Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
During International Anti-Street Harassment Week, Hollaback! Polska conducted a survey about street harassment in Poland. They put together videos featuring some of the responses. It’s available in Polish and English.
I have been living in Brussels for over five years. I initially moved there because the university I attended was situated there. After I got my degree, I decided to stay because it was close to work and I liked the atmosphere. I have always loved Brussels but this started to change around two years ago.
Brussels is dealing with a lot of immigrants from North-Africa that are unemployed and spend their days outside on the street or in tearooms. My story has nothing to do with racism, but rather with a misogynistic mentality and a country in crisis that doesn’t want to deal with it’s problems. For a lot of women like myself, it’s almost impossible to walk the streets alone, unless she enjoys men following her in little groups, whispering degrading things in her ear, being spit on when she talks back, or how about the casual push on the tram or subway and last but not least being called a slut or a whore on a daily basis.
This no joke. It has come to a point where I’m afraid to walk around by myself, I don’t even want to do my grocery shopping alone, I feel trapped in my own apartment because from the moment you open that front door the name calling begins.
I catch myself spending a lot of time deciding what to wear the next day so they wouldn’t notice me. Not only is it sad that I have to adjust my outfit because they can’t handle the view of a female body but a lot of the time It doesn’t even matter!!! You can wear a potato bag and still get comments. It’s an awful feeling that you can’t wear what you want because you’re afraid you might be harassed. I always wear long, wide coats so they can hardly tell how my figure looks like, even in summer I’m afraid to wear a t-shirt that isn’t long enough to cover my bottom. Since I have long hair, I try to put my hair up so I don’t draw to much attention. You’re probably thinking that I think of myself as the most attractive girl that walks the streets of Brussels and that I have to cover up in order to protect myself. I’m afraid to tell you that for a lot of women here this is daily reality.
Last week I was obligated to take the bus home. I was waiting at the bus stop when three guys in car suddenly stopped beside me. One of the guys started yelling obscenities at me like, “Why don’t you get in the car and I’ll show you a good time at my place.”
I eventually ignored it, but soon the insults started to be thrown around. When I told him to go **** himself, he yelled at me for being a filthy whore, that he was gonna beat the hell out of me the next time he crosses me. At that point, the bus arrived and I quickly got on.
Situations like this happens on a weekly basis. Being called a whore or a slut, is already part of my daily walk to work. What bothers me is that no one ever helps or stands up for you. No woman deserves to be treated this way.
I don’t know what to do and I’m counting the days until I can move away from this sick and offensive place.
Thank you for reading,
– Anonymous
Location: Brussels, Belgium
A few weeks ago, when I launched the “Companies that Trivialize Street Harassment” webpage, SSH community member @DaniParadis alerted me to the Skirt Chaser 5k, where women begin the race before men and the tagline is “Chase. Catch. Party.” She and I both felt the “chase and catch” language and name sounded creepy and predatory and also could be triggering to women who have actually been chased by men while running.
I e-mailed the company about my concern, blogged about it, Danielle wrote an article about it, and several of us posted information on social media.
Nicole Molzahn DeBoom, the founder of the race, and the founder of Skirt Sports, was responsive and asked to set up a call to discuss it. Today, SSH board member Elizabeth Bolton (a runner) and I (another runner) talked with her by phone.
During the call, I told her more about the work of SSH and what street harassment is and why this issue matters. Then she gave us background information about her, the company, and the race.
She was a pro-triathlete for a number of years and then she founded Skirt Sports in 2004. The idea behind the company was to offer women more clothing options with the hope that if they are wearing something they like and feel good wearing, they will be more likely to feel comfortable exercising and actually exercise.
Nicole founded the Skirt Chaser 5k in 2007, in part to move extra inventory by giving participants skirts and also to create a fun race connected to the brand. People in relationships who run it often wager with their significant other about who will beat the other (with women starting first) and people who are single can get stickers on their bibs to say they’re open to meeting someone at the race. This key component of consent was something I didn’t see in the messaging online, so I was very glad to hear this. Nicole told us that about 70-75 percent of race participants in most of the Skirt Chaser races are female and that the race is so popular, there are many copy-cat races across the country.
