Correspondent, Author at Stop Street Harassment

USA: My Suit of Armor

December 30, 2015 By Correspondent

Sara Conklin, Washington, DC, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

It’s finally starting to get cold this winter and I’ve breathed a sigh of relief. As a girl from the Sunshine State, throwing on winter apparel shouldn’t feel empowering – the idea of stuffing my body into multiple layers of fleece and faux-fur hooded parkas is about as foreign of a concept as the idea an apartment wouldn’t come with an air conditioner or saying “you all” vs. “ya’ll.” But, I’ve noticed an important change in my attitude when winter arrives that directly correlates to my experience as a woman walking in the city.

You see, I wear my coat like armor. It might not look like it conventionally, but I do. My armor protects me from unsolicited attention and non-consensual interactions that I so desperately try to avoid. Whether the feminist inside me screaming, “dressing modestly is a patriarchal concept of oppression!..” likes it or not, the more layers I wear, the less harassment I experience.

You cringed reading that, didn’t you? I cringed typing it. The hairs on my neck stood up at the thought of disappointing my peers who are working so hard to overthrow the policing of women’s dress and bodies. After all, shouldn’t a woman deserve respect regardless of a skirt versus a long coat? Ah yes, that would be the day. But, we currently live in a world where countless individuals believe that the more skin I show is a direct invitation into conversation and interaction. And so, for my entire life, I’ve been instructed to dress modestly, appropriately, and decently to fit a standard of dress that doesn’t attract attention; clothes that allow me to slip by unnoticed in a world that has standardized expectation for nearly everything in my life.

I live in Washington, DC and some days are hot like Hell. Summertime heat waves hit like a tidal wave and the whole city is sloppy with sweat. On these days, I, like everyone else, want to wear clothes that keep me cool. But, there is also a part of me that knows more skin means more attention and that means more unsafe situations. Is the risk worth it? The real issue is that this scenario is characterized as a “risk” in the first place.

Would you believe me when I told you one of the worst moments of my life was witnessing a mother on the subway whisper to her young daughter, “Cover her mouth when you yawn or else boys might get the wrong idea?” That was a horrible moment. Other horrible moments include the day I saw a young woman in a beautiful sundress which she clearly loved, lose her confidence in an instant when a man yelled something about her legs. Or, when I told my friend I was frustrated being repeatedly harassed by the same man on the sidewalk and he replied, “Honey, that’s what sunglasses and iPhone headphones are for.”

Because if it isn’t just the coat, it’s sunglasses to block my gaze, headphones to drown out sound, and a change of suitable clothes in my gym bag that act as tools to blockade the unsafe pieces of the world around me. I was unconsciously creating a physical barrier between the world and myself to gain back a little more control, or rather, any control at all.

I am embarrassed that I feel somehow responsible for reinforcing a dictatorial concept. Each time I change what I wear to be perceived as more modest I feel progressively more angry and resentful. When I pop in headphones to silence potential commentary, they’re getting away with it. We all deserve respect no matter what we wear. But, until I get that respect, I will wear my winter coat like armor, my sunglasses like a mask, and my headphones like a personal white noise machine.

Sara works in fundraising events at an organization that empowers women who face homelessness through recovery, wellness training, and housing. She runs her own photography company (saraconklinphotography.com) and a popular website that seeks to connect the world through pictures, sarapose.com.

USA: Bodies on the Threshold: Violence against Sex Workers

December 29, 2015 By Correspondent

Hannah Rose Johnson, Arizona, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

“The body of the sex worker is one that does not have personal boundaries. Someone who people penetrate all the time. Just like air penetrating the skeleton’s body,” says Maggie Palmer of Hey Baby! Art Against Sexual Violence! in Tucson, AZ, of her latest art piece.

“The skeleton has no skin layer, which centers the mis-perception that sex workers can’t experience street harassment because they are not fully human.” The skeleton sculpture exists in liminal space, she says. “It’s not what we identify as a body, and is clearly a body.” This is symbolic of the ways in which communities deal with gender violence and the deconstruction of heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality.

Maggie started the piece for December 17th, the International Sex Workers Day of Remembrance. The purpose of the piece is to use the red umbrella, the chosen symbol of resistance for sex workers, and incorporate themes of invisible bodies through the use of the skeleton. The skeleton has dual meanings–violence against sex workers and intersectional identities such as immigrant, drug users, trans bodies, and people of color. She says, “It centers that violence against sex workers is violence against other marginalized identities. By invisibilizing violence against sex workers, violence is invisibilized against these other identities.”

