Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Weekly Round Up: August 15, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

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In the News, On the Blogs:

Events:

Announcements:

10 Street Harassment Tweets from the Week:

Resource of the Week:

Men’s Anti-Violence Council

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Famous photograph captures street harassment

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Last week I was on vacation in Wyoming. When I walked into a diner for lunch, I looked on the wall and exclaimed to my partner, “That’s street harassment!” Then I snapped the following picture of the poster, which clearly shows men ogling and harassing a woman who has a look of discomfort on her face.

You can see a better version on ArtDaily.com:

"American Girl in Italy," Via ArtDaily.com

Why did a random diner have street harassment on display? Today I looked up the photograph and found out it’s very famous and and the best known image by photographer Ruth Orkin. So I  guess they were just displaying art…?

ArtDaily.com explains the photograph:

“In Florence, [Italy], Orkin had met Ninalee “Jinx” Allen Craig, an art student and fellow American who became the model for a series Orkin originally titled Don’t Be Afraid to Travel Alone, based on their joint experience as women traveling alone in Europe in the 1950s. Orkin photographed Craig shopping in the markets, crossing traffic, riding a carriage and flirting at a cafe.

By chance the two came upon the now famous pack of men. Orkin turned around and photographed Craig behind her. ‘I clutched my shawl to me because that sheaths the body,’ says Craig. ‘It was my protection, my shield. I was walking through a sea of men.’ Craig today admits, ‘I was enjoying every minute of it. They were Italian and I love Italians.’ Orkin asked Craig to walk through again, and with that she captured the famous image.”

First – I love that Orkin was traveling male companion-less during the 1950s and became famous for showing what it’s like to be a woman traveling alone, street harassment and all! Street harassment is still a part of many women’s experiences when they travel alone or with a female companion (and even sometimes when they travel with a male companion or their family) and it prevents women from having the same freedom to explore the world as men. And that’s a shame. I’m also intrigued that despite the obvious experience of street harassment, Orkin was encouraging women to not be afraid to travel alone.

Second – I am perturbed by the quotes from Craig. She was loving every moment of being harassed? Her expression in the photograph suggests otherwise, as does and the fact that she said she needed to use her shawl as protection, as a shield from the men.

And third – I wonder what people generally think when they see the photograph. If they think it’s quaint, funny, or interesting, and not the least problematic or offensive, then what is it accomplishing besides documentation? Not that she probably had an agenda for it besides documentation and making art. But I do have an agenda, and so for me, I wonder if this photograph helps or hinders or does neither for the movement to end street harassment.

So I leave you with three questions:

  • What do you make of Craig’s seemingly contradictory statements about the experience?
  • Do you think this photograph helps or hinders our movement to end street harassment?
  • What do you think about a diner displaying this photograph of street harassment the way they would display a photograph of say, a landscape?
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What were you wearing when you were sexually harassed?

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Yesterday Jezebel asked this question in an informal poll on their website. Today they posted the results:

I clicked several of the choices and I also clicked “other” and wrote in running clothes because I’ve been harassed the most while running.

Some of the other “other” options they listed include:

  • while picking my nose
  • in a bar, in a car, in a hat, on a mat…
  • carrying stacks of books around from the library
  • in scout uniform, in overalls and in granny jumpers
  • wearing a hijab
  • walking, waiting for a bus, generally being female
  • wearing USMC camo uniform
  • with women/with my girlfriend/at pride and/or queer events
  • walking to a restaurant with my parents at age 13
  • picking up dog poop
  • giving a guy a lapdance.
  • doing the time warp
  • in an ambulance after I broke my LEG.
  • While at the top of a 20 foot ladder.
  • entering a house of worship
  • Unbathed in the aftermath of a hurricane by out of state rescue workers.
  • dressed as the Virgin Mary (not a joke)
  • karate uniform
  • dressed as a toy soldier for a production of The Nutcracker, at age 12
  • crying my eyes out over a family death
  • walking my son in stroller; attending a pro-choice lobby day at my state capital
  • wearing my Arby’s uniform
  • while having a job interview at an outside cafe
  • crying/ about to get an abortion
  • Like a fucking Amish lady
  • As a 9 year old, wearing overalls.
  • with horse-manure stains on my clothes and hay in my hair
  • wearing ann taylor
  • in a gargoyle costume (it was Halloween, and no, I wasn’t a “sexy gargoyle.”

In India, Blank Noise collects articles of clothing to show how men harass women in all sorts of clothes and that women “Never Ask For It.” This poll demonstrates the same thing. What is so frustrating to me about gender-based harassment compared to other forms of harassment is how much time we have to spend undoing victim-blaming, showing that this is an issue that women don’t bring on themselves, and proving its existence.

