Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

London Mayoral candidate takes on street harassment

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Around the world, street harassment is not taken seriously by politicians, governments, and society at large. But that finally may be changing.

Vicky Simister, founder of the London Anti-Street Harassment Campaign, has been pushing politicians in London to acknowledge and address street harassment. In the few months since she launched the campaign, she’s received political support from local London politicians Diane Abbott and Keith Angus. This good news gets even better.

Today Simister announced that Oona King, a London mayoral candidate for 2012, has promised to make street harassment one of her campaign issues.  Simister wrote that King, “will commission police reports on street harassment, ensure local authorities recognize it as a form if violence against women, establish police ‘best practices’, coordinate a poster campaign and more!” (Read the full statement)

This is truly amazing and completely unprecedented! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Simister and King for taking real measures to make London free from street harassment and for raising awareness around the globe that this is a serious issue that deserves serious attention.

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Weekly Round Up: September 4, 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:

Events:

Announcements:

10 Tweets from the Week:

  • hjoy27 I would love to know when a catcall in the street has illicited a legitimate response from anyone, EVER. Other than “f*ck you”. just sayin
  • watchmewalk I’m walking down the street and this lame says “can I harass you?” Was that supposed to be witty?
  • TasashaH @yesmagazine #SayYesSat to learning about street harassment,how to raise awareness of it and strategies to end it #stopstreetharassment
  • RahsaanKhalid Deep! “@mencanstoprape: Male privilege is main reason behind street harassment. Some men feel it’s their right to “compliment” a woman”
  • tigistselam There is no other place in the city where street harassment is *that* prevalent #Harlem.
  • harassmap: Harassmap in the news, we are coming very soon! http://bit.ly/aBlod4 #Egypt #sexualharassment
  • THEMissSharma So much harassment on my lunch break just walkin down the street downtown. I’m gettin a taser n I’m gonna start tasin. Lol
  • JaRonEdwards I just seen 5 police harass a teenage girl walking down the street. So I stopped and I aint leaving. #Fuckpoliceharrassmet
  • MC1RK Why is it that the grosser i look the more dudes feel entitled to catcall/chat me up?what about dirty hair&ratty shorts says TAKE ME NOW?gah
  • AAUW: Every man knows someone who has been harassed. Don’t minimize issue, support the women in your lives. #SSHMNT
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Mauritius addresses sexual harassment on public transportation

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Last year, Amnesty International sponsored a country-wide anti-street harassment campaign in Mauritius, following the first-ever anti-street harassment report for that country by Alyssa Fine.

Street harassment is widespread in Mauritius, including on public transportation, yet women rarely report it because they feel shamed. Yesterday, the Mauritian Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare Minister, Ms. Sheilabai Bappoo, released a booklet titled “Breaking the Silence on Sexual Harassment in Public Transport,” to encourage women to speak out and for people to help women who are most vulnerable to this violence (such as young or poor women who must take public transportation).

She also is calling on non-governmental organizations, the civil society and community-based organizations to come together and denounce sexual harassment.

I think this is a better way to address the problem than to separate men from women on buses and subway cars (like they do in Indonesia, India, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico).

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“If women on the street said I look nice, it’d make my day”

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I LOVE this cartoon by @barrydeutsch! (Update: He’s made the cartoon available for purchase. I just bought it as a postcard and print)

It speaks to one of the arguments* I make when men tell me they’ve been whistled at and don’t mind it: there is a difference in the sheer volume of harassment that men and women face.

For example, a running friend of mine has said before that he’s been whistled at a few times over the course of his 15+ year running career.  Hmm. In college, I was harassed more than that in a single hour when I would go running (no exaggeration), including whistling, honking, kissing noises, and sexually explicit comments. I have no idea how many times across my 14 year running career I’ve faced harassment. At least hundreds.

That volume of harassment is annoying in addition to being demeaning and perhaps threatening. It’s hard to get some men to understand that and so I’m grateful for this cartoon.

(*Factors like gender inequality, threat of rape, and victim blaming, all issues I address in chapter two of my book, also make men’s harassment of women  unique compared with the harassment men may face.)

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