Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“I’m as white as it gets”

By

I’m the same girl who posted about the tuba player in marching band who scares me. Though irrelevant to this story, I feel it’s kind of important to understand how commonplace these things are for me. On to the story.

Monday, my school had its last registration day. As a marching band kid, I had to go then, due to scheduling. It went about as smoothly as any registration ever goes here; probably a bit better than usual, a little less crowded, but fewer friends seen. I was wearing eyeliner and mascara, a green shirt that reached my collarbone and was loose (not hugging my curves), a black ruffle skirt that went 3/4 the way down my thighs, gray leggings that reached my ankles, a saxophone copper necklace, and black sandals. Hardly revealing, but decently flattering.

My mom and I were walking out the doors of the school when we passed a group of young black boys (I only mention race because of what they said). I heard one shout, “Walk that ass, n*gga!” I thought it was so ridiculous I actually kind of laughed, because a) I’m as white as it gets, even if I’m tan from band, and b) who says that stuff? So B- for originality, F for sense. *shakes head*

– Marching Band Girl

Location: Indiana

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

Share

“How many daughters do you have?”

By

One of the best ways to deal with harassers is to say or do something that surprises or confuses them. I love how Lilit Marcus does this with some of her the men in her neighborhood in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. She also feels she’s able to successfully respond to them because they share a similar culture and she can use her knowledge of their culture to shame them. Here’s an excerpt from the full article in Heeb Magazine:

“I live in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. More specifically, I live on Broadway, which divides a mostly Dominican and Puerto Rican community from a Satmar Hasidic one. My Spanish is better than my Yiddish. When I want a bagel, I choose a Dominican bodega over a Satmar shop, since the men will accept money straight from my hand and the women don’t cluck at my sleeveless shirts. In the past,when I got a catcall or leer from a hasidic man, I rolled my eyes and kept walking. But after a series of incidents where members of the Satmar community threatened women who rode their bikes through the neighborhood and even repainted bike lanes without permission, I decided that living-and-letting-live was overrated.

The first time I said something, he was a young guy, possibly in his late teens, standing about a block away from me. He looked past my Star of David pendant straight down to my breasts. “They’re nice,” he
said loudly.

“Excuse me?” I walked right up to him.

“THEY’RE NICE,” he shouted, pointing at my chest, as if the problem had merely been a failure to hear.

“Are you married?” I asked him. His face went bloodless. He scurried away like an animal who had been caught making a mess.

The next time I got bolder. When a middle-aged man whistled at me from the front door of a yeshiva, I marched up to him and said, “How many daughters do you have?” He didn’t answer, but he didn’t whistle again.

Since then, I’ve tried to find specifically Jewish ways to address street harassment. “The Torah says a virtuous woman’s price is above rubies!” I once yelled back, although he probably didn’t consider me virtuous what with my ankles sticking out all sluttily. “Would you do that to