Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

USA: “I got a glimpse into the future. And it is beautiful.”

By

Jessie Koerner, Denver, Colorado, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

16th Street, Denver | Via http://commons.wikimedia.org

Sunglasses? Check.

Shoulders back, head up? Check.

Bitchface on? Check.

Now I am ready to walk down the 16th Street Mall to go get my morning coffee, or lunch, or head home. This street is where tourists, businesspersons, locals on day trips, and all of Denver’s odd characters come together (ok, odd for us… nothing for me will ever beat the parrot chillin’ on a guy’s shoulder on the DC Metro). Lately, I’ve been feeling like we shouldn’t advertise 16th Street as somewhere tourists should go in our little city. Not least among the issues is the prevalence of – shocker! – degrading and insulting comments made to women on the street. None of them are new, none of them are clever, and none of them are appreciated.

However, this week has been fundamentally different. I have no idea if the men of Denver got the message finally, or if there was a secret Cotillion club I wasn’t invited to that everyone else attended.  This week, I’ve gotten multiple ‘good mornings,’ three with ma’ams attached, which to me is just awesome given that my spirit animal is Effie Trinket. Then there was that one incredibly enthusiastic, “Hello! How are you today?” that made me so cheerful the rest of my Thursday. Among the interactions, there was none of the usual “smile for me, baby” or “mmmm work that skirt, girl.” NONE. For one whole, entire week I got a glimpse into the future. And it is beautiful.

This is why we speak out. This is why we applaud those brave souls who stand up and address their harassers (sometimes to hilarious results). I am not optimistic for the continued respite on my daily walks down Denver’s busiest pedestrian thoroughfare. I will still be printing out my copies of Cards Against Harassment, and arming myself with sunglasses and my formidable bitchface that just dares anyone to speak to me. I mean, come on though, I’m a chatty person, and it kills me that I have to indicate that I am not friendly in order to walk down the street in peace.

Street harassment is one of the most unfortunate equalizers of humanity.Sixteenth Street is one of those places where it’s obvious that misogyny and street harassment permeate all classes and races. I have been harassed by the homeless dude on the corner, the slickly dressed young professional, and the teenager that should have been in school.  I have seen women who are skinny, old, dread-locked, supermodel gorgeous, and homely all harassed on the street. Most shoot a glare to the harasser, or hasten their step, embodying the intimidation and fear instilled in us by the thought of confronting the man, or men, making the comments. I love the social experiments that turn the tables on men – women creepin’ on them for once. The one element that can’t be replicated though is the fear.

My father and I recently got into a heated discussion about #yesallwomen and street harassment. After all of our talks on human trafficking and prostitution, my attempt to shock him into agreement from his ‘devil’s advocate’ position may have failed. It also may have come from the fact that he walks down the same street every day that I do, and inevitably has heard the comments made to the women around him. We are at the point that me reiterating the disgusting things said to me don’t even shock my father. We can either make the choice right now as a society that we will not allow half our population to be insulted, objectified, and intimidated out in public, or that we will expect half our population to just shut up and deal with it – like, as my dear dad compared it to, it was going on vacation in Florida, where you know it’s going to rain every day at 3 pm, and complaining about it.

His point? What are we going to do about it?

My plan is to hand out those Cards to my harassers, start a Hollaback! activism chapter here in Denver, write for Stop Street Harassment about what’s happening in Colorado, and incessantly talk with others about why this is a real, legitimate problem, and that it does NOT have to be like this.

That’s what the past week has proven to me, anyway.

What are you going to do?

 Jessie is a longtime human rights activist with a feminist focus. She founded the Amnesty International chapter in college, is an active participant in JustWorld International, and manages the social media accounts for the Global Women’s Network and winnovating.com, where she also blogs.  Find her on Twitter and Instagram, @pearlsandspurs.

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Ireland: In Conversation with Vanessa Baker of Hollaback! Dublin

By

Dearbhla Quinn, Dublin Ireland/Brussels, Belgium, SSH Blog Correspondent

Dublin Pride 2013, Photograph by Aidan Murray

I was no stranger to street harassment when I attended the launch of the Dublin branch of Hollaback! in November 2012 and first met the people who are hard at work combating this social plight. Vanessa Baker is one of the four founders of Dublin’s branch of a globe-spanning network of activists that includes 79 cities in 26 countries, all contributing to the growing movement in opposition to what they describe as “the most prevalent form of gender based violence.” She agreed to chat with me about their campaign.

