Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“I hope it doesn’t scar me forever.”

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Today was the first time I was harassed. I just froze up. A group of boys who were younger than me were walking behind me and my friend. We were just walking to the subway, and they made loud comments about my body. I was disgusted, embarrassed, and scared. I could not believe an (about) 11 year old could do that. I tried to walk away but snow was on the ground. It has pretty much ruined my day. I just froze up. This has left me wishing I did more than freeze up. Apparently they thought it was funny. It’s not. I hope it doesn’t scar me forever.

– Anonymous

Location: On my way home

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea

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USA: Street Harassment Disrupts Private Space

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Dylan Jane Manderlink, Arkansas, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Anti-Street Harassment Week 2013 in Boston

A few nights ago, after being approached by a man on the street in Boston as she walked with a friend, Ellen R. replied, “Not tonight, thank you,” but the the man continued to follow her. She then turned around and said, “Please don’t follow us” and he yelled, “I’m not following you, bitch.”

Ellen told me, “This interaction upset me for so many reasons. Not only did I feel uncomfortable with the man’s initial comment, but when my friend and I tried to defend ourselves in the most polite way possible, the man only got more interested and more angry. I am already scared to walk down the street, so it’s even more frightening to know that even when I try to handle the situation in a calm manner, the man doing the harassing can go from 0 to 10 in a split second.”

Unfortunately Ellen’s street harassment experience is not uncommon. Despite responding with a polite remark, her street harasser met her with petulance, callousness, and an unforeseen temper. In many street harassment awareness and prevention blogs and articles I’ve read, I see the same message being revisited: Street harassment endangers the public space of individuals and disempowers their ability to walk through a public space safely, positively, and healthily. I certainly agree with that because I too, have felt that way when experiencing street harassment. But I would add that street harassment also communicates the message that your private space is no longer yours or never belonged to you.

As you navigate through a public space (a sidewalk, a city, a park, etc.), you also have your own private space within that. The way we personally view the environment we’re in is our private world…our thoughts, our bodies, the space between us and the people we pass on the street in close proximity…those all inform our private world. And when street harassers interfere with that personal, private, and intimate domain of ours, we can feel a different type of violation and discomfort. By understanding the threat we experience on both a private and public level, I believe we can better inform our awareness and advocacy efforts and the dialogues we promote through those modes.

Street harassment tells people that wherever they’re walking, wherever they’re living, whatever space they’re occupying – it’s not theirs. When we are catcalled, groped, eyed, followed, and yelled at the street harasser is claiming that space as theirs and communicating to us that we don’t belong in it. This needs to stop. This is not okay and people are really starting to take notice of how much street harassment is a detriment to our society and to people’s lives. We deserve better. Respecting our public and private space should not be optional, it should be the accepted and expected norm. As activists, the more we make noise and the more we create productive and cooperative pathways to empowerment and awareness, the more we can effect change.

As we approach International Anti-Street Harassment Week (#EndSHWeek) from April 12-18, let’s construct and promote a vigilant and sustainable conversation surrounding street harassment and the private and public spaces that are too often taken advantage of and threatened. I will no longer stand for our space being jeopardized, devalued, and disregarded. In the next couple months leading up to #EndSHWeek, let’s affirm the positive and inspiring efforts of fellow activists, bloggers, feminists, and community members. In doing so, I encourage you to open up meaningful channels of dialogue, spread awareness, and get involved with advocacy that helps make people’s private worlds a better place. Reclaim your space because it was yours to begin with and will always be. No one should be able to take that away from you.

Dylan is a recent graduate of Emerson College and currently teaches 8th, 10th, and 11th grade Digital Communications and Audio/Visual Technology in an Arkansas high school. You can visit her personal blog and follow her on Twitter @DylanManderlink.

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Street Harassment Weekly – Feb. 9-15, 2015

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How Wednesday Addams Would React to Catcalling – “In a new episode from the web series “Adult Wednesday Addams,” created by Melissa Hunter, Wednesday follows two dudes home to teach them a lesson after they catcall her. In true Addams family fashion, Wednesday effortlessly scares the men with her piercing tone and sardonic comebacks. (And the three terrifying friends she brought with her definitely helps.)”

Artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh Combats Street Harassment in Mexico – “Tatyana Fazlalizadeh has traveled all over with “Stop Telling Women to Smile,” in which she wheatpastes the streets with portraits of women captioned with anti-harassment messages. In a comprehensive new series spearheaded by Fusion’s Anna Holmes, Fazlalizadeh takes her work internationally for the very first time, for a long project in México City that combines community activism and beautiful, important public art.”

