Katie Bowers, NY, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, creator of the “Stop Telling Women to Smile” public art project, has taken her show on the road. The campaign features piercing portraits and a quote from women who have shared their stories of street harassment with Fazlalizadeh. Originally Fazlalizadeh pasted the posters on walls around her Brooklyn neighborhood, but after a successful Kickstarter, she has been traveling across the United States (and some of Mexico) to hear stories about how harassment changes with geography.
It was in New York City that I first thought about how transportation and geographic differences influence street harassment. I was listening to a coworker describe an unexpected bit of culture shock she encountered when she left Los Angeles for New York.
“When I first got here I was like, ‘What is wrong with men in New York? These men get in my face and harass me everyday. That just doesn’t happen to me in California,” my coworker said. “But then I realized I have to walk a lot more here. In L.A., we drive everywhere.”
As we talked about what street harassment looks like in a city steeped in car culture versus one built around public transit, lightbulbs lit up as I thought about how harassment has changed with each city, suburb, and rural county that I have lived in.
In L.A., my coworker explained, someone might yell at you from their car, but often the person being harassed is also in a car. I’ve driven down multilane parkways and seen men make obscene gestures or shout degrading comments through closed car windows. While still rude and uncomfortable, being in my car provides a sense of security and escape that isn’t there when I’ve been harassed on foot.
Growing up, in a small Upstate NY city, I knew in addition to harassing fellow motorists, drivers will also accost pedestrians. When I am walking I hear a yelped “I’d hit that!” from a car passing by at 30 miles per hour, I roll my eyes. When I hear about friends being slowly followed home by cars with tinted windows, I get worried. When a taxi driver suggestively asks, “So, pretty lady, are you married?” I clutch the door handle and grip my phone. Looking at these scenarios, it is easy to recognize how transportation can deepen the power divide between harasser and harassed.
Perhaps nowhere is this difference more impactful than on public transportation. Some of the worst harassment that I have experienced has happened on the subway. Unlike pedestrians, drivers, or cyclists, public transportation riders have no real control of how quickly they can escape an uncomfortable situation. If you hop on the express train from 59th St, it doesn’t matter if your harasser is leering, commenting, groping or even masturbating – you’re stuck with them for the entire length of Central Park.
As more research is created around sexual harassment, programs and laws are slowly being created to address unique needs in different parts of the country. Collective Action for Space Spaces launched a strong public awareness campaign in the Washington, D.C. subway system, L.A. has adopted an anti-harassment law for cyclists, and activists in Lancaster, PA have erected anti-harassment billboards near roadways. This, Fazlalizadeh says, is exactly how it should be.
“It’s important for me,” she says on her Kickstarter page, “to learn about these differences and create work that will resonate better within a particular community.” Step by step, mile by mile, Fazlalizadeh is shining new light on the age old problem of street harassment – and in some communities, it looks like things are finally starting to change.
Katie is a social worker and community educator interested in ending gender-based violence, working with youth to make the world a better place, and using pop culture as a tool for social change. Check out her writing at the Imagine Better Blog and geek out with her on Twitter, @CornishPixie9.
