Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Stop Street Harassment Book Released! Win a Copy

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A year ago today, I was in the beginning stages of writing my book about street harassment. Today I am happy to announce that it’s in print and available for purchase from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or Greenwood.com. My publisher’s main audience is libraries, so in the coming weeks and months you may be able to find it at your local library, too.

View the table of contents, foreword, and introduction.

Whose stories?

Many people bravely shared their stories for this book, including over 900 people who took my informal survey in the fall of 2008, scores of people who shared their stories on this blog (pre-Dec. 2009), and more than 20 activists around the world who let me interview them about their work. Thank you. This book would not be possible without your help.

Free Book Giveaway Contest!

Who: YOU! Your friends, family, colleagues, classmates, neighbors.

What: Enter a random drawing to win a free, signed copy of the Stop Street Harassment book.

When: You have until 7 p.m. EDT on 8/26/10 to enter. I’ll post the winner’s name on my blog and email her/him around 8 p.m. EDT on 8/26. The winner will received a mailed copy next week. This contest is open to people anywhere in the world – the book covers street harassment globally.

How: Email stopstreetharassmentATyahooDOTcom with your name (which I will not share or sell) or enter by tweeting about the contest (include @hkearl, @stopstharassmnt or “street harassment” so I can find it).

Book Release Events!

Please join me for free book release events in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 2 and in New York City on Sept. 10. Local activists from the area who are featured in my book will join me to talk about their work.

You can also contact me if you would like me to speak at a venue near you.

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Weekly Round Up: August 22, 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:

Resource of the Week:

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Egypt, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom

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What do these three countries have in common? Besides all starting with vowels, the commonality is that I’ve read a street harassment-related article from each country in the last 24 hours. Here’s the scoop:

Egypt: Justin D. Martin, a journalism professor at The American University in Cairo wrote a great opinion piece for the Christian Science Monitor about the widespread problem of men blaming women for sexual harassment and why.

He points to studies like one from 2008 which showed that 50 percent of men blamed women for the harassment they inflicted on them, and a new study from the Population Council which showed nearly 80 percent of Egyptian boys and men ages 15-29 agreed that a woman who is harassed deserves it if she had dressed provocatively.

And he explores how Egyptian men aren’t wired to blame victims of sexual harassment, instead they are taught to do it. Proposed legislation against sexual harassment would help, he says, but what’s really needed is an ideological shift. Definitely!

Indonesia: AFP reports today that Indonesia is joining many other countries in creating women-only public transportation to reduce the rates of sexual harassment. Right now these carriages are only found on the Jakarta to Bogor line. They are distinguished from the other cars by their pink seats and they are located at the front and back of the trains. “We want to improve our service and protect female passengers so they feel more safe,” rail official Makmur Syaheran said.

Sounds like another band aid fix to a serious problem…

United Kingdom: Earlier this month Dawn Foster began the blog 101 Wankers where she calls out the men who harasser her while she rides her bicycle around London. Yesterday she shared her experiences with harassers and with creating the blog in a Guardian article.

Let’s hope she doesn’t reach 101 incidents of harassers, but if she does, at least it will be cataloged for the world to see and have to acknowledge. Way to go, Dawn. Call out the wankers!

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Women pedestrians are not “mayhem,” Allstate

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Have you seen the new Allstate Mayhem commercial? It opens with the Allstate Mayhem spokesman Dean Winters jogging, saying, “I’m a hot babe out jogging…” Then you see a man in a car ogling the “hot babe” and driving into a lamp post. The commerical ends with the Winters saying, if you go with Allstate, “you can be better protected from mayhem like me” [meaning, the woman running].

Excuse me? Women running = mayhem?

The men ogling women are the mayhem!!

Just last week I was driving my car and suddenly the car in front of me dropped about 15 miles per hour for no apparent reason. Then I saw the reason: a woman was walking her dog on the side of the road in a sports bra (in our recent 100-degree weather stint). When I passed him I saw that yes, he was staring out the window at her instead of focusing on driving.

Of course, this is not the first time I’ve witnessed such careless driving. Countless men have hung out the window of their car ogling or yelling at me while they are  supposed to be driving and all I have been doing is running, walking, or even waiting for a bus. More alarming, last year, two women were walking home from work, facing catcalls from men in a truck. The driver lost control of the vehicle and both women were hit and one was killed.

We women are going about our days, yet WE’RE the mayhem? YEAH RIGHT.

More on this commercial from Liz whose Community Feministing post alerted me to this vile commercial.

As I was watching tv the other night I saw AllState’s newest commercial in their ‘protect yourself from mayhem’ series…

Here are my 2 big issues: the implication that slobbering over a woman from your car is generally acceptable, and that the woman is in fact the bringer of the mayhem.  This commercial says any woman jogging, or walking, or simply existing on any sidewalk in America is fair game to be sexualized, and rarely does that sexualization remain silent, it is usually accompanied by street harassment yelled from a passing car.  I personally jog about 2miles every morning and there are streets I will not jog on because I know someone is going to honk or catcall and at 8 in the morning that’s not something I want to deal with.  But this commercial is saying go ahead young men(any men really) stare, stare at her until your basic motor functions are compromised.  And then blame her.

She is the mayhem, she is the reason you crashed your car into a lightpole.  She made you do it, she made you crazy.  Does that sound like abuser logic to anyone else?  Why do you make me hit you, sounds a lot like, why did you make me crash the car?  Presumably if the ‘woman’ had not been so carelessly jogging along the sidewalk this young man would never have been distracted and would have been able to competently drive his car.  But the message here is one we have heard before (in rape cases), men cannot biologically control their impulses when it comes to sexuality and women.

The solution is clear to me: women pose such a serious risk to male drivers that we can no longer be allowed to jog outdoors.  This is for the good of the nation, we simply cannot expect men to remain in control of their functions while we prance around the neighborhood.  America is counting on us.

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Grocery store semen shooter

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Michael W. Edwards is accused of spraying semen from a bottle onto women’s backs in Giant grocery stores and Michael’s craft stores in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Edwards has confessed to the crime and there is video evidence of his actions on his cell phone. Clothing from two of the women has been tested as evidence. Detectives have charged Edwards with five counts of second-degree assault and say there might be additional victims. He had no prior convictions.

I’ve never heard about this kind of harassment before, but I know there is an endless supply of men who think nothing of humiliating, harming, harassing, and assaulting women in public places for their own amusement.

The Washington Post article author does not seem to know this, though. The writer kept noting how “normal” Edwards is, how he was raised in the church, has a college degree, a long-term girlfriend, and until his charges, a job. I find that focus problematic because it implies that harassers – or other criminals like rapists – are ususally “deranged” people. But in fact, many of the perpetrators are “normal” people who are indistinguishable from our friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, and national heroes. Yes, that’s scary, but the sooner we as a society face this fact, the sooner we can address the root causes and increase conviction rates instead of ignoring or being shocked when these crimes are committed by “normal” people.

(By the way, Edwards worked as a security guard at a water treatment plant. He was fired. The company said there was no evidence he’d done anything wrong, but when someone who likes to squirt semen has access to drinking water, I say thank goodness for water filters!)

Many thanks to reader MRH for the story tip

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