Why Do Women Get So Much Grief When They Run? – “Talk to female runners, and most will tell you that they have experienced this sort of thing at some point. Friends have told me enough stories to fill this blog twice over: “I’ve had something thrown at me,” “I’ve been complimented on my ass,” and, a particular favourite, “A man said he liked how I jiggle.” One pal told me that for a winter run in London, you need two things: thermals and a scowl to ward off hecklers.”

Performance Becomes Therapy – ““How sex is performed was the question that was offered to the drama therapist students,” Shotwell said. “They then went ahead and with that prompt, came up with these proposals from which I chose.” Shotwell said the event was a form of therapeutic theater, as there is therapy in the performance for the directors, playwrights and the audience.”

Video: ‘Adult Wednesday Addams’ Takes on Street Harassment With Goth Perfection – “Wednesday is randomly catcalled on the street by a couple of D-bags in a truck, so she hunts them down by the scent of their Axe body spray and confronts them at their own home. They may think she’s there for some action, because they are really that full of themselves, but our heroine has a different idea in order to not only extract revenge, but also to give them a valuable lesson.”

A Helping Hand in India –  “Through the University of Utah Public Health Administration, Talboy works in organizing and recruiting volunteers for a yearly trip to India. While there, she interviews young women about their experiences with teasing and harassment. In the villages, discussion of harassment of any sort is a taboo, which has proved a difficult struggle in her journey. Her next steps include interviewing hundreds of girls and boys to gain a full understanding of eve-teasing, which many see as a normal part of life. She believes that bringing the community together and hosting a discussion will be the most efficient manner in beginning to improve life for the teenagers and young adults.”

On V-Day, Sena Activists Police Street Harassment – “Shiv Sena’s youth wing – ‘Yuva Sena’, activists poured on to streets not to vandalize property and disband love-birds on Valentine’s Day, but to conduct community policing to prevent eve-teasing.  Youths said unlike previous years of ‘gundagardi’, activists stepped on to roads to provide safety to women.”

Why Our Conversation About Street Harassment Needs to Include Trans Women– “Somehow we’ve forgotten the burden that trans women in particular carry when they walk down the street – not just from leering men, but from everyone, including law enforcement. Overwhelmingly, trans women carry a burden of harassment and violence on the streets. If a trans woman steps out into public, there is an 8% chance that the street harassment she is facing will turn violent – and a fairly good chance that no one will do a damn thing about it.”

Montana GOP Legislator Wants to Ban Yoga Pants–  “Montana Republican state Rep. David Moore has a plan to guide America out of the darkness—ban yoga pants. Moore, who is upset that group of naked bicyclists pedaled through Missoula last year, decided that what his state really needs right now is tighter regulations on trousers. His proposed bill, HB 365, would outlaw not just nudity, but also “any device, costume, or covering that gives the appearance of or simulates the genitals, pubic hair, anus region, or pubic hair region.””

Event: Holla:Revolution 2015 – “According to the Washington Post, 2014 was the year the conversation around street harassment hit a tipping point. On March 5th, let’s take the conversation to the next level at this year’s HOLLA::Rev. Come join leading thinkers and activists in the field to expand the definitions of street harassment and discuss what each of us can do to create on-the-ground activism in our communities.”

 

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Germany: One Billion Rising and Documenting Murder

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Lea Goelnitz, Berlin, Germany, Blog Correspondent

TRIGGER WARNING

“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”

UK Women killed through suspected male violence in 2014, via Smith’s website

This quote by Margaret Atwood might seem extreme, but there is some truth to it. For example, in the U.S., at least one-third of all female homicide victims were killed by male loved ones, and nationally, one woman per 100,000 is killed by a man.

In the UK, two women per week are killed by a current or former intimate male partner. Ingala Smith started counting Britain´s murdered women three years ago to make the government pay attention. February 12 was the official launch of the Femicide Census in London, a database of every woman who is killed by a man. The project is designed to “force a recognition of the scale and significance of male violence against women.” Smith told the Guardian, “I want us to stop seeing the killings of women by men as isolated incidents: to put them together and to see the connections and patterns; to highlight what a big issue it is; and to make it feel real for people.”

Of course, homicide is relatively rare, but men’s violence against women and girls is quite prevalent. It differs from violence against men because it is based in the structural inequality between men and women. A recent European Union-wide study revealed that one in three women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15 and 75% of women experienced sexual harassment in the work place. The UN notes that at least 35% of women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence and some national studies place this at 70% of women.

