Correspondent, Author at Stop Street Harassment

USA: Street Harassment Doesn’t Stop in College

August 13, 2015 By Correspondent

Laura Voth, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

One of the most disheartening aspects of being a woman in this world today is the unpredictability of our environments. Even in spaces that we would expect to be more respectful or tolerant than others (for example, an art gallery compared to a city street), we still encounter threatening situations.

Street harassment on college campuses certainly exists, but it manifests itself in quite a different way than in other spaces. During the day at least it involves much more staring and leering than derogatory comments, and even then it isn’t so prevalent as it is on, say, a city street.

At night, and especially on weekends, the mood shifts. Groups of college boys, already slightly drunk from pregaming, hassle any lone women they spot. Like in any situation, it doesn’t matter what the woman is wearing or how she is acting: they harass indiscriminately. They call out whistles and commentary on their target’s appearance, sometimes even following the woman until she ducks into a well-lit building. The perpetrators will slap each other on the back, hooting and laughing, proud to have asserted their dominance in the presence of their peers.

Shockingly, some of the biggest harassers at my school are actually high school students (at least, that’s the word on the street, and they certainly don’t look any older than sixteen or seventeen). They drive around campus and whistle at the college women, only to floor it when their targets notice them.

This summer, a guy has been using a pseudonym on Facebook to send friend requests to women at my college. He sends messages claiming to be a research student in the psychology department (I’m not even sure what he thought he could possibly mean by “research student”) who is performing a study that would involve a free foot massage.

A close friend of mine alerted the psychology department as well as the Dean of Student Affairs, both of whom have reported back to her saying that there is no individual by that name at the school. They are looking into the situation, but I’m still concerned. Incoming first-year students frequently use Facebook to connect to others at my college, regardless of whether they have met the people they’re “friending” in person. They have questions about everything from life at our school to specific classes and have no reason to be suspicious—and they shouldn’t have to be.

Students frequently forget about the realities of the world while we’re in our little college bubble, especially if we are living in a small, remote town. We pay through the nose not only to get an education but also to fund our safety on campus in the form of better lighting and security, but too frequently we find that those have little impact on our experiences. For women, the facts of what the world is like never really disappear.

What street harassment have you experienced in college?

Laura is an emerging adult-slash-college student studying to enter a healthcare profession. In addition to studying and writing, Laura works at her university’s women’s center where she helps design and implement programs on all things lady.

UK: An interview with Bryony Beynon of Hollaback! London

August 10, 2015 By Correspondent

Ruth Mair, UK, SSH Blog Correspondent

When it comes to street harassment, the use of the word “street” is seen kind of as a catch-all. Anyone who has observed harassment, or experienced it knows that the street is just one of the many spheres of public space where it can occur, and since so many spaces are so very different, there must be different approaches to combating harassment that are tailored (as much as possible anyway) to the space they are hoping to make safe and fully public.

There are a variety of ongoing projects in different cities across the world to combat the harassment of women, LGBTQ people, and any vulnerable individuals who are likely to have encountered that kind of treatment. This week I spoke to Bryony Beynon of Hollaback! London, who has been independently advising Project Guardian, British Transport Police’s (BTP) and Transport for London’s (TFL) initiative to tackle unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport, on the progress that has been made, and the work that still needs to be done.

“It’s been a really interesting journey,” Beynon told me, “although it has been slightly disappointing to see how TFL – less so BTP – are so reticent to put out a message that this kind of violence is happening across their network.”

The “Report it, Stop it” video and Tumblr Beynon calls “quite brilliant” and I am inclined to agree. TFL and BTP have clearly learned a lot from the advice and support of people like Beynon through Hollaback! London, as well as consulting with the Everyday Sexism Project and End Violence against Women Coalition. However as Beynon and I spoke it became clear that there are certain barriers still preventing a more thorough and widespread campaign.

“The ‘Report it, Stop it’ video got over 1 million views, and TFL were really pleased with that. But given that 24 million journeys are made on their network every day, wouldn’t a poster reach more people?”

