Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“Go all night with me”

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I am an Asian American living in Morocco. I get harassed by kids who follow me and make sounds that they think is Chinese mixed with animal noises that end up sounding like pigs. Men harass me by shouting words they learn in English, like “Go all night with me” and “Shake that ass for me.” Men follow me on bikes and in cars trying to talk to me.

– Anonymous

Location: Bir Jdid, Morocco

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Male Allies Win Awards!

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In March, Meet Us on the Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week was packed full of amazing anti-street harassment initiatives. Coincidentally, two of the initiatives led by male allies won awards today!!!

1. In India, Dhruv Arora launched the website GotStared.At where people can post photos of the clothes they were wearing when harassed along with their story. What really went viral though were graphics like the one on the right, which, once posted on Facebook, were shared widely.

Today, GotStared.At won the prestigious UN World Summit Youth Award in the category Power 2 Women! Congratulations Dhruv!!

2. In New York City, USA, a team of men and women decided to create a short video about how men can be involved in stopping street harassment, using the meme “Shit […] Say” videos. The video launched during Meet Us on the Street and quickly went viral. It engaged people with the issue in an entertaining way and let men know they are needed in this movement.

Today, the video won the “Seeing My World through a Safer Lens Video Contest“! Congratulations to everyone who was involved, especially Joe Samalin and Bix Gabriel.

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Native Americans Speak Out About Street Harassment

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Kristina and Sunny Clifford

““Hey baby girl,” a group of ten and twelve-year-old Native American boys yelled over and over as they jumped on a trampoline. Then they lifted up their shirts and said, “You want some of this?” as they pounded on their chests. Their targets: Sunny and Kristina Clifford, two Native American sisters in their 20s, sitting outside their mother’s home on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The boys wouldn’t stop and the young women felt so uncomfortable they went inside the house.

The Clifford sisters shared this story during a focus group I recently held at Oglala Lakota College on Pine Ridge Reservation about Native Americans’ experiences with street harassment. They said this incident had happened to them just the day before.

I quickly learned from the focus group participants that, like the rest of the country and the rest of the world, sexual harassment in public spaces is not unusual on the Pine Ridge Reservation, an area the size of the state of Connecticut with a population of 18,834 and an unemployment rate of 89 percent.

Most people on the reservation do not have regular access to a car, and the only public transportation available is a relatively new shuttle bus. As a result, walking is a primary way for people to travel from place to place. The women said that’s when they experience the most street harassment, at the hands of Native and non-Native men driving by in their cars. Kristina Clifford remarked, “There’s always somebody honking, or saying things, yelling, or whatever. It just makes me uncomfortable.”

Sometimes, another woman said, the men drive by once, turn around, and drive by again and again, just to harass them. Consequently, there are places the young women will not walk, and Sunny Clifford, a runner, said she won’t run along the roads anymore.” (Read More)

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote for the Women’s Media Center.

Five years after I turned in my master’s thesis on street harassment, I never thought I’d spend my weekends, most of my vacation days, and lunch hours researching, writing, and bringing attention to the issue. But street harassment has become so important to me that I do, and I feel lucky that I can. In particular, my passion is making sure as many stories and voices as possible are heard so that we can better understand the scope of the problem and its impact.

One population whose street harassment stories I had never seen shared anywhere before were Native Americans’ stories. Because they face higher rates of gender violence than any other racial group in the U.S., I felt it was especially important to learn about their experiences.

Two weeks ago today, I took four vacation days from my day job, caught a cheap flight to Denver and paid for a rental car to drive 6 hours to South Dakota. Through the help of Holly Sortland, the founder of an amazing initiative called ProjectRespect.org, I had the opportunity to hear from Native Americans living on Pine Ridge Reservation and in Rapid City. Their stories touched me, angered me, and made more determined than ever to do this work. I am grateful they were brave enough to share their deeply personal stories and I’m glad that the Associated Press and South Dakota PBS radio recognized the importance of their stories and shared some of them through their media channels.

The stories from these and other upcoming focus groups will supplement a first-of-its-kind national study of 2000 people I am trying to make happen. Please donate $10 (or more if you can) to ensure it happens; I have a great group of PhD-level experts ready to advise me on the surveying instrument and a very reputable survey firm ready to conduct it once we have enough funds.

Public policy and public attitudes about street harassment will change only once we have the right combination of stories and data. So many of you have shared your stories (thank you), now I need your help so we can have data. Thank you.

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“He made me feel uncomfortable during the entire journey”

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I have two new incidents of street harassment to tell you about. Brilliant.

Harasser 1: I was on holiday in Brighton with my female friend. We had just been strolling along Brighton pier and were having a pleasant time. After winning a couple of things in the arcade, I was thrilled.

However, this feeling of contentment was cut short by some insensitive bastard who clearly had no respect or consideration for my feelings. As my friend and I walked through one of the lanes, this idiot passed me and as he did he looked at me, said, “Ew” and walked on casually. I didn’t have a chance to react. We walked on and I later told my friend what had happened (she didn’t hear him). I was left feeling mad and upset that some total stranger could be so disgusted with the way I look. It was yet another knock back on my self esteem. Something so minor but a major affect on me. Thanks for ruining the rest of my day, jerk.

Harasser 2: This happened today when I was on the bus. I was actually with my boyfriend. A middle aged man was sitting in the front (My bf and I were sitting on the side seats) and this creep proceeded to stare at me throughout the whole journey. Typically I was wearing a rather revealing top, again I will mention my boobs were not spilling out! Just showing some cleavage! It was just typical that I was wearing something that showed some flesh of an intimate part of my body which will get any pervert drooling. He made me feel uncomfortable during the entire journey. Even when I got off, he continued to leer at me, turning his neck as the bus drove off. What a slimeball.

