Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Hearing on NYC Subway Harassment

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Earlier this week I called out the New York Times for trying to compare street harassment to loud cell phone talkers and said I hoped one day they would address the problem of street harassment in a serious way. Lo and behold, yesterday they covered harassment on public transportation.

The New York Times reported on a joint hearing of three City Council committees — Transportation, Women’s Issues and Public Safety — and officials from the Police Department and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to discuss sexual harassment on subways and buses.

At the hearing everyone acknowledged that this is a big problem in New York City, especially during late morning rush hour (8 to 10 a.m.) and early afternoon rush hour (4 to 6 p.m.).  The crowded Nos. 4, 5 and 6 lines between Grand Central Terminal and Union Square, they said, is a particular source of complaints.

James P. Hall, chief of the Police Department’s Transit Bureau, said that sexual harassment was the “No. 1 quality of life offense on the subway.” As of Nov. 15, there had been 587 reports of sex offenses in the subway system this year. He said, “However, we strongly suspect this is a highly underreported crime.” I agree!

Some of my street harassment activists friends who formed New Yorkers for Safe Transit testified too.

They are working on getting better reporting methods and numbers for sexual harassment and assault on the subways. This week Councilwoman Jessica S. Lappin introduced a bill that New Yorkers for Safe Transit support, one that would require the police to collect data on sexual harassment in the subways.

“This is important because historically, harassment is overlooked by law enforcement authorities,” said Oraia Reid, a founding member of New Yorkers for Safe Transit who testified at the hearing.

Ms. Reid, who is also the executive director of RightRides for Women’s Safety, said another challenge was to get law enforcement to take the harassment more seriously.

She added, “It’s actually been very disempowering to report sexual harassment and assault.”

Yeah, like remember when a woman got a photo of a man masturbating on the subway and reported it to a police officer who then told her, incorrectly, that it wasn’t a police matter and to call 311?

Another example – one woman who took my informal anonymous survey last year and lives in NYC said one time when she reported a man that was following her in the subway station to the police, the officer said he didn’t blame the guy (implying she was pretty and so it was natural for a man to follow her…). So clearly there are police officers who need more education and training on the issues and how to help people who report harassers.

But I’m glad the NY Times covered this story and this issue. We need them to keep on doing so!

I also want to say a big GREAT JOB! to New Yorkers for Safe Transit!! They’ve only been around about a year and already they are making a huge difference in the NYC community. Check out their website and submit your NYC mass transit sexual harassment story.

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He walks the wooded trail, she walks the well-lit road

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Today on my bus ride home from work, I ran into a woman I recognized from a volunteer grocery delivery route I do monthly. We had never met before and did so today. It turns out we live near each other. During our conversation, I mentioned how grateful I am for the wonderful paths everywhere in our area to run on and to walk my new dog. She said that her husband loves walking on a wooded path near their home but that she sticks to the main roads because she doesn’t feel safe anywhere else (and she’s probably in her early 50s. When does the fear end?) Now that it’s dark when we get home from work (we both have over an hour commute each way), she said she only sticks to main roads that are well lit for her walks.

I’ve always been told not to go walking or running alone in the dark. I remember being so jealous of one of my high school cross country guy friends who used to go on moonlit runs down a bikepath near our house on the weekends. My male cross country coach was an ultra runner and used to do all night trail runs on Friday nights. Now that I have a dog and it’s winter, I have to go out in the dark in order to walk him. Sometimes I run with him up and down the street near my home where it’s well lit because it’s dark elsewhere but we both need the exercise; I can’t put him on the treadmill with me. I’m grateful that I feel safe enough to run anywhere in my area in daylight and it would be nice to feel safe enough to run anywhere in the dark. There are 3+ more months until daylight savings!

One chapter of the street harassment book I’m working on talks about the fear so many women have in public in different circumstances and contexts and the various ways we restrict our freedom in public because of it. Not going out alone in the dark is just one of a chapter-full.