Beynon explained to me that, since the video was up on YouTube as targeted advertising, there was a limit to which audiences it could reach- targeting 18-30 year old women depending on what other videos they were watching obviously excludes a significant proportion of the population that might experience harassment on street harassment, and although Beynon is the first to acknowledge that she is an activist, not a communications person, this does appear to be an unintentionally blinkered response on the part of TFL, to the issue of sexual harassment on public transport. Bearing in mind also that on TFL’s own pages concerning “Safety tips for using public transport” and “Information on reporting a crime” there is no reference to sexual harassment, or to the BTP text number (61016) specifically created for the reporting of such crimes, although there are plenty of references to taking extra care not to trip down escalators when drunk.

“It’s a really simple message,” says Beynon, but there is a clear reluctance to put such information on posters in case they scare people. However this seems to be a reflection of the perpetuation of the view that a sexual harasser is still “a shadowy man in a mac.”

“The video was great because the guy who was harassing the woman in it was in a suit, and clearly looked like a commuter. That much more accurately matches the profile of harassers from stories that we (Hollaback London) collect.” But there seems to be a block on acknowledging that sexual assault on the TFL network is no different to attacks on members of staff (some of whom happen to also be women) that TFL have also run brilliant campaigns to help prevent.

“There seems to be this idea that posters about unwanted sexual behaviour won’t work because the only people doing it (the harassing) are people who are somehow pre-programmed to do it anyway. It’s stuck in that mode, rather than realising that it’s about power and wanting to control someone else.”

However, as Beynon points out, there are many other projects similar to this that have been highly successful, and reflect a much broader approach to communicating the extent of the issue, as well as the solutions to it. In New York City, the NYPD are working with the MTA, and have messages in subway stations and on trains stating that “A crowded train is no excuse for an improper touch” along with posters and a website with a reporting tool that has been live since October 2014. In Washington, DC, SSH and Collective Action for Safe Spaces have worked with the transit authority since 2012 and their second wave of posters was up this spring saying, “If it’s unwanted, it’s harassment.”

Similarly in Boston, MA, the MBTA launched an app called “See Say” in 2012, allowing passengers to report “suspicious” behaviours- including harassment. In the UK, Nottingham’s public transit is launching an initiative called Project Regard, based on the Project Guardian model of the BTP, but have already had posters on their buses concerning unwanted sexual behaviour for quite some time. Clearly such projects can be successful, in a variety of different contexts.

However, as Beynon and I agree, sometimes that “extra push” outside of all the other messages that women receive constantly telling them that such harassment is the norm, and that they are expected to get on with their day and ignore it, could be quite significant, even to those of us who are engaging frequently with activism relating to street harassment. For all of those who are less engaged, the extra information from posters, stating repeatedly that we do not have to just accept or ignore such harassment, could be absolutely integral to their feeling safe on public transport. But hopefully this will be the next step of TFL in their campaign. This is a long term project, and affecting behavioural change is the only way to really improve the situation. TFL have made progress, with significant support and input of groups like Hollaback, Everyday Sexism, and others, but there is still a long way to go before their campaign will be on the level of more extensive ones like New York’s MTA.

If you would like to support Hollaback! London, there is due to be a call out for volunteers at some point in the next few months. Sharing stories and testimony is really important for Hollaback’s campaigns, so if you have any stories relating to harassment on public transport, or if any of this information regarding reporting is new to you and you would have liked to have seen it on posters on the TFL network then you can share your stories here.

Ruth is a human rights MA student finishing her MA dissertation on the legal and normative rights of terror suspects in the UK (spoiler alert: rights are being violated). She also plays bass in a band called Kinshot, sews as often as she can, and spends time getting annoyed at the cat sleeping on top of her computer.

Spain: Col·lectiu Punt 6: Shaping public spaces with a gender approach

July 29, 2015 By Correspondent

Rebecca Smyth, Spain, SSH Blog Correspondent

Espacio vital y equipado delante del Mercado de Santa Caterina_barrio de la Ribera_Barcelona

Tucked away down one of the many labyrinthine streets of Barcelona’s El Born district, Col·lectiu Punt 6 is an organisation formed by and intent on forming the space which it occupies. They very kindly invited me along for a chat on Tuesday to tell me about their origins, development and objectives.