Until next time (don’t be surprised if it’s next week)

– Clarice

Location: UK

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Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.

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Digest of street harassment stories, news, announcements & tweets: September 9, 2012

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Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past few weeks.

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Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read street harassment stories on the Web at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

HarassMap in Egypt

Bijoya in Bangladesh

Resist Harassment in Lebanon

Ramallah Street Watch in Palestine

Name and Shame in Pakistan

Safe Streets in Yemen

Street Harassment in South Africa

Many of the Hollaback sites

Street Harassment In the News, on the Blogs:

* Eliminating the Impossible, “Street Harassment 102: When You’re Blind and a Woman“

* Washington Post, “In Egypt, a backlash against harassment“

* International Business & Law, “Brussels’ Offensive-Language Fines Highlight Widespread Sexual Harassment“

* Think Progress, “Judge To Woman Sexually Assaulted By Cop: ‘When You Blame Others, You Give Up Your Power To Change’”

* The Flick, “I Ain’t No Hollaback Girl” | The Flick, “Why I Shout At Street Harassers“

* The Raw Story, “It’s Really Time for the Harassment to End“

* South Dakota Public Broadcasting, “Street harassment affects lives of women and girls“

* Fair Observer, “Natasha Smith: Is This Egypt?”

* ArgusLeader.com, “Native women: Street harassment common“

* Art in Praxis, “Shift Happens: Street Harassment and Cultural Organizing“

* The Thang Blog, “Street harassment and being treated like a lady“

* Don’t Hate Me ‘Cause I’m Indie and You’re Punk, “This is still what a feminist looks like“

* Scotsman.com, “Campaign aims to stop harassment in street“

* UnWinona, “I debated whether or not to share this story;” Jezebel, “Stranger on a Train: ‘I Would Fucking Kill You Bitch’”

* Memoirs of an Egyptian, “On sexual harassment: Dear men, you don’t know too much“

* Hanna Brooks Olsen, ““The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.”“

* Jezebel, “Don’t You Dare Ask Me Why I Look Mad“

* Khaleej Times, “Teaching women to
stand up for rights“

Announcements:

New:

* Sign a petition about ending street harassment in Egypt.

* There’s a new anti-harassment campaign in Mumbai, India, called Chal Hatt Tharki.

* Hollaback launched 7 new sites

Reminders:

* Stop Street Harassment recently incorporated as a nonprofit organization. Please donate so we can conduct a national street harassment study and gather much needed data documenting the problem.

* Contact Bowlmor and the New York City Transit to complain about this offensive subway ad.

* Activists in South Africa launched a website about street harassment

* The anti-sexual harassment public service announcement signs are now up in several Washington, DC metro stations!

* The Stop Street Harassment book is available in paperback for $15.

* Submit art about street harassment for the VoiceTool Product exhibit in San Francisco, CA

* The Adventures of Salwa campaign has a hotline for sexual harassment cases in Lebanon: 76-676862.

* In Bangalore, India, there is a helpline for street harassment 080 – 22943225 / 22864023

* Report #streetharassment in Pakistan at @NameAndShamePk, email nameandshame@ryse.pk, SMS 0314-800-35-68 or online at http://www.nameandshame.pk

15 Tweets from the Week:

1. @alisonturkos Nothing like being harassed on your way to brunch! #streetharassment

2. @Morgane_R I think most ppl would be surprised to know that I experienced more #streetharassment in the states than abroad in costa rica. #fem2

3. @monaeltahawy #Egypt is becoming synonymous with street sexual harassment and assault – it’s a national shame! http://wapo.st/PbSnSR #EndSH

4.  @lesellele #Streetharassment is not about compliments but about sexualized aggression and reminding a woman of her “place”

5. @iHollaback From our twitter feed, “if you hadn’t left the kitchen, there wouldn’t be any “victims” of #streetharassment.” The work continues, it seems.

6. @SirJoshBennett Thinking about street harassment. About what role a man’s voice can have in helping to stop that sort of violence.

7. @amyuncorked @theflickgirls got bum groped when jogging, turned &shouted FUCK OFF then spent rest of jog worrying that had offended others #why #mental

8. @sallyzohney If u know any anti harassment initiative in Egypt plz link me/share their info, I’m compiling for a big research. thnx #EndSH

9. @Karnythia On Street Harassment, Victim Blaming & Life in My Skin #streetharassment #endSH

10. @Morgane_R Yet another day of #streetharassment while out walking our dog, Joplin. One of the things I hate about our move back to #NYC. #fem2

11. @S_Takoza @hkearl Mariam Khaled “7 years” from the 2nd protest against sexual harassment in #minia #EndSH https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=194828347315746&set=a.192331694232078.47809.191475237651057&type=1&relevant_count=1 … 🙂

12.  @thetrudz There goes a Black man justifying street harassment. File this under “all the goddamn time.” But cop harassment of you is wrong, right? FOH

13. @sarcastathon For those of you who think it’s just me who suffers from street harassment or that I’m exaggerating: go read @theflickgirls‘ timeline.

14.  @ljoywilliams Calling out body parts or yelling out how you would like to sexual violate me IS #StreetHarassment

15. @vanbakes I CANNOT take another minute of the #streetharassment in #Dublin.

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