Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Weekly Round Up: November 21, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap (abbreviated this weekend as I’m in India!):

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

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

Upcoming Events:

Ten Tweets from the Week:

  • JenNedeau I love a little street harassment in the afternoon. #sarcasm
  • mackensy First for me in terms of street harassment: “Hey lady! I like your FACE!” Shouted, mind you. #subtle
  • LizaEckert Taking phone photos of douches who street harass me makes feel better even when they don’t turn out.
  • meaganbray Dear creeper on the sidewalk, when you catcall at girls. It makes them want to run from you not come closer. #justatip
  • MollzieD Catcalling a woman in military fatigues? A whole new low. Come on son.
  • seasonothebitch I may b wearing over-the-knee socks 2day, but really, what’s w/the extra dose of street harassment? #90srevivalnoexcuse
  • ohgodohgod intervened on a street harassment on saturday, have developed ‘inflated sense of my own abilities’ considering buying a cape+kung fu lessons
  • Garetmagdaleno Does anyone think that street harassment has ever worked?
  • iHollaback HollabackCZECHREPUBLIC is pumped and ready to ignite! #themovementgrows
  • iHollaback Young women interested in starting HollabackMIAMI are getting their Mom involved. Which is basically the coolest thing ever. HB <3s MOMS.
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12th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance

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It is an outrage that street harassment, assault and murder occur regularly against transgender individuals. Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we remember and mourn those who people have murdered simply for being themselves. This day also serves to raise public awareness about these on-going crimes.

Visit the website for the Transgender Day of Remembrance for statistics and information about events happening around the world.

It’s so important for us to treat everyone we encounter in public spaces with respect and that we be good bystanders when we see harassment or assault occurring. We never know when it might save a life.

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A man who does not “get” street harassment and one who does

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I saw the above image a few times via twitter and Facebook and thought I’d comment. A coworker just told me it’s making the rounds via the Privilege Denying Dude to make fun of guys who believe this. Unfortunately there are many who do and I’ve heard this very comment before. Men who have this belief do not understand (or care about) issues like:

  • how quickly street harassment can turn nasty, demeaning, and violent;
  • how frequently many of us experience it and thus how annoying it is;
  • how triggering and frightening it can be for survivors of rape or of a bad harassment incident (like groping or stalking);
  • how it reinforces a societal message that women are supposed to be pretty objects for men and that it’s men’s rights to remind them of that whenever they want;
  • how it assumes all women are heterosexual or bisexual and are interested in men’s attention;
  • how it ignores the underlying racial dynamics that might be at play; and
  • how presumptuous and disrespectful it is to talk to a complete stranger in a familiar, sexual way. There is a reason most men never experience this. They are respected enough to be left the hell alone.

Here’s one of the many guys who does get gender-based street harassment. Thank you, Barry Deutsch!

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Weekly Round Up: November 14, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

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

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

Upcoming Events:

Ten Tweets from the Week:

  • HollabackPGH don’t whistle @ me while i’m riding my bike dwn yr street. i’m just tryng 2 enjoy the sun & buy olive oil #streetharassment
  • sospokesaroj: #amanshouldnot catcall a girl. Who in their right mind thinks girls actually respond favorably to that?
  • annikaleigh Most confusing catcall ever: “hey! Youre kinda…not ugly cute.” At least be clever when youre objectifying me, idiot.
  • mz_laf: I almost had to karate chop this dude in the Train station. He tried to grab me. I am not the one | Damn shame #StreetHarassment
  • RevoltRealWomen Just b/c a woman has chosen 2 exercise her freedom 2 walk down the same st as you, does NOT give u the right 2 assault & harass her
  • SamKusek Guys who harass women on the street make ladies feel like they’re unsafe anywhere but their own homes. It takes us back two steps.
  • TheSceneSerene #angryblackwomantweet death to dudes that want to publically harass and embarrass u on the street.
  • kaalakawaa Even if a person walked down the street in a micro-mini, the harassment is the fault of the harasser not the harassed
  • JessiDG: “Paranoia is a female rite of passage.” #streetharassment and @FourSquare http://shar.es/0BMdQ
  • buttersburke There is an app that counters street harassment from guys??? Does it shoot & kill them instantly??
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Masturbators on NYC subway, lewd commenters on buses in Chennai

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In two weeks I’ll be presenting on the harassment of women on public transportation at the 3rd International Conference on Women’s Safety in India (and today I’m in Denver at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference to present on making campuses safer).

Harassment on public transportation is a HUGE problem, as shown by countless stories and news stories on here over the years, and today, by two of the stories that came through in my google alert for “sexual harassment.”

In the first, New York Times reporter Karen Zraick wrote about her experiences with men masturbating at her on the subways of New York and she said she didn’t report any of those instances. She has opened up the thread asking readers, “Have you encountered unwanted harassment, groping or flashing? How have you dealt with it?”

It’s a big deal that she shared her stories when so many women feel silenced and that she used her powerful New York Times platform to put this issue out there into public discourse in a way that, say, my blog cannot. Certainly go over there and share your stories and show the general public how many women deal with this!

And I also wanted to note a story from The Times of India. Harassment of women on buses is a big deal throughout India and this article focuses on the problem in Chennai. Police and transit authorities have identified seven bus routes that many women take as the ones where the harassment is the worse. In response, they are sending out undercover police officers to the bus stops and on the bus lines to help crack down on it.Via The Times of India:

“Men of all ages indulge in harassment of women. Some are teenagers, others elderly men. It is a daily ordeal,” said Radhika Kumar, a college student who travels by 29 C. She said MTC should have its own force to deal with such people.

Since such incidents happen in crowded buses, many women said that plying more buses on the identified routes would help. “Route 27H needs many more buses as hundreds of working women and college students take this route,” said Prathibha Francis, a college lecturer.

The police will deploy more personnel at bus stops on these routes, including personnel in plainclothes. “Once the MTC gives us details of the routes, we will deploy more personnel,” said Shakeel Akhter, additional commissioner of police (law and order).

In other places in India, authorities have resorted to creating women-only buses, trains, or even lines for buses, so this is an interesting, new tactic. I hope that penalties for harassment will help prevent it.

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