The first seeds were planted in 2004, when the Catalan government of the time passed the so-called ‘Llei de barris’ (Llei 2/2004 de millora de barris, àrees urbanes i viles que requereixen una atenció especial to give it its full title; it roughly translates to ‘law for the improvement of neighbourhoods, urban areas and towns which require special attention’). An ambitious project, the law aimed to improve civic participation and social inclusion through a multi-pronged approach to urban planning and development.

In order to receive funding, any proposed project must include action on eight ‘points’, the sixth of which is the promotion of gender equality in the use of public space and facilities – hence the collective’s name. It began life as a project sponsored by l’Institut Catala de la Dona (Catalan Institute of Women) in collaboration with l’Universitat Politecnic de Catalunya (Polytechnic University of Catalonia) and hasn’t shown any sign of slowing down since.

From 2006 to 2011, the group gained momentum, members and influence. It facilitated workshops with diverse groups and provided formal and informal training. 2011 saw the formalisation of the collective, which operates on a cooperative-type basis.

And goodness are they a formidable bunch: architects, sociologists and activists, often all in one, Punt 6 is a group on a mission. They have an extensive list of publications to their names (available here and here) as well as a strong presence in the vibrant world of Barcelona activism. They organised a Jane’s Walk in May of this year and have collaborated with other feminist organisations in Barcelona in the innumerable marches, festivals and street parties that punctuate daily life in the city.

As if that wasn’t enough for a group of people trying to write their doctoral theses, they also have projects in Málaga, Argentina and Colombia. The link between Punt 6 and Latin America is a strong one, given that one of their founding members, feminist architect and activist Zaida Muxí Martínez, is originally from Argentina.

I had the privilege to meet Blanca Gutiérrez Valdivia, Sara Ortiz Escalante and Roser Casanovas on Tuesday morning, and bombarded them with questions about their experiences thus far.

If there’s one thing that struck me as I sat and chatted away with them, it was just how much can be achieved by a small group of people with a clear idea of what they want to do. I felt and still feel immensely buoyed up by having witnessed first-hand their impressive work.

Having talked about where they’d come from, the conversation moved to where they hope to go and how they want to get there. Ultimately, their goal is to reshape urban space so that it takes into account women’s needs and experiences. This in turn requires an intersectional approach to six key themes: public spaces, facilities, mobility, housing, public participation and safety. This boils down to whether or not women and other minorities not only feel safe passing through public spaces, but also feel welcome to participate in them. They want to make women’s experience of urban space more visible, and also facilitate women’s awareness of urbanism and how to influence it. Along with this grassroots approach, they’ve worked in conjunction with local government initiatives. Like I said, a formidable bunch.

When asked about the wider political and social context here in Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain, all three women were unanimous in their agreement that it has shaped their work. There’s a longstanding tradition of political engagement and activism in this corner of the world, and the impact of the recession has also increased the already-existing desire for a social and political system that protects everyone’s interests and wellbeing. When asked about the interminable independence debate, theirs was a collective shrug. “Whatever happens,” Sara said, “We’ll continue our work.”

** For more information on Col·lectiu Punt 6, visit http://punt6.org/. Sincere thanks to Blanca, Sara and Roser for their time and willingness to share their experiences. **

Rebecca is currently living, working and stumbling through ballet classes in Barcelona. Originally from Kilkenny, she has a degree in European Studies and a Master’s in Gender and Women’s Studies from Trinity College Dublin, and will be doing an LLM in Human Rights Law in Edinburgh this fall.

USA: The Power of No

July 23, 2015 By Correspondent

Laura Voth, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

One of the most powerful actions a woman can take is to say no. Of course, because it is an act of power from a woman, saying no is also tantamount to playing Russian roulette.

As women, we can never be certain of the potential consequences of saying no to men. Saying no can earn us a downcast but respectful concession, or it could mean a bullet in your body. No could result in a demand for a reason, or it could end in a figure following you down the street, showing up at the gym, or repeated texts. No could mean rape threats on your voicemail or nasty language at the water cooler—or it could simply mean an awkward few days around the pal who asked you to dinner.