Even though I know all this, I was still struck by the matter-of-fact way my new friend – who doesn’t know I work on street harassment issues – talked about the gender difference in safety. She doesn’t feel safe on the trails while her husband does and so she doesn’t go on them while he does. It seemed to me that for her, she sees that restriction as just life. And that’s true for so many of us. It’s so ingrained in us that we don’t even question how crazy unfair it is that just because we are female we’re unsafe (and/or told we’re unsafe) in public.

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Don’t Grab An Ass Day!!

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HollaBack DC! alerted me to the Facebook event “Grab an Ass Day!” scheduled for tomorrow, Nov. 19.  I looked it up. There are over 20,000 confirmed guests and 4,000 more who are maybe’s. I also found a Facebook group called “National Grab Ass Days” with nearly 300 members.

I hope that the 20,000+ people who say they plan to grab an ass tomorrow are joking and won’t. Because, wow, how inappropriate, how illegal (in many contexts), and how upsetting to the person being grabbed if s/he did not explicitly give their consent.

Regularly reading stories from girls and women who have had traumatic experiences where random men grab their ass and other body parts while they’re in public, like on public transportation, makes me extra not okay with this event. Sure, if you’re among friends and everyone agrees (w/out peer pressure) to do this, whatever, it’s your life. But will people really seek consent before grabbing? And an event like this, portrayed in a light-hearted joking way, detracts from the seriousness of sexual assault and the way it negatively impacts people’s lives.

What would be better than Grab An Ass Day is a Don’t Grab An Ass  Day. Get a huge facebook group of people who vow NOT to grab an ass that day (unless they have consent) and raise awareness about the problem of  unwanted groping and other forms of sexual assault. Hell, why not take it a step further and get people to vow not to commit any form of sexual assault? That would really be a day I could get behind (lol).

(By the way, I posted a message on the Facebook event page saying I hoped people wouldn’t participate and it’s inappropriate etc and someone just sent me a message saying “grab an ass.” No thanks.)

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CTA anti-harassment ads

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Chicago transit riders may notice something new on their commutes. CTA recently launched print Public Service Announcements that say:

If it’s unwanted, it’s harassment. Touching. Rude comments. Leering. Speak up. If you see something, say something.

At the bottom, the ads list information for who to contact if a rider is the target of sexual harassment.

Both Boston and New York City have anti-sexual harassment subway ad campaigns too.

The Young Women’s Action Team‘s 2009 subway & bus survey results and recommendations led to Chicago’s campaign. They have been doing amazing work since 2003 and hopefully their successes will inspire other people to take action and work to make a difference in their own community too.

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It’s not the same

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Loud cell phone talkers are annoying and exhibit bad manners. The same is true for men who harass women on the streets. But, oh yeah, the men also are obnoxious, insulting, demeaning, infuriating, scary, and sometimes dangerous!

In an article about rudeness in public, the New York Times highlights ways some people confront those who have loud cell phone conversations in public or play their ipod way too loud. Then near the end of the article, the author mentions how one woman posts people’s cell phone conversations she overhears on her blog and that HollaBackNYC is a blog where women can submit photos of street harassers.* Whaatt?!

I hate that a big newspaper like the New York Times can characterize groping, stalking and sexually explicit comments as “bad etiquette” comparable to loud cell phone talkers in almost the same sentence. It’s a hell of a lot more than that!!

It’s predatory, bullying behavior that also oozes of male entitlement. (Men, it is not your right to talk to or try to get the attention of a woman in public just because you see her.) It contributes to women’ s continued inequality and leads most women to feel less safe and welcome in public than most men.

I hope that one day the NewYork Times will publish substantial articles about the problem of street harassment instead of articles like this one, in which it is mentioned offhand and out of context. And when I say substantial, I mean articles that don’ t just go: man masturbates on subway, woman takes photo and reports him, man is arrested. I mean stories that get at some of the complexities of street harassment and the very serious impact it has on the lives of so many girls and women.

*(I also think the author’s comparison of loud cell phone talkers to people who illegally park in handicap spots is off base. That is a fine-able offense; talking on a cell phone is not. Also, street harassment negatively impacts women and is perpetrated by men, illegal parking negatively impacts persons with disabilites and is perpetrated by able-bodied persons. As far as I know, loud cell phone talkers are not found primarily in any one demographic and they don’t impact only people in one demographic.)

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