Hollaback is a movement that started in New York in 2005 when Thao Nguyen photographed a public masturbator on the subway. Ignored by police, she uploaded the photo online, prompting a city-wide discussion, not just about street harassment, but also the power of the Internet to combat it.

Eighteen months after the launch of the Dublin branch, Vanessa told me how the site allows the victims of harassment to share their stories online and receive the support of other visitors who can click the “I’ve got your back” button alongside published stories and another interesting feature, a map. “Once you’ve submitted a story I can see where it happened and so it kind of records a virtual map of street harassment in the city with dots showing where people have experienced their stories taking place,” she told me.

Vanessa told me how she had become involved. “Before I moved to Dublin in 2011, I had been living in Ottawa for four years…one of the other women who I met there was in the process of setting up Hollaback! Ottawa… So anyway that was my first exposure to Hollaback.”

Anti-Street Harassment Week 2013, Photograph by Aidan Murray

This proved to be a fortunate discovery when street harassment in Dublin left her feeling powerless. “It didn’t matter what I was wearing, or what time it was. Some guy would always try to walk home with me or be shouting something and it got really frustrating that I didn’t have any control over it…In Ottawa if you walk home after midnight you expect it, but at Dublin you find that even at 3 p.m…So I looked up to see if there was a Hollaback! Dublin and there wasn’t, so, but there was an option to start your own. I sent them an email explaining who I was and why I wanted to start it and then it turns out that Jenny Dunne had sent a similar message around the same time and so we were both interested in starting the site and that’s how we met.”

Before meeting Vanessa, through the online training course, Jenny had thought she was the only interested Dubliner. She sought out other eager volunteers through the Irish Feminist Network Facebook page and soon Eavan Magner and Aimée Doyle joined the team.

I asked Vanessa if she understood the reluctance of many women to describe themselves as feminist and if she would consider Hollaback! to be a feminist movement. “I’m 25 now and I’m comfortable with it now but at undergrad level I felt uncomfortable with that label. I do understand the reluctance to identify with that label. We try to be more inclusive through not using the words in our posts, so that people can interact with the site even if they don’t identify with that label. I do think it’s sad though…We tried to stay apolitical but I think that was a mistake, because abortion is such a hot button topic and I think that stopped us from integrating with the Dublin feminist community. Even though we’re all Pro-Choice we didn’t want Hollaback! to have an official stance and that isolated us.”

By Chrissie G Photography

So what’s next? Vanessa described the initial challenge of maintaining momentum. “When we started, we were very focused on launch day, so afterwards we had a bit of a ‘what now’ moment’. Vanessa believes that the next step is to ‘bring it more offline- story sharing is cathartic, but it’s a very self-selecting group that look at the site.”

Through events like their “Chalk walk” and workshops, Vanessa hopes that they may contribute to a dialogue, not just with the victims, but with harassers too. She is optimistic for the future and understandably proud of their achievements so far.

“I like to think that we’ve made a difference and changed a few minds. Even if we don’t end street harassment in Dublin anytime soon, at least we can provide support to those who suffer it.”

Dearbhla graduated from BESS (Business and Sociology), in Trinity College Dublin, last year. She currently lives in Brussels, Belgium, where she has a think-tank internship working in the areas of gender, equality, and employment. Follow her on Twitter @imoshedinheels and her blogs.

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USA: When will street harassment finally be categorized as a crime?

By

Brittany Oliver, Baltimore, MD, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Minister Omonte. (Photo Credit: Ministerio de la Mujer/Flickr)

In case you missed it, Carmen Omonte, Peru’s Minster of Women and Vulnerable Populations, announced her intention to include sexual street harassment in the penal code as a crime.

It’s been reported that sexual harassment and assault on the streets of Peru has recently sparked outrage after actress Magaly Solier was assaulted by a man who masturbated behind her at a bus station. In Peru, sexual street harassment is categorized as a civil offense, not a criminal offense.

While I am all for the idea if making sexual street harassment a crime, how many women need to be harassed before people realize it’s a serious issue? Women and girls experience street harassment every day, so why did it take an actress to be harassed for it to be considered a crime? I truly believe if we just dealt with sexual street harassment in the appropriate manner, we wouldn’t need to wait for someone famous to do something about it.

In Baltimore, I really think we could do a lot better. There’s a lot more we can be doing to protect women and girls from street harassment, and as a whole, we just aren’t doing enough. The only organization I know that’s actively doing work on a consistent basis is Hollaback! Baltimore. They have been doing a great job on educating people on what street harassment is and how people can help to stop it.

Here are a few upcoming summer events on their radar:

June 19 – Hollaback! Baltimore will host a Baltimore Bartenders Safer Spaces Meeting, in which they’ll be chatting with bartenders & bar staff from all over the city face-to-face on crisis response skills and ways to intervene while maintaining a women & LGBTQ-friendly environment.

June 24 – Hollaback! Baltimore will be tabling at the 2014 Baltimore Youth Sexual Health Conference, which is geared towards increasing knowledge & skills among youth to promote health behaviors, especially around sexual health.

June 28 – Hollaback! Baltimore will be co-hosting two “Make Your Own Quilt Square” workshops at the Monument Quilt with FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture. They’ll be working on quilt squares to add to the public monument to support victims of rape and abuse.

While I appreciate everything Hollaback! Baltimore is doing, I still think there are other organizations that can do just as much advocacy around this issue. Just as Carmen Omonte took a stand to stop street harassment in Peru, I feel that our mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, should take a stand too. Not only should she develop a campaign to educated people on street harassment, but she should also work on making it a criminal offense.

I certainly applaud Peru for it’s efforts, but I really hope Baltimore is not waiting for a celebrity to experience street harassment to push forward in stopping it. Street harassment needs to stop now because it’s affecting people who have to deal with it daily.

Instead of clearing out the encampments of the homeless and criminalizing youth, our mayor and every other politician in the state of Maryland need to focus their energy on real challenges. And street harassment for women, girls and the LGBTQ community is most definitely one of them.

Read more on Peru’s initiatives to ending street harassment.

Brittany Oliver is a recent graduate of Towson University and works in the non-profit communications sector and supports local anti-street harassment advocacy through Hollaback! Baltimore. She blogs at brittuniverse.wordpress.com and publicly rants on Twitter, @btiara3.

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USA: Spokane Talks About Street Harassment

By

Lorna M. Hartman, Spokane, WA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Spokane is the second-largest city in Washington state by population, located in a mostly rural area in eastern Washington. Despite its size, to visitors and many residents, it still has a distinctly small-town feel.

Unfortunately, small town or not, street harassment has not passed us by. Fortunately, the discussion about street harassment has not passed us by either. The conversation has at least begun in the Spokane area.

On June 3 our local newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, re-posted a USA Today article by Jaleesa Jones titled “4 Free Apps That Could Help Prevent Sexual Assault.” While the article headline specifies “sexual assault” as a general topic, all four apps listed (bSafe, Circle of 6, Hollaback! and Guardly) were intended to be used as people go about their lives in public spaces—precisely where women suffer street harassment. These apps are useful to anyone out in public who feels unsafe.

The article referenced the recent tragedy of Elliott Rodger’s shootings and the #YesAllWomen hashtag. Jones wrote, “The amount [of] interest in the hashtag points to a blatant truth: Sexual assault and street harassment are far too common.”

Inlander is a local alternative weekly newspaper that publishes news and entertainment pieces for a large geographic area around Spokane. On May 29 it ran a story called “One of the billion tales that yes, all women, can tell about sexism” written by Taylor Weech, a local writer, photographer and radio host. Weech actually began writing her piece on street harassment before Rodger committed his murders, and she finished writing it after the news had spread.

Weech wrote before the shootings, “I felt a lot of pressure from past conversations to pre-empt the commenters in proving that street harassment is not flattering, that it is one of many disturbing expressions of male entitlement to sex and women’s bodies, and that it is part of a continuum of disrespect for female autonomy that too often culminates in severe or even deadly violence…”, citing the new Tumblr site “When Women Refuse.”

After the attacks, Weech wrote, “In an unfortunate twist of fate, the proof of that statement became the most visible news story of the weekend…”

Weech tells several of her own stories of harassment–#YesAllWomen have those stories to tell—and concludes with an appeal to teach our children differently for the sake of both girls and boys. One commenter in the thread of her article wrote of how sad it is that “it takes a man writing a hate-filled manifesto and then going on a killing spree to really make a conversation about this problem hit the mainstream.”

Rodger’s murders, while I give them no credit for anything good, have resulted in a more open discussion of what it’s like to walk around female in Spokane. It hasn’t always been a welcome discussion or a wanted topic—but now it’s out there and it isn’t going back. We will all be better for continually shining a light on it.

SRTC is Spokane County’s designated metropolitan transportation planning organization. The SRTC Transportation blog featured a piece on street harassment back in 2012 called “Website Aims to Stop Street Harassment” and described StopStreetHarassment.org. (I didn’t know SRTC was so plugged in!)

The writer, an unnamed female SRTC staffer, mentions a few of her own experiences with street harassment. She says of Spokane, “Besides being irritating and in some cases scary, street harassment limits people’s mobility and access to public spaces. It is a form of gender violence and makes our downtown and other areas less inviting and therefore less vibrant.” She’s right. People don’t realize how different downtown Spokane would be, particularly in the evenings, if no one ever had to worry about being harassed or followed. It’s an extensive problem, and Spokane unfortunately isn’t unique at all in facing this problem.

Spokane does, however, have the beginnings of action and conversation around street harassment. Even further back, in mid-2011, activists organized SlutWalk Spokane. SlutWalk, you might remember, started after a Toronto police officer participating in a law school campus safety session counseled female students that if they didn’t want to be sexually victimized, “Don’t dress like a slut.” The group’s Facebook page is still active today.

While the reality is still depressing, these lights shining publicly give me hope for the future.

Lorna is raising three young, kindhearted male allies and has worked on rape and interpersonal violence since the 1990s, including serving on the local rape hotline, answering calls, and driving to emergency rooms to advocate for victims and connect them with resources they needed.

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USA: Interview with “Streets To Call Our Own” Filmmaker

By

Katie Monroe, Philadelphia, PA, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Kara at her film premiere

I had the honor of sitting down with Kara Lieff, a Temple University senior getting ready to graduate with a degree in Film & Media Arts and a minor in Women’s Studies. Over the course of her undergraduate career, she’s become a documentarian of street harassment and anti-street-harassment efforts in Philadelphia. Her fifteen-minute documentary on the topic, “Streets To Call Our Own,” premiered last week at Temple University.

What inspired you to make films about street harassment?

My first interest in the topic of street harassment came from my older sister. She has done workshops on street harassment. She was a women’s studies/gender studies major…a super feminist. So I got a lot of that kind of stuff from her; she definitely influenced me. When I moved to Philly for school, it was different from [living in the suburbs.] That kind of opened my eyes.

I did my first project on street harassment during my sophomore year. We had to do an “action project” – something that propelled viewers to action. I wanted to propel viewers to talk about street harassment, or if they engaged in that behavior or see it, to do something about it. So I made this short PSA: Asking For It. Then I did another one junior year for another short class project: “Make A Woman Smile.”

And from there you decided to do your Senior Project about street harassment. It’s such an under-discussed topic – did that affect your choice?

Yeah. There’s not a lot of media about it. Compared to other things…and I feel like a lot of times, the media that’s out there is within “the circle.” So that’s one of my biggest challenges – I have this project, now how can I show it to people who don’t know about the topic, who I actually want to reach? Of course it’s great to have people within the community watch it and appreciate it, but that might not make as big of an impact.

How did you get started?

Last April I filmed the sidewalk-chalking and subway discussions for Anti-Street-Harassment week, which was how I got in touch with Nuala Cabral [she was the organizer]. And I think that’s where I met Rochelle Keyhan and Anna Kegler [from Hollaback! Philly].

“Meet Us on the Sidewalk” | “Meet Us on the Subway, Part I” | “Meet Us on the Subway, Part II”

Then there were a couple of things happening last November. Hollaback! Philly hosted a talk at Wooden Shoe Books, and then the next morning was the City Council Hearing. So I went to the City Council hearing and I filmed that. [Side note – the hearing was where I met Kara!] The following weekend, I did sit-down interviews with [Hollaback! Philly leaders] Rochelle and Anna. And then it just kind of snowballed from there. I wanted them to keep me in the loop about what they were doing, and they’ve been so helpful…they’re so busy themselves, but they’ve taken the time to sit down with me, to answer all my crazy questions, email back and forth a billion times.

And this point I’m geeking out – because I look up to them, you know what I mean? And now I know them as people, not just as “Hollaback Philly.” I feel weird talking about myself, promoting myself…so I never would have imagined that I would be one to know all these people in the community. And now I do!

That’s great! I feel the same way about the bike community in Philadelphia – so welcoming, incorporating me into the fabric of what’s going on…it’s amazing. So what happened next?

At the City Council hearing I met Jordan Gwendolyn Davis, and I knew that I wanted to interview her, because she has a unique perspective on street harassment.

What changed over the course of the project?

Well, my original proposal was just to talk about the Anti-Street-Harassment movement in Philly. And then I realized that I really needed to have people share their stories. I can’t just talk about what people are doing to fight this problem without explaining what the problem is.

Especially if you want it to be accessible to a broader audience.

Yeah. So at some point I made that shift. And I decided I wanted to interview people about their experiences with street harassment – just regular people [not necessarily involved in the movement]. So I interviewed three people – and we went to the location where they were harassed to film. Everyone had such unique perspectives – I didn’t have time to fit it all into my 15 minute project.

My first subject was harassed at Temple. Basically she was taking off her sweater, because it was hot out, and this man driving by yelled out, “Ooh yeah baby, take it all off.” And it really affected her – first of all, it ruined her day. I mean it happened in September, and she still remembers that incident. She reported it to Temple Police and that got nowhere, which is very disappointing…

And the next person talked about how every morning, she walks one block to the train, and she called it “a gauntlet of street harassment.” And someone actually said something to her while we were filming! And she brought in the aspect of how she used to go [a different block], but that’s out of the way, and why should she have to change her route? She should be able to go wherever she wants.

And then a third woman I interviewed was harassed in Fishtown. And she talked about how a bunch of workers harassed her, and so she called the number on their truck and reported it to their supervisor. And she doesn’t know if anything actually happened, but at least the person she talked to was really supportive, which was kind of a nice story. A lot of times don’t want to report it, because they think they’ll be laughed at – and that could totally happen, but at least in her case that didn’t happen, which was really validating.

And then I included Jordan and Sarah’s story from the testimony. And then Erin from Hollaback animated some of the stories – so there’s animation in the film.

Have you gotten any negative feedback as you’ve been filming?

Well, most of the people who’ve seen it are my classmates at this point. One of the criticisms is that my classmates wanted me to include the other side of the story – like, a man who didn’t think it was a big deal and why he thought that. But for various reasons, I ended up not having that viewpoint in this film. I think it’s really nice to have these people [folks who have been harassed] just tell their side of the story and not necessarily have a rebuttal in there. In a longer piece, that might work better…

When will this get screened?

It premier[ed] on April 30th at Temple University, with all of the senior projects.

And then on May 6th, it’ll be part of Diamond Screen, a film festival at Temple. It’s been nominated for Best Nonfiction Film. [For more info on that screening, see the Diamond Screen Film Festival website. Good luck, Kara!]

Will it be available online?

No – it disqualifies me from entering it into other film festivals if I post it online, and also some people who donated to the Kickstarter get the DVD, so I didn’t want to take away from that.

What was the Kickstarter experience like?

We were paired with producers for our projects, and my producer pushed me to do it. And honestly, I really just wanted to pay the people who were helping me: my Editor, my Director of Photography, and Erin who was doing the animations, and then music and sound. So that was most of the budget!

It was a nerve-wracking process…but towards the end, everyone donated – I got alerts on my email, so I’d be checking…but it’s a great feeling when someone you don’t even know donates to your project! And we did make our goal.

So the film will be shown at these screenings, and then is your long-term goal to do a bigger project?

Yes! I have so much more material, and there’s so much more material I could get. My obstacle after graduating will be the equipment – because right now I can rent equipment from Temple – but I won’t have access to it once I graduate. So my first step is saving up to get at least a camera.

Long term, I definitely want to make a longer film. Realistically, features take years…so I’m not going to stress too much about it right now, but I definitely want to at some point. And I really want to plan events over the summer using Streets To Call Our Own – programs, talkbacks, stuff like that. Cause I don’t want to just make it and have it sit there – not do anything with it.

Any closing thoughts?

Well, the structure of the film is that first I want to define what street harassment is. And then move into people’s personal experiences with it, and then end with what people are doing here in Philly to fight back against it. I guess ultimately I just hope that it helps people understand – on some level – this issue. For the people who don’t know about it at all, hopefully I can teach them something. And with the personal stories – I want to humanize the issue. To say, “Look, these are real people in your city who are experiencing this! This is a real thing that happens all the time!”

In talking to Kara, I was struck by two things – one, how inspiring it is that Kara has incorporated this issue so fully into her undergraduate work and is using her filmmaking skills to make a real difference in our community. Two, how lucky Philadelphia’s Anti-Street-Harassment movement is to have a documentarian in its midst – I’m so excited to see what’s next for both this movement and Kara’s career!

Learn more about Streets to Call Our Own by checking out its website, Facebook, and Twitter (@STCOOfilm).

Katie Monroe founded the Women Bike PHL campaign at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and she works at the Philly nonprofit Gearing Up, which gives some of Philadelphia’s most marginalized women – those in transition from incarceration, addiction, and/or abuse – the opportunity to ride bicycles for exercise, transportation, and personal growth. Follow her on Twitter, @cmon_roe.

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