To avoid the consequences of the word no, we put up armor to protect ourselves. We listen to those who advise us to never walk alone at night and to never drink too much, even though we know that anything will be “too much” if we’re accosted later. We flash our fashionable rings if a man gets too close. We casually mention “my husband” or “my boyfriend” regardless of our relationship status, because we know that they will respect the property of another man more than a woman’s verbal no. We download apps that alert police if they aren’t disabled within a certain amount of time; before the advent of smartphones, we told our friends to raise the alarm if we didn’t contact them before a predetermined hour.

Of course, it never hurts to be safe—but it is now time to ask ourselves why we place the responsibility for women’s safety on women themselves when it was the action of another person that caused a trauma. Why is it that the men who surround us are not held responsible for honoring an explicit or implicit no?

There are those who believe that the potential consequences of no aren’t severe enough to merit the fear that colors most women’s daily routines and interactions. They claim that women are rarely raped, murdered, or harmed at all as a result of rejecting a man. These individuals argue that such cases are sensationalized in headlines and news blurbs; that such actions are rare and are the result of individual prejudice or mental illness (despite the fact that individuals who are seriously mentally ill are far more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than the perpetrators).

However, any woman who has ever felt the cold shock of fear that follows a threatening remark or a particularly insidious glare—let alone the realization that she is being followed or stalked or in any kind of immediate danger—is well aware of the knowledge that she could be next. We wonder, Am I the next headline, the next missing person, the next broken body? Is this it for me; will I be gone in a matter of hours because a man was offended by my rejection?

A public no—or “leave me alone,” or “stop it,” or any explicit or implicit variation of the word—in response to street harassment is particularly powerful, especially when it is vocal and emphatic. Saying “stop” to a man who doesn’t take the word seriously is incredibly brave…and also incredibly dangerous.

We prepare ourselves to do battle every time we leave the house in the morning, secure in the knowledge that we may—and for many of us, will—be harassed and bullied in the streets. We are painfully aware that rejecting a man, even a crude individual on the street, has the potential to end in a hostile way and yet we still find it within ourselves to go about our daily lives. What else can we do?

The Netherlands: An Interview with Gaya Branderhorst of Straatintimidatie

July 21, 2015 By Correspondent

Julka Szymańska, the Netherlands, SSH Blog Correspondent

Gaya Branderhorst, from her website www.gaya.nl/

Street harassment is a global issue and the Netherlands is no exception, but to this date many people treated it as a fact of life, a minor inconvenience for women, who “should just take the compliment”. But street harassment is not a compliment and it can be a very large, scary inconvenience; the Dutch public is, fortunately, starting to wake up to this notion.

To speed up this awareness and fight the problem, the website Straatintimidatie (the Dutch word for street harassment) was created, alongside a citizen’s initiative that calls for penalizing street harassment with fines.

If you’re a Dutch national, you can still sign the initiative here and if you master the Dutch language, please give them a like on Facebook or tweet with #straatintimidatie on Twitter.

I had a conversation with founder Gaya Branderhorst to find out more about this important project:

J: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the team behind the website Straatintimidatie.nl and the accompanied citizens’ initiative against street harassment?

G: My name is Gaya Branderhorst and I’m from the Netherlands, but recently moved to New York for a new job. Before I left — approximately a year ago — I started a project against street harassment, which in this case is a citizens’ initiative requiring 40,000 signatures. This initiative primarily consists of a proposed bill that would punish the sexual harassment of women in public with a fine. At the start of this project I surrounded myself with a small group of supporters, for example: an attorney who wrote the bill itself, a person who manages the social media etc. As well as a well-known Dutch comedian (Soundos el Ahmadi) and an emeritus professor of Human Rights (Cees Flinterman).

J: How did this initiative came about exactly?

G: The team behind the citizen’s initiative against street harassment consists of both women and men, the gender ratio is about 50/50. This was a conscious decision on my part, because street harassment overwhelmingly happens to women, but the harassing is dominantly done by men, so to solve this problem we need men as well. Men should speak up against other men who harass women and tell them to stop this behavior. We also see that almost half of the people who sign the initiative are male. You have to understand that the majority of Dutch men do not condone street harassment, it’s the minority of men who harass the majority of women.

