Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
Offensive Women’s Rachel Feinstein interviews & street harasses men in NYC. I love how she and her friend have the male posturing down when they’re leaning against the wall, “catcalling” (“dogcalling”?) men walking down the street. What do you think?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwpGdV5MQhY&hl=en&fs=1&]
From Nuala:
“This is an experimental piece about women ritually facing street harassment as they walk home. It mixes 16mm film, video, poetry and music in an effort to honor and reclaim our humanity in the public sphere. This is for the walkers, talkers and those who say nothing.”
Here’s another positive story from GivesMeHope.com about an interaction between strangers in public:
“When I was seven, my parents and I were travelling in New York and I rushed onto a subway just as the doors closed, leaving my family on the platform. I was absolutely terrified and hysterical, but one lady took the time to get off with me at the next stop and bring me back to the previous station. Sometimes strangers can be trusted. GMH.” – Kelly_kelly, July 6, 2009
Do you have a positive story you want to share about interactions with strangers in public? Submit it for inclusion on the blog.
(i dedicate this post to my partner, who is tired of hearing me tell depressing stories :/)
The NYTimes reports that in India, gender-based street harassment (or eve teasing) is so bad that the government has instituted a pilot program for eight new commuter trains exclusively for female passengers in India’s four largest cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta. They are called “Ladies Specials” and offer women relief from harassing men. (view a slideshow from NYTimes)
Gender-based harassment of women on public transportation is widespread. There are many countries that have instituted women-only subway or train cars, buses, or taxi cab services because so many girls and women are groped and harassed by men.
For example, some cities in Thailand, Mexico, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and UAE have women-only buses.
Japan, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, and South Korea are examples of countries with women-only subway cars in their major cities.
In some places in England, Russia, Australia, Lebanon, Iran, India, and the UAE, there are women-only taxi cabs with women drivers.
In the U.S., transit systems in NYC, Boston and Chicago are all struggling to deal with high rates of harassment. Both NYC and Boston have anti-harassment PSAs on some of their subway cars.
Women-only cars are only a band aid fix that does not fix the overall problem of men harassing women. Men will still harass them on the platform, in mixed car trains, on streets, in parks, etc. Separate cars can make women who can’t access women-only cars seem like fair game for harassing men. In Tokyo, which has women-only subway cars, there were 2,000 groping cases reported last year, 30% were of teenage girls. The crime is underreported, so imagine how much higher the figure may be. Again, Tokyo HAS women-only cars. This is not a solution.
Men must be taught to respect women and not see them as available for comment, touching, following, and assault when they are in public simply because they are female. Check out what Blank Noise is doing to address eve teasing in India (they aren’t advocating for separate train cars for women and men).
Thanks to my google alerts, I find gems like Lindsey’s PSA on street harassment (found via grandweerachel’s blog in a post where she talks about her street harassment experiences). Check it out!
(WordPress won’t let me embed the video. Click on the link to view it.)