The cultural narrative built around sex workers is that their bodies are disposable and live in the margins. It is purposeful that Maggie hangs the skeleton in public spaces rather than enclosed buildings. Sex worker bodies are pushed to the margins and bringing the sculpture into the street recenters those margins. She says, “The skeleton’s boundaries are permeable. There is an idea that the dominant power structure is surveilling marginalized bodies…and that the marginalized body is fundamentally flawed. Flaw creates circumstance, as opposed to looking at institutionalized racism, transphobia etc. If you are not fully formed, you have created this. And if you conform to society’s expectations, you don’t have to live a marginalized experience.”

What I find so interesting is that thinking about circumstance invokes the value of choice. But choice is not a factor when we look and name systems and institutions that are built on racism, neoliberal economics and heteronormativity. Maggie and I agree that neither lived experience of survival sex and sex work as a choice is more or less valid. “The sex worker body loses the right to consent,” she says. When a body loses the right to consent, that body has no boundaries. If a body doesn’t have boundaries, acts of violence are justified. Social systems, the way we treat “normal” bodies versus “perserve” bodies reflect gender violence that is bound up in racism, neoliberal economics, citizenship status, HIV status, gender identity and sexual orientation. This is uncomfortable, which Maggie demonstrates in her sculpture.

“The way the sculpture moves in space is disorientating. It swings back and forth, it is a hanging piece. It blows around and does unexpected things you can’t control. This symbolizes how disorienting it is for communities to deconstruct heteronormativity,patriarchy, and gender violence. It forces us to get into a space of ‘unknown.’”

Maggie says that street harassment, a form of sexual violence, is a way in which to subjugate and turn bodies into commodities for aesthetic pleasure. And street harassment sometimes punishes for not being aesthetically pleasing enough. This sculpture breaks that gaze, and shocks it. The viewer is reminded of what gender violence and sexual violence really is. She tells me that the skeleton is very exposed, and so is street harassment and sexual violence. Maggie says, “The skeleton is calling upon who has the right to privacy. Marginalized do not have access or the right to privacy.” The viewer can see right through the skeleton, can see the landscape and city scape right through the ribs and behind the torso.

She says, “This piece is representative of the continuum of violence and social constructs that make violence against sex workers possible.”

The sculpture is currently back in a bag in a closet somewhere in southern Arizona.

Hannah Rose is writing from Tucson, Arizona and Lewiston, Maine (US) as she transitions from the Southwest to the Northeast for a career in sexual violence prevention and advocacy at the college level. You can check her out on the collaborative artistic poetic sound project HotBox Utopia.

The Netherlands: The Revolution Will be Tweeted

December 16, 2015 By Correspondent

Eve Aronson, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, SSH Blog Correspondent

What’s in a word? In a character?

During last February’s Super Bowl Sunday in the US, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton found out.

With her excruciatingly ordinary tweet about American football and politics, Clinton unintentionally showed the power of 140 characters broadcast to 4.9 million vaguely- connected social media followers.

According to blogger Bridget Coyne, the tweet was retweeted over 57,000 times and prompted 33,600 new followers, ten times Clinton’s average daily follower growth.

While there are plenty of social media critics out there (and there are many), there is no denying the powerful potential of social media platforms to provoke engagement and build interest in everything from funny cats to presidential debates.

In the sphere of anti-street harassment, social media is being used to not only quickly broadcast people’s experiences but to connect and empower folks with shared experiences.

Not unlike Clinton’s wildly popular tweet, more and more people are engaging with social media platforms like Twitter, and important issues like street harassment are gaining some serious momentum.

The figure below maps the global conversation about street harassment using the hashtag #endSH from 2014-2015:

(Source: Followthehashtag 2015)

With a reach of over 13 million, the above map speaks not only to global experiences of street harassment, but also to individuals around the world collectively exposing the phenomenon and, in doing so, working to unsettle and resist the power structures that sustain it.

Towards Sousveillance

We can also look at simple actions like tweeting as a means to empower those targeted in street harassment interactions— like women of all backgrounds and people of color or LGBTQ folks of all genders— by turning what is conventionally known as the “gaze” back onto harassers.

This practice of using social media to do this— either by sharing a story, an opinion or by offering virtual support to someone else posting about their experience— is what is called “sousveillance”.

Coupled with digital technologies like mobile phone apps, geo mapping or online platforms for sharing experiences about street harassment, what ‘sousveillence’ does is put the ball back into the court of the individual who experiences street harassment.

We can see in the map below how, for example, Hollaback! New York embeds geo mapping into its site to “sousvey” harassers as well as to visualize and map bystander presence. On the map, red dots represent reports of street harassment, while green dots represent individuals reporting bystander presence:

(source: Hollaback! NYC)

The image above isn’t just a bunch of red and green dots— each dot represents an experience of street harassment like hissing, leering or groping. And having experienced street harassment and knowing that you’re not along has a greater impact than you might think.

“[I]t makes me feel better to know that there are other women going through the same thing,” stated an anonymous submitter to Hollaback!. “I know I can be a little star on the map for someone else so they know they are not alone either”.