J: I’ve seen a video on YouTube you made in which a group of women turn the tables on random men on the street by catcalling them and asking them how this made them feel afterwards. What a funny, witty action! How did you come up with it?

G: The idea of ‘reverse catcalling’ isn’t entirely new, the Dolle Mina’s (a prominent feminist group during the Second Wave of feminism in the Netherlands) did this too. As I understand it, they did so for different reasons, mainly for laughs, is what a former Dolle Mina told me. But we did it after hearing the commentary of people questioning “if catcalling is really that bad? Isn’t it complimenting women’s beauty in a way?”

So we figured we could turn this around in order to showcase that men don’t find it complimentary to be catcalled either. It turns out we were absolutely right about that: you can see in the video that virtually none of the men are pleased about it, they don’t experience it as a compliment either. And for good reason, because catcalling truly isn’t a compliment at all, it’s a vicious phenomenon that people often don’t see for what it is: harassment. Street harassment is worlds apart from getting a respectful compliment and it honestly surprised me to notice how many people are confused about this. But by reversing the dynamic it suddenly becomes a lot clearer that street harassment is unpleasant. So that’s why we created the video.

J: The Dutch often pride themselves in their liberalism and emancipation of women and minorities, but an initiative again street harassment is clearly still necessary. So, what’s the deal with this country?

G: On one hand the Netherlands are doing relatively well in terms of equality in comparison to some other countries. So in a way that’s true, for example: same sex marriage is finally gaining more ground in the United States (at time of publication we’re happy to report that the supreme court of the USA has decided to lift the ban on same sex marriage last month) and we already had that for quite a while of course. The same goes for women’s right to choose for an abortion, that’s not that big of a deal anymore in the Netherlands either. In a lot of things we are ahead of other countries, even other Western countries, but as a consequence, the danger looms that we as a nation start slacking off. That this so called “tolerant attitude” digresses to a sort of indifference, which is something entirely different than tolerance.

Especially when it comes to the rights of women, this tolerance often turns into a “whatever, been there done that” mindset. And that’s increasingly visible in the realm of women’s rights: there are quite a few things in the Netherlands that are contradictory to the notion that men and women are equals. These things include the wage gap, the amount of women on top of the corporate ladder and the prevalence of domestic- and sexual violence against women and girls to name a few. And of course street harassment, something so many women have experience with. If you take a look at the women in our team, they all have had to deal with street harassment, which is part of the reasons why they’re in our team in the first place. This goes for the women who sign our initiative as well: some of the stories they tell in the comments they leave us are outright shocking.

I don’t understand why –with all out tolerance and progressiveness– street harassment isn’t more of a priority in Holland.

J: What’s in store for the future of this citizen’s initiative against street harassment and the situation surrounding street harassment in the Netherlands in general?

G: Last year I was a guest in the television talkshow Knevel & van den Brink and one of the other guests at the table just happened to be Minister of Social Affairs Lodewijk Asscher, that was a happy coincidence. I was asked if street harassment really is such a significant problem in the Netherlands and my reply was that I think it most definitely is. I told them that every woman I talk to struggles with this sometimes, but that we can’t be 100% certain, because there are no statistics on the matter. Looking at the minister for this paid off, because by now a nation-wide study has been carried out. So even though the proposed bill isn’t far enough in the process yet, we can see that the public debate on street harassment is catching on, something I’m glad about.

On top of that we’re also talking with Member of Parliament Achmed Marcouch about the issue, hopefully this leads to results as well. In our neighboring countries street harassment is a hot topic too, we’re not the only ones in Holland. Belgium for example has already implemented a law against street harassment and France and Egypt are on the same track. Both internationally and nationally things are happening to combat the problem, I think there’s a growing consciousness about street harassment. But if it will be enough? I’m not sure, from my personal, subjective perspective: I don’t see the instances decreasing. There is still plenty of work ahead of us

J: Thank you so much for this interview.

G: You’re very welcome.

Julka is a 25-year-old feminist activist and soon-to-be Cultural Science student with a generous amount of life experiences -including street harassment – and even more passion for social justice.

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