly some of his friends watch it), and I’m dreading the commercials. Objectification of women. “To be manly you must do X, Y, Z” messages. General sexism and homophobia. Sadly, the stereotypes and violence-tolerant messages so many marketers use for these commercials contribute to street harassment and  harassment and violence in general, whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

Via the Men’s Anti-Violence Council’s blog, I found out about a bingo sheet for the commercials produced by Riverview Center in Iowa. If you participate, you can enter a drawing for prizes. I’m going to print it out and use it! And then I’ll report back on it next week and use it to channel some of the frustrations I’ll undoubtedly have after viewing the commercials.

Thanks, Riverview Center & MAC!

And, on a related topic, Jackson Katz gives suggestions for how you can make the focus on Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger a teachable moment for boys and young men in light of his two recent sexual assault allegations.

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High Court in Bangladesh outlaws term “eve-teasing”

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Using terms like “catcalls,” “wolf whistles,” and “eve-teasing” to describe street harassment negates the seriousness of the problem. The terms make the behavior seem funny and cute-sy. The terms make it easy for people to dismiss women’s complaints and to stand by as men continue to harass women. (And can you imagine a similar type of “funny” phraseology for racial harassment? Wouldn’t happen, hasn’t happened.)

I use these terms grudgingly, when I think I must because they’re what people understand or when I’m reporting on a source that’s used them.

So I’m overjoyed by the news that Bangladesh’s high court ordered that incidents of harassment have to be called sexual harassment, not eve-teasing.  (via Dawn.com):

“Bangladesh`s high court recently ruled [that] the term downplays the seriousness of such crimes. The court said this in response to a class action lawsuit filed by legal activists after a number of teenaged women committed suicide, reportedly due to stalking and harassment. Police would often dismiss such crimes as innocent mischief caused by young men.“

And here’s more via Sify.com:

“The court also ruled that stalking, either physically or electronically, must be considered sexual harassment.

From January to November 2010, 26 women and one father of a bullied girl committed suicide, and 10 men and two women were murdered after protesting against sexual harassment, according to a Bangladeshi rights group.

Since coming to power in December 2008 the Awami League government has launched a crackdown, including stationing undercover police in playgrounds to prevent young males from molesting female pupils.”

Nice work, Bangladeshi activists!

Now we need to get rid of the term “catcall” in the United States!!

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Ten new HollaBack websites launch today

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Congrats to Emily May and the whole HollaBack team on the launch of ten new websites that will help track street harassment globally.

Via a press release from HollaBack:

“Inti Maria Tidball-Binz, the leader of Hollaback Buenos Aires said, ‘For many of us in Buenos Aires “Piropos,” or “catcalls” are aggressive and intrusive. We need a fresh approach to local issues, and knowing that the strength of the international Hollaback movement is behind us gives us the impetus to make changes.’

Inti Maria is one of over 20 activists that are planning to launch Hollaback sites today in six U.S. locations: Atlanta, Baltimore, El Paso, Houston, Portland, and SoCal, and four international locations: Czech Republic, Mumbai, France, and Buenos Aires.  In addition, the New York City and London sites will be moving to the ihollaback.org platform to join the growing global network.

Shawna Potter, the leader of the Hollaback Baltimore said, ‘I’ve traveled a lot over my life and noticed that no matter where I go, street harassment follows. I hope Hollaback Baltimore will help fuel the discussion of appropriate behavior towards women and inspire others who have felt helpless or frightened to know they have a badass response.’

Hollaback is currently recruiting activists for their next launch, which is slated for April.  The group already has been contacted by activists in thirty cities internationally who are interested in bringing Hollaback home this Spring.”

 

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Street harassment snapshot: January 30, 2011

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Street Harassment Stories:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

You can read new street harassment stories from the past week on:

From the F Word Blog UK

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

Events:`

Announcements:

New:

On-going:

10 Tweets from the Week:

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“Men who report more gender-equitable attitudes are more likely to be happy”

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The International Center for Research on Women does important work to understanding the reasons behind men’s violence against women.

Most recently, on Wednesday, they released the report International Men and Gender Equality Survey. The report covers their three-year study of nearly 12,000 men and women ages 18 to 59 in Brazil, Chile, Croatia, India, Mexico and Rwanda. These 12,000 individuals participated in interviews about their health practices, parenting, relationship dynamics, sexual behavior and use of violence.

Here is one quick snippet of their findings:

“IMAGES results across all countries showed that men who generally view themselves as superior to women are more likely to report physical and sexual violence against an intimate partner. The same was true for men who abused alcohol, witnessed violence in their childhood home and, except for Mexicans surveyed, those who felt stressed about work or income. Rwandan men were not asked about work stress.”

No surprises there, huh? Changing social attitudes and norms regarding gender equality is very important! So is addressing and breaking the cycle of violence between generations.

Here are overall findings in the conclusion of the report that I know may surprise some people — that gender equity doesn’t hurt men! It makes them happier:

“Overall, IMAGES results affirm that gender equality should be promoted as a gain for women and men. Change seems to be happening as younger men and men with higher levels of education show more gender-equitable attitudes and practices. Men who report more gender-equitable attitudes are more likely to be happy, to talk to their partners and to have better sex lives. Women who report that their partners participate in daily care work report higher levels of relationship and sexual satisfaction. Findings suggest that most men in most of the survey sites accept gender equality in the abstract even if they are not yet living it in their daily practices.”

It’s very promising that change in gender attitudes is visible among younger men. Other studies show that younger generations have fewer issues with race and sexual orientation than our parents and grandparents, too. So it’s not unrealistic to think that in a few more decades, our societies may be more equitable all around.

I plan on reading the full report because I think it can provide good guidance around the work we need to do to prevent street harassment. If you want to read the full report too, you can download it for free from the ICRW website.

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