Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Anti-Groping Subway Campaign on Hold

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The wonderful ladies of HollaBackNYC wrote a great piece in the New York Daily News about the MTA’s anti-groping campaign going on hold apparently for fear of inadvertently encouraging more groping…

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“Someone at the MTA seems worried about exposing the dirty underbelly of the city’s transportation network. They’d rather ignore it – and hope that it’ll go away. That’s a little like hoping the rats on the tracks will vanish if we avert our eyes every time they rear their beady little eyes.

Subway ads will work. First and most importantly, they will formalize the idea that subway groping is unacceptable. That will lead New York City women, like their Boston counterparts, to feel comfortable in calling out lewd pervs on their behavior. A likely rise in the number of incidents reported will be something to celebrate – because it’ll mean a rise in the number of men caught in the act.”

Definitely read the full article, it’s a good one and if you live in NYC, have ever visited NYC and taken the subway, or are just passionate about ending street harassment, write to the MTA and ask that they run the subway ad campaign.

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Men like to harass in Egypt

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The Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights has been involved in anti-street harassment activism work for several years, so the recent headline in Reuters “Two-thirds of Egyptian men harass women?” about the high levels of street harassment in Egypt is no surprise to me.

In a survey of more than 2,000 Egyptian men and women and 109 foreign women, “62 percent of Egyptian men reported perpetrating harassment, while 83 percent of Egyptian women reported having been sexually harassed. Nearly half of women said the abuse occurred daily.” I wonder where the people who took this survey live in Egypt – like is it worse in the cities the way it seems to be in the US? Regardless, those are high numbers but not really surprising.

I’d like to say the following facts were surprising but they’re not either. “53 percent of men blamed women for bringing on sexual harassment, saying they enjoyed it or were dressed in a way deemed indecent. Some women agreed.” Hey, they’re just like people in the US and the UK who blame women for getting harassed! Don’t believe it? Just find any story on street harassment that allows for comments and then you’ll very quickly realize how many people have that opinion. Riiight, it’s women’s fault men can’t keep their mouths closed and hands to themselves…

This part of the story is particularly interesting to me: “The vast majority of women did nothing when confronted with sexual harassment,” the survey said, adding that most Egyptian women believed the victim should “remain silent.” Is that because they are afraid of getting hurt or being assertive or what, I wonder? I wonder what people in the US would say about how the victim of street harassment should act. When one feels safe and confident enough to, I advocate saying something to them or reporting them to a person of authority or their company etc. I just don’t think that ignoring them deters them. How do you think they should act?

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Gender Equity Festival 2008

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For those in New York this weekend, check this out —

Girls for Gender Equity presents:
The 3rd Annual NYC Gender Equality Festival
a celebration of arts and activism in central Brooklyn
July 19, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Von King Park between Tompkins & Marcy at Lafayette

A FREE public event for education, networking, resource sharing, community interaction, arts, recreation and entertainment.

The Festival will feature arts organizations, service groups, youth organizations, educators, grassroots organizers, and nonprofits as well as:

  • Food & Refreshments!
  • Guest Speakers!
  • Live Performances!
  • Giveaways of wonderful prizes!

Artists, community organizations, and local politicians will participate, offering inspirational performances and important information to attendees about a wide variety of topics – responding to street harassment, HIV/AIDS, self defense, youth leadership, every day activism, ending police violence, reproductive justice, and more.

Girls for Gender Equity’s Sisters in Strength teen interns will also be presenting the findings from their groundbreaking research on sexual harassment in NYC schools. As the first high school lead Participatory Action Research project on the topic, their goals are to raise awareness about students’ experiences of harassment and make recommendations for change. Girls for Gender Equity is forming a coalition to address this crucial issue, and extends an invitation to organizations interested in participating in this effort.

To find out more, visit www.ggenyc.org.

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"Catcalls nearing extinction" ?

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There are fewer catcalls from construction workers because more women complain about them and there are more women working in construction, according to the Miami Herald.

I don’t know about you but I haven’t been harassed by construction workers in years. I always get upset when I see them continued to be stereotyped in commercials, tv shows, and movies as the only street harassers because in my experience, it’s the random guys passing me in cars or standing on the street that harass! Men on public transportation are also a big pain, especially when they grope you or start masturbating in front of you. So reducing the ugliness of street harassment to a few whistles from construction workers trivializes something that is a big problem for a lot of women and does nothing to help educate people about its pervasiveness or the negative impact it can have on women’s lives.

What have been your experiences with construction workers? Have you reported them if you’ve been harassed? Do you think they still deserve to be stereotyped as harassers?

And, as always with articles condemning street harassment that allow people to leave comments, there are some real “gems” following this one. For example, these two:

“People that complain about catcalls are spoiling one of the few opportunities for a bad looking gal to raise their self steem [sic] and feel good about her looks. Gernerally, [sic] the complainers are people that want to express their disatisfaction [sic] with life, in other words they are sour and disgruntled.”

[like women really want to be judged “poor looking” and then get shouted at out of pity. thank you for your charity mr. god’s gift to women.]

“As American President of NACHOS, National Associaton of Catcalling Hardhatted Ogres, I demand our right of free speech. When women dress they way they do then get mad at the result its time to look at the real problem here.”

[poor man, the real problem appears to be that he has no control over his mouth and loves victim blaming]

Oiye oiye oiye … so much education is needed!!

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“Catcalls nearing extinction” ?

By

There are fewer catcalls from construction workers because more women complain about them and there are more women working in construction, according to the Miami Herald.

I don’t know about you but I haven’t been harassed by construction workers in years. I always get upset when I see them continued to be stereotyped in commercials, tv shows, and movies as the only street harassers because in my experience, it’s the random guys passing me in cars or standing on the street that harass! Men on public transportation are also a big pain, especially when they grope you or start masturbating in front of you. So reducing the ugliness of street harassment to a few whistles from construction workers trivializes something that is a big problem for a lot of women and does nothing to help educate people about its pervasiveness or the negative impact it can have on women’s lives.

What have been your experiences with construction workers? Have you reported them if you’ve been harassed? Do you think they still deserve to be stereotyped as harassers?

And, as always with articles condemning street harassment that allow people to leave comments, there are some real “gems” following this one. For example, these two:

“People that complain about catcalls are spoiling one of the few opportunities for a bad looking gal to raise their self steem [sic] and feel good about her looks. Gernerally, [sic] the complainers are people that want to express their disatisfaction [sic] with life, in other words they are sour and disgruntled.”

[like women really want to be judged “poor looking” and then get shouted at out of pity. thank you for your charity mr. god’s gift to women.]

“As American President of NACHOS, National Associaton of Catcalling Hardhatted Ogres, I demand our right of free speech. When women dress they way they do then get mad at the result its time to look at the real problem here.”

[poor man, the real problem appears to be that he has no control over his mouth and loves victim blaming]

Oiye oiye oiye … so much education is needed!!

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