As hard as it may be for some people to believe or to have to face, the reality is that every day women are harassed by men just because we are women, not because of what we wear!! This is a societal problem and it must end before women will ever have a chance of achieving equality with men.

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Tokyo subway gropers organize online

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I’m conducting research for a street harassment article and I’ve gotten totally sidetracked by a story that escaped my attention last September.

As I’ve noted before, men groping women on the Tokyo subway system is a huge problem. There are even women-only cars to try to combat it. Well, last September Tokyo stepped it up a notch to hold “Groping Prevention Week” because men were organizing online and plotting out the best places to grope women!

Via MSN:

“The growing problem of groping on public transit has been exacerbated by the internet, as Japanese authorities have reported there are over a hundred websites in Japan designed for gropers — to swap information on the best train lines and travel times to cop a feel, and exchange stories and images of sneaky squeezes.

Guilty gropers face a fine of $6,000 and up to six months in prison, but it is believed that thousands of women keep uninvited train touches quiet due to modesty.”

Via Newser:

“Some gropers, encouraged by the websites, have been organizing into gangs to surround a victim while accomplices block the view of fellow passengers. Police warn that convicted gropers face up to 6 months in prison and a $6,000 fine. The crackdown—described as “groping prevention week”—snared its first groper within minutes: a 30-year-old man charged with grabbing a 15-year-old girl.”

Via Japan Today. High school girls help raise awareness about groping on the subway.

Via Japan Today:

“The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department launched an anti-groping campaign on Monday, with some 200 people including high school girls handing out fliers and tissues at Ikebukuro station and plain-clothed officers being posted aboard trains on lines which run through Tokyo.

Police said that plain-clothed male and female officers trained in anti-pickpocketing and other crime-prevention measures would patrol carriages [and] they would beef up their uniformed presence at major stations nine lines…Police said the number of incidents is increasing, and there have already been nearly 1,000 reported cases of groping or photos being taken up skirts in the first half of this year.”

So gropers have figured out how to use the Internet and are using it to get organized? Hmm. It is a high tech country and look at Japanese games like RapeLay…I guess it was inevitable. Let’s hope the crackdown by police lasted longer than a week (can’t tell from my google searches) so more of these idiots are arrested and others are deterred.

And let’s hope that would-be-gropers in other countries don’t get any ideas about organizing. Although, maybe that would be better. If we found their sites and figured out their plots, it would make it easier to fight back and rally together protesters, police, and the media to shame and arrest them! Because that’s one of the worst things about street harassment (including groping), not knowing when or where it will happen and then being too shocked and paralyzed to do anything when it does. So please, harassers, if you’re going to grope, stalk, and harass us, at least let us know so we can be prepared to fight back.

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Flashers, masturbators, and gropers beware

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Guys who feel like masturbating, flashing, or groping people on the subway better think twice unless they want to get caught and charged with a crime. Thanks to cell phone cameras, it’s easier than ever for people to snap photos of perpetrators and report the crimes.

HollaBack NYC has long advocated for the use of cell phone pictures to shame harassers and report those who cross the line to criminal activity. In fact, the idea for the blog was born after a woman in NYC used her cell phone to snap a picture of a subway masturbator and report him.

[Update: If you’re in the Astoria area of NYC, look out for this alleged subway sexual assaulter and if you see him, contact the police. The woman snapped his picture and has reported him]

A few months ago in Washington, D.C., a photo of a metro station upskirter and groper posted on HollaBack DC! helped lead to his arrest.

Via CNN

And now in Boston, CNN reports that a MBTA rider’s cell phone picture posted on Twitter led to the arrest of a subway flasher.

“Rider Nay Khun was riding the train Wednesday afternoon when he spotted the suspect ‘fidgeting with his crotch area with his zipper open and his penis exposed,’ according to the MBTA.

Khun immediately posted to his Twitter account a photo of the man, saying ‘pervert on the 2nd car of the red line … help me report him.’

The man is a known offender, MBTA police told CNN affiliate WHDH.

He was arrested Friday for open and gross lewdness, according to a statement from MBTA police.”

Nice work Khun and a big thank you to the Boston transit authority and police for taking this issue seriously.

No matter where you live, if you can, take pictures of harassers and post them online. If they grope, stalk, threaten, or masturbate at you, report them! Let’s use technology to our advantage and put these creeps on notice. They should know there will be consequences for their actions.

(Thanks Violet Kittappa, Director of Research and Development for Hollaback NYC, for the CNN story tip)

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