Although there is increased awareness of gender-based violence (GBV) as a public health concern and an obstacle to development, there is still a lack of data to explain it and document it. This leads to a lack of awareness among the general public and an overall lack of visibility of violence against women. Further, some forms of GBV are considered normal or are even institutionalized as cultural practices, such as female genital mutilation. Street harassment is another example and is usually seen as acceptable, or at least not bad enough to be recognized as a form of violence.

But a recent article published in the Guardian reports that a new study found “that some of the sexism women face – from catcalling and sexual harassment to sexual objectification and violence – makes women generally more fearful and anxious. The researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas and Georgia State University found a substantive ‘link between physical safety concerns and psychological distress”.”

It does matter.

This year´s Valentine´s Day marks the 4th time Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising raises awareness about violence against women and GBV. We can join in by striving to call out every incident of street harassment, collect stories and explain to people that street harassment is a form of GVB too. As street harassment is sometimes a gateway crime to other forms of VAW like sexual assault and even murder, it is worth it and very necessary to do so.

Lea works in journalism and women´s rights and is involved in the women´s rights NGO Discover Football, which uses football as a tool for empowerment and gender equality. Follow her on Twitter, @LeaGoelnitz.

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USA: Street Harassment- Not Just for City Slickers

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Emily Gillingham, Washington, DC, USA, Blog Correspondent

A lot of the conversation around street harassment focuses on harassment in cities. But this post is about street harassment in rural America, from three people who grew up there.

I grew up in a rural, conservative Michigan town. When I say “rural,” I mean that my township’s claim to fame is that it is the self-proclaimed “Kohlrabi Capital of the World.” And when I say “conservative,” I mean that when I knocked doors for Obama in 2008, a guy showed me his gun to emphasize that 1) he supported gun rights, and 2) I needed to get off his property immediately.

I remember the first time I experienced street harassment. I was fourteen years old. My mother and I had just moved closer to my high school. It was the first time I had lived in a place with sidewalks in my neighborhood, and I got in the habit of taking a bike ride downtown after school. “Downtown” consisted of a dozen or so shops, offices, and restaurants and a park. One day, I was biking home and a pickup truck headed towards me suddenly gunned it. Instinctively, I looked up- just in time to see the boy a few years my senior in the passenger seat lean out the window, make a ring with the fingers of his right hand, and vigorously stab his left index finger through it, screaming wildly.

I asked two young men who grew up in rural America, Chris and Tyler, what that was all about. Chris, who is originally from rural southeastern North Carolina, said, “Either he was crudely trying to hit on you, or he was mocking you with a douchey high school boy gesture.”

Why would someone take their time to do something like that? Chris pointed out that in the middle of nowhere, there’s nothing better to do. He told me about the form that street harassment took where he grew up- cruising. Chris said, “You take your pimped out car, and you cruise through town at slow speeds, just circling around. If you see an attractive female, you say something to her, like ‘hey, baby.’” I asked Chris if this something people do with friends, and he said, “Yeah, it would be creepy if someone was alone.”

I asked Chris if he had ever catcalled anyone or gone cruising. He said no, since he’s scared to talk to women in general. He also said it’s “disrespectful” and “weird” to talk to strangers on the street.

Tyler grew up in rural Maryland. I asked him what sort of catcalling he saw growing up. He explained that he never saw any, and when I pressed him as to why, he said that a lot of the places he went growing up were nicer, “family kinds of places where you didn’t do that kind of stuff.” I asked Tyler if he had ever catcalled someone, and he said, “I don’t even like people when I talk to them normally. I think you need to have a bit of an ego to think you’re the star and everyone needs to be looking at you.”

So what are the lessons here? First of all, I think it’s worth saying, explicitly, that street harassment isn’t just a city problem. It’s something that happens everywhere, between all kinds of people. But it definitely takes different forms in different places. I think that Chris was on to something when he said street harassment in rural America is just a way to pass the time. And after spending a few weeks asking my friends if they’ve ever catcalled someone and not getting a single “yes,” I think that there is a social element to it, too. People who catcall, particularly in rural areas, hang out with other people who catcall. And there seems to be a different social group that doesn’t catcall. And somehow, having a bachelor’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies, I’m not surprised that I would up with a bunch of friends who say they’ve never catcalled anyone.

Emily is a 3L at Michigan State University College of Law, and the president of her school’s chapter of LSRJ. Follow her on Twitter @emgillingham.

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