In the Netherlands Online

Although most Amsterdam survey respondents in my research earlier this year had not visited a specific website dedicated to combatting street harassment, almost half have tweeted or posted their thoughts or experiences of street harassment on social media. This finding is huge and signals a need that, for example, engaging more with these technologies could help to fill.

When searching for online platforms and digital technologies in the Netherlands being used to map and resist street harassment, Straatintimidatie (Street intimidation), an online campaign in the Netherlands that is vying for a law against street harassment, was the only online presence that I came across.

Straatintimidatie does not have a space—online or off—for community members to share stories and strategies about street harassment. Nevertheless, the campaign’s Twitter feed has a combined reach of over 52,000 people, which is considerable and indicates that engaging more in online activism about street harassment in Amsterdam and throughout the Netherlands could gain significant momentum with the introduction of more diverse online platforms.

As we saw with the hashtag campaigns above, there are evidently immense pools of people using these online platforms, which can be tapped into in the fight against street harassment in the Netherlands.

If a single tweet like Clinton’s can instantly engage tens of thousands, imagine the disruptive potential of billions of virtual voices— in the Netherlands and beyond— demanding an end to street harassment.

Hashtag activism is not only a lot of people talking; it’s a lot of people talking about specific issues that gain momentum over time and have the potential to effect change on unprecedented scales.

So the next time you sign onto your social media account, get excited. Get excited about the incredible amount of power at your fingertips; the millions of people ready to answer your call to action; and, one character at a time (but not more than 140!); it’s time to turn the tide against street harassment together.

You can find the full analysis of the Amsterdam survey results here or by contacting Eve atevearonson@gmail.com. Follow Eve and Hollaback! Amsterdam on Twitter at @evearonson and @iHollaback_AMS and show your support by liking Hollaback! Amsterdam’s Facebook pagehere.

UK: “This is my culture man, this is my show”

December 15, 2015 By Correspondent

Tracey Wise, London, UK, SSH Blog Correspondent

Frank Turner, courtesy of his press agent

After the unfortunate harassment incident that led me to create Safe Gigs for Women, I was acutely aware that the band I had gone to see, Manic Street Preachers, would not have condoned such behaviour, so why did someone at one of their shows think this was appropriate?

With its focus on music, it makes perfect sense that Safe Gigs for Women should seek to work with bands and artists to get them on side. They have a ready-made platform to reach out to people, so having their support is essential.

In approaching artists to gain their support, Frank Turner seemed a natural choice. Known for his beliefs in libertarianism, egalitarianism and a passion for music that more than rivals my own, he very kindly offered his support and agreed to meet me to discuss this during his recent UK tour, at Nottingham’s Rock City. I also met his supporting artists Will Varley and Lorna Thomas from Skinny Lister. It seems like an odd time to be writing this blog, after the events in Paris, but these interviews were planned before the terrorist attack which left 89 people who had been at an Eagles of Death Metal gig, dead.

Safety at gigs seems a much wider notion right now. But in discussing whether Frank Turner believes artists have a responsibility towards the safety of their fans, his stance is that of having “a duty of care” towards those that have paid to see him. Indeed, Turner has been known to stop shows to confront unwanted behaviour by members of the crowd, and further states “of course, I don’t want people getting hurt at my shows”. Whilst he may be comfortable, at times to intervene, he is also thankful for the role of security at shows, proving, again, that achieving safer gigs at women will take a multi-faceted response.

As I acknowledged in my first blog for Stop Street Harassment, there have been notable cases of female artists being groped at shows. When I raised this with Turner, Varley and Thomas, Varley highlighted that, unfortunately, that there is a small “proportion of arseholes” at gigs. Thomas admitted to being recently groped whilst crowd surfing at a Skinny Lister show. In discussing this with Turner he acknowledges that he believes he was “naive”, having never realised that this happens, further stating his reaction to be “Really? Who would do that?” and being certain that no men he knows would ever act in such a way. And this is the crux of the matter – if Turner, my friends and myself are sure that the people we know are not behaving like this, then it is a small group of people making it difficult for women, emphasising the need for campaigns like this, and bands and artists to engage with gig goers to get them to think about their behaviour.

Since starting this project, some commentators have put it to me that women-only shows are the answer. I do not agree, for numerous reasons. I am not an economist, or schooled in the music business, but how would the cost of this impact on smaller, independent labels, venues and acts? As a consumer of music in my own right, as covered in my last blog, surely I have the right to attend the events I choose, with whomever I want to?

