Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
Here is part two of the great series on street harassment by Erin, one of Stop Street Harassment’s blog correspondents AND new social media volunteers. In this episode she covers five things you can do to stop street harassment. Thanks for the shout-out for the Stop Street Harassment book and International Anti-Street Harassment Week, April 7-13!
Kelly Gallagher is a filmmaker and animator working on her MFA at the University of Iowa. She makes radical and colorful films about resistance, revolution, and struggles against patriarchy, racism, capitalism, and colonialism.
SSH: What inspired your current film?
Kelly Gallagher: I’ve been wanting to make a film about street harassment for awhile, as it’s something that I’ve inevitably had to deal with for years since I’m a woman and we live in a violently misogynistic, patriarchal society. For me, “I AM THE MACE” is about identifying myself as a weapon against street harassment. Like the mace that I carry with me, I too, as a woman can viscerally and aggressively fight back against street harassment.
“I AM THE MACE” is about tapping into our justified anger, and utilizing it to holler back, to look our harassers straight in the eyes and assertively and confidently shut them down immediately. Making films that explore ways in which we as women can visualize our own power and strength is so imperative because sometimes visualizing our own agency is what reminds us and inspires us to utilize it.
Find more of Kelly’s work on her website and her Vimeo page.
Fifty men from India who are part of India for Integrity and Delhi Bikers gathered in New Delhi, India, this weekend to offer a “public apology” from Delhi men and to commit to changing men’s attitudes toward women.
Via the Wall Street Journal: “Among those issuing an apology was Shorya Bisla, 23, dressed in a black biker vest and red neckerchief. “I might never consciously have disrespected women, but I feel that I have been mute when the people around me have,” said Mr. Bisla who works in marketing.”
Cross-posted from Black Feminists. Trigger Warning.
Today and tomorrow two Argentinian sisters are standing trial for the attempted murder for their longtime sexual harasser.
For years Ailen and Marina Jara (19 and 21) were harassed in their neighbourhood, by the same man. One day, over two years ago, their abuser got out a gun and tried to rape one of the sisters. The other, used to this harassment and wanting to defend her sister, got out a 10cm kitchen knife from her knapsack and stabbed him. The man was not seriously hurt and the sisters felt they had acted in legitimate self-defense and therefore handed the weapon to the Argentine police.
The sexual harasser however has a close relationship with the police and managed to have the sisters arrested for attempted murder. Since then, there has been some serious mishandling of their statements and they have languished in jail for over two years. In that time they have been beaten and denied medical assistance.
Those campaigning on the sisters behalf are looking to provide support to the sisters so that they know they are not alone and will not be forgotten. You can send an email showing your solidarity to this address: libertadailenymarina@hotmail.com
Live coverage of the trial in Spanish can be heard here.
For more info in Spanish here is our blog post.
– Hollaback Buenos Aires
The second annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week starts three weeks from today! Find out what it’s about, why it matters and what you can do to participate :
Transcript:
Hi my name is Holly Kearl. I’m the founder of Stop Street Harassment and the main organizer of International Anti-Street Harassment Week.
I recently spoke at a high school class in New York City, and one by one, the girls shared recent experiences of unwanted sexual harassment in public spaces by men they did not know. One girl said just the day before, a man had followed her on the street and then came up to her and grabbed her stomach! She ran away frightened. Another girl said that recently a man groped her when she was on the subway on her way to school. She now feels so unsafe on that subway line that she never takes it and goes out of her way just to get to school safely.
They, like at least 80% of women and girls around the world experience street harassment. This is unwanted sexual harassment in public spaces that ranges from unwanted leering, whistling, honking, persistent asks for a date after you’ve said no. It can escalate into sexually explicit comments, following, groping, and even sexual assault.
Gender-policing or harassing someone because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender expression is also street harassment. This happens to women and men worldwide and it’s also not okay.
Street harassment is such a pervasive problem. It limits women’s and girls’ and some men’s access to public spaces. It limits where they can go and when and how safe they feel.
At the end of December, we saw a horrific example of this. In India, a young woman was taking the bus home with her male friend from the cinema when a group of men on the bus started harassing her, and then her friend when he defended her. It escalated into a brutal gang rape that led to her death.
The world was outraged, as they should be, but this happens every single day.
Girls and women and many men are unsafe in public spaces. This is a human rights violation. This is a gender equality issue. No country has achieved gender equality and no country every will as long as we do not have the same access to public spaces, the same level of comfort in public spaces, as do most men.
So what can we do about it?
I invite you to participate in International Anti-Street Harassment Week from April 7-13, 2013. Tens of thousands of people around the world are speaking out about this issue. We recently saw One Billion Rising in February where groups spoke out against gender violence. And now this is a specific initiative to speak out against street harassment, which is probably the most common form of harassment and gender violence women face in the world.
But too often it’s dismissed as a compliment, as no big deal, or as women’s fault because of what we’re wearing. And that has to stop.
And it can stop with each of us by sharing our stories online and offline. By passing out information about what street harassment is, how to be a good bystander when we see it happening, and how to have consent and respect on the streets.
A really easy way to participate is to get a group of friends together and write pro-respect sidewalk chalk messages in your community.
To learn more, to find ideas, and to sign up to participate, please visit www.MeetUsontheStreet.org. Everyone deserves safety in public spaces, so join us, speak out, and meet us on the street!