Then we talked about the race name and marketing. She noted that this year they had a new team working on the promotional materials and that, once we brought it to their attention how predatory/creepy the new tagline sounded (“chase, catch, party”) they agreed. They’ve already removed that tagline from the materials for all of the races and they removed the word “chase” from copy about the race (except from the race name). She is open to hearing ideas for how to promote the race with language that is truer to what the race stands for and what actually happens at it (consensual fun).
Also, SSH board member Liz rightly pointed out the heteronormativity of the race with its assumptions that people are straight, that women are slower than men, and that only women want to or should wear skirts. Nicole said that LGBQT people and relationships are welcome and that anyone can choose to or not to wear skirts.
While I would love for the race name itself to be changed, I understand that would be much harder to do, especially since it’s become a brand that has been around for six years and few people have complained. Changing the tag line and trying to focus more on the consensual fun that takes place at the race is significant and I’m grateful that Nicole took the time to listen to our concerns and acted on them. Hopefully the additional new messaging that is being crafted can emphasize consent and can also be more blatantly inclusive of LGBQT people/relationships.
Do you have ideas for a tagline or messaging?
UPDATE 5/28/13: The campaign was a success! Facebook is changing their policy.
Stop Street Harassment is proud to support a campaign by Everyday Sexism; Women, Action & the Media; and our friend writer/activist Soraya Chemaly to get Facebook to stop allowing people to post content that depicts or supports violence against women and girls.
They write, “Facebook has long allowed content endorsing violence against women. They claim that these pages fall under the “humor” part of their guidelines, or are expressions of “free speech.” But Facebook has proven willing to crack down on other forms of hate speech, including anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and homophobic speech, without claiming such exemptions. That’s why we’re calling on Facebook to make the only responsible decision and ban gender-based hate speech.”
Read the open letter and take action by contacting companies whose ads appear on offensive content to let them know and to ask them to do something. It’s very easy to contact the companies using the mechanisms the campaign provides. On Twitter, use the hashtag, #FBrape.
I’m a 14 year old female. Summer is around the corner and the weather is perfect, I’m already out and about riding my bike, taking my dog for walk’s and hanging out with friends outdoors. But this is the first time ever in my life where I’ve felt fear and intimidation at the thought of going outside. You see, for the past month I have been a victim of street harassment.
One day I was walking to a local restaurant to meet up with some friends. I wore jean shorts and a muscle tank because it was scorching hot outside. On my way there, younger and middle aged men passed me in their vehicles about 7 of them whistled at me and made me feel uncomfortable by saying disrespectful comments such as “Hey hottie” or “What a babe!” or “Damn look at that a**!” In case you are not aware, these words can make someone feel very intimidated, frustrated, fearful, uncomfortable, worthless and small.
When they said these things I felt a bolt of helplessness run through me. I felt targeted and like I had no voice. Street harassment is wrong. No one should have to experience such disrespect regardless of how they look or what they wear. Street harassment can happen to anyone and be done by anyone. In result of my experience that has happened repeatedly in the past month I’ve grown an insecurity of walking or biking alone. I’ve grown a fear of being intimidated by others in public. I got scared of being a victim. I stopped going outside. My parents were concerned why I had stopped going out as much as I used to.
How did I regain my confidence and deal with the situation? First off, I decided I wouldn’t let some fear take over my life. I had to face my fears. I started walking and biking outside again, I held my head high and I ignored the bullies that tried to sexually harass me.
I paid no attention to them and I did not respond, they were not worth my attention or time. I didn’t let their words get to me. Pretty soon, I had all my confidence back and I was my old self again. It’s only if you focus on something that it becomes more and more apparent in your life. If you need to address the situation verbally then do it, you need to make a clear message that you will not tolerate being victim of street harassment.
Do you have any suggestions for dealing with harassers and/or ending street harassment in general?
Don’t stand for sexual harassment. Take control of the situation and keep moving forward. You deserve respect and you deserve to be treated fairly. You are not an OBJECT to be glorified, you are not EYE CANDY for pleasure, you are not a PIECE OF MEAT to be used. You are a human being who should not be publicly shamed based on gender. Most of important of all, never let someone blame you for their repulsive actions ex. “It’s not my fault I whistled and called her that, she was wearing that slutty skirt!”
That is the equivalent of saying, “It’s not my fault I raped her, she was asking for it by wearing that tight dress!”
– Anonymous
Location: Camrose, Alberta