Furthermore, and most importantly, it automatically assumes the worst of men. As most of my friends are male, and as the aunt to a 5-year-old boy, this offends me as much as it upsets me. Discussing the notion of women only gigs, Frank Turner states he finds this “defeatist” and “sexist, it says men are beyond any redemption”. This was also shared by Will, stating that “segregation is not the answer”, and Lorna emphasising that what is really needed is a “mind shift”. Considering there are so many men out there doing good to support this project, such as the White Ribbon Project, the artists who supported our first fundraiser, including Jukebox Monkey and Peter Von Toy, and Frank Turner himself, women only gigs feels like a massive step backwards.

Recent world events have shown just how crucial music is in the world around us. And that is why the support of artists like Will Varley, Skinny Lister and Frank Turner is so important. Because, as Turner puts it, “what better forum is there to try and teach people not to be pricks?”

Born and raised in London, Tracey is a graduate of City University. She has spent the best part of her life at gigs and festivals and obsessing about music and created the “Safe Gigs for Women” project.

USA: Engaging Male Allies to End Violence Against Women

December 14, 2015 By Correspondent

Meghna Bhat, Chicago, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

A few months ago, I came across Emma Watson’s brave efforts to promote gender equality. Her interview with Malala Yousafzai highlighted the need to address feminism and how this movement should include men as allies. As Watson correctly pointed out, “Let’s not make it scary to say you’re a feminist. I want to make it a welcoming and inclusive movement. Let’s join our hands and move together so we can make real change. Malala and I are pretty serious about it but we need you.”

It’s our collective responsibility, especially male allies, to create awareness about gender violence, prevent and intervene this vicious cycle.

My experiences growing up with positive male role models/allies and Watson’s message resonates with the research and advocacy of Dr. Jackson Katz. He is an educator, author, filmmaker and cultural theorist who is a pioneer in the fields of gender violence prevention education and media literacy. His 2013 speech on TED talk titled, “Violence against women—it’s a men’s issue” showed that domestic violence and sexual abuse, which are often labeled as “women’s issues,” are often “intrinsically men’s issues” and he “shows how these violent behaviors are tied to definitions of manhood.”

According to a report by the New York State Department of Health, research has consistently shown that a majority of men are conflicted about violence against women. Most of these men may not even “recognize when it is happening nor know how to stop it”. Another factor that can make men defensive and doubtful of participating in the efforts to end gender violence is “treating [or stereotyping] males as potential perpetrators.”

There are many social service agencies and organizations promoting and practicing this model of engaging men as allies to prevent and intervene gender-violence. Have you watched the powerful documentary “The Mask You Live In” by The Representation Project? I highly recommend it. I have found this film to be educating, inspiring and an eye-opening experience that needs to be screened to our children and youth.

This film focuses on boys’ and young men’s struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity. Young children, especially boys, need to feel safe to be themselves and express their emotions without the fear of being bullied, labeled, mocked, or rejected by other children and adults. They must not feel pressured to fit within the problematic binary roles or other rigid frameworks of masculinity our society expects them to claim.

If you need further details of how these programs and agencies implement this model of engaging male allies or men as partners in combating gender violence, I have listed a few of the examples and resources that I have come across and found to be useful (including as teaching resources):

Mentors in Violence Prevention: A program intended to create public awareness about men’s violence against women, challenge how the mainstream society thinks, and initiating community dialogues between men and women to identify long-term tangible options.

Coaching Boys into Men: The only evidence-based prevention program designed to train high school coaches to teach their male athletes healthy relationship skills and that “violence never equals strength.”

Men as Partners: At EngenderHealth, this program includes working with “men to play constructive roles in promoting gender equity and health in their families and communities”. Through their interactive skills -building workshops and enhanced health care facilities among other services, they strive to confront negative stereotypes about being men and provide men with quality care.

Men Can Stop Rape: Works towards mobilizing men for creating cultures free from violence, especially men’s violence against women through their strengths and sustainable initiatives.

Movement against Sexual Violence: At the University of Illinois at Chicago, I am fortunate to have colleagues who represent and lead the Men against Sexual Violence, now called as the Movement against Sexual Violence. This student group aims to engage and involve people, especially male-identified allies to join in the fight against sexual violence. Through their workshops such as ‘Reimagining Masculinity’ and events, they encourage us to challenge the negative stereotypes and images of gender roles. Although I haven’t got an opportunity to attend these events myself, I am looking forward to being a part of these important and powerful dialogues and community conversations next semester!

Dr. Katz calls out to all men and women to stand up and advocate for changes to end violence against women. He further raises these very critical questions that we all need to think about:

“How can we do something differently? How can we change the practices? How can we change the socialization of boys and the definitions of manhood that lead to these current outcomes? These are the kind of questions that we need to be asking and the kind of work that we need to be doing?”

If you want more ideas for what men can do to prevent gender violence, click here.

Meghna is a doctoral candidate in the Criminology, Law, and Justice program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with a specialization in Gender and Women Studies. She is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses on representations of violence against women in a widely viewed form of Indian popular culture, Bollywood cinema.

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