Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Poem: “Cornerstorecandy”

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Calayah Heron, a participant of the New York City GirlsWriteNow wrote and performed a powerful poem about street harassment called “Cornerstorecandy.”

In two minutes, she covers so many important topics about street harassment. The young age it starts (at 8 years old for her), its regularity, its physicality, the underlying fear of escalation, and the disgust and panic you can feel when experiencing it.

Thank you for your eloquence, Calayah and for showing exactly what street harassment is all about and why it MUST END.

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“Pump this”

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I stopped for gas on my way home from work. As I was pumping the gas a man approached me and started thrusting his hips telling me, “Pump this.”

It made me feel angry and ashamed. It wasn’t as though this had been a young man – this was a man probably in his forties and I was 24 years old.

– Rocki

Location: Home town gas station

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

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“I don’t have a voice and it’s scary”

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I live in Washington Heights on 184th and Audubon. Not a day goes by that I am not harassed on the street and it’s usually more than once. Usually it’s inappropriate sexual comments and remarks about my looks. These men listen to my conversation while I am on the phone and think it’s okay to interrupt. Then they continue to get angry when I don’t stop everything I am doing and respond. It really amazes me that these men find any excuse to harass a young woman and they think it’s acceptable behavior.

Not only am I uncomfortable, but I am ashamed to walk around and I can not say anything back to them because I fear for my safety. I don’t have a voice and it’s scary.

I’m also called “white girl” in Spanish as I walk down the street. My room-mate and I were leaving the subway station and a man bumped into her in the rain. Instead of apologizing and moving on he screamed “move it you dumb blonde bimbo.” What happened to manners? Treating a woman with respect?

Treating EVERYONE with respect no matter what color or gender.

Washington Heights is living in a bubble separate from the rest of the integrated word and they need a huge wake up call. It’s 2014 NEW YORK CITY.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

More police outside on the streets. Make pepper spray more easily accessible to women. I would love if “Stop telling women to smile” would come uptown and do some artwork on Audubon. We need to spread the message.

– Anonymous

Location: New York City, NY

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

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Stopping Harassment at Comic-Con

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Via Geeks for CONsent’s Facebook Page

In San Diego, there are 130,000 people at Comic-Con International, a place, the LA Times says, “where fans celebrate superheroes and science fiction and Hollywood studios promote their upcoming geek-friendly fare. As comic book characters have broadened, so too has their fan base. More women have begun attending Comic-Con in recent years, and now comprise about 40% of convention-goers, according to Glanzer.”

But even with the increase in women attending, sexual harassment continues to be a problem. For example, Janelle Asselin, who the LA Times writes “has edited comics for DC and Disney, said she has been groped at half a dozen conventions. She said a male comic book artist once told her he would like to eat her ‘like a pie,’ and she received rape threats in comments posted online after she had written a critique of a comic on her blog.”

In response, our friends at Feminist Public Works/Geeks for CONsent submitted a petition with 2,500 signatures calling on organizers to post signs in the convention halls detailing its anti-harassment policies. It also wants convention volunteers trained on how to respond to harassment incidents.

Comic-Con feels it’s already doing enough as they “already posts its policy, that “harassing or offensive behavior will not be tolerated,” on its website and in a printed events guide.”

Geeks for CONsent disagree and since Comic-Con isn’t doing more, they are in San Diego now, handing out anti-sexual harassment information to attendees. They’ve also developed an anti-harassment training manual for convention use. We support them in their effort!

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Sexual Harassment isn’t “Natural”

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In conversations around street harassment, sexual violence, domestic violence and rape, inevitably someone will say, well, men are “natural predators” and “biologically wired to be violent” etc. UGH. Guess what? It’s simply not true.

Agustín Fuentes, trained in Zoology and Anthropology, is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. His research delves into the how and why of being human and he breaks down why it is wrong.

Check out the article and perhaps bookmark it so next time someone tries to tell you men can’t help saying sexually explicit things or grabbing you on the street you can tell them why that is wrong.

He ends with:

“…when men’s rights groups bemoan the oppression of their ‘nature’ by women they are wrong. When anyone asserts that sexual coercion, harassment, or even rape is, at least in part, driven by biological prerogatives, they are wrong—and no one can use biology and evolution as an excuse for being a jerk. But that does not mean that such behavior is not an ongoing reality—it just means that it is a reality that we can alter.

Most men aren’t sexual predators. But we need to be more active when someone is—especially in regards to sexual harassment, coercion and assault on women. Society needs to own up to the fact that sexual aggression is not inevitable—but it is predictable, explicable, and in most cases avoidable.”

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