Nov. 25 – Dec. 10 are the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. To commemorate the week, we are featuring 1 activism idea per day. This information is excerpted from my new book Stop Global Street Harassment: Growing Activism Around the World (Praeger 2015).
Using sidewalk chalk to write messages like “My body is not public space” has become a popular way to quickly raise awareness about street harassment. It is inexpensive, easy, and something an individual or a small group can do, and the impact can be huge. In addition to raising the awareness of people passing by while the chalking happens, dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people can see it as they pass by—barring rain or other conditions that might wipe out the message. Anti-street harassment chalking parties have taken place all over the world, including in Melbourne, Australia; Ottawa, Canada; Bogota, Colombia; Berlin, Germany; and Dublin, Ireland, as well as in American states like California, Florida, Georgia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.
A unique approach to chalking is the Chalk Walk the group Rebellieus, formerly Hollaback! Brussels, held in 2012. Four young women met at Ribaucourt, Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, on a spring morning. Their meeting place was significant because it was where one of the women, Angelika, had been harassed. With a bright-colored piece of chalk, Angelika stooped down and wrote on the sidewalk, “I was harassed here. I Hollaback. I reclaim the street.”
She proudly stood by her message as her friends hugged her and congratulated her on reclaiming the space. Together, they made a pilgrimage to other spots where they had been harassed: a busy four-lane boulevard for Anna, the sidewalk of a busy bridge for Julie, and the staircase at the Metro stop De Brouckere for Ingrid. At each place, they shared their stories, reclaimed the space with chalk, and hugged. Several people stopped to talk to them, to hear their stories, and to support their message.
“AWESOME is not even a strong enough word to describe it! EMPOWERING comes close!” the women wrote on their Facebook wall. “What we discovered was that writing with chalk on the sidewalk, on the street, on the bridge, telling Brussels: “I was harassed here’ ‘I reclaim the street’ is a powerful, liberating ritual and an amazing [experience].” In 2013, they launched a We Chalk Walk Tumblr where anyone can submit anti-street harassment chalk messages.
Chalking can be an effective way to start conversations and change minds. In Nassau, the Bahamas, two young women wrote messages such as “Whistle at dogs, not girls” and “Respect girls” on a sidewalk along the beach. They said that among the people who stopped to talk to them was a man “who thought we were writing the message specifically to him. We explained what we were doing to him and told him what he did WAS in fact street harassment. He, of course, did not believe us, and we had to break it down for him. He ended up understanding what we were saying, so we hope we have a converted man in Nassau!”
This is exactly the kind of impact they hoped to have. Alicia Wallace, one of the women, told the local newspaper: “Chalk messages are not common here, and we knew it would attract the attention of pedestrians. … It is unacceptable, and educating the general public on the definition and everyday examples of street harassment is the first step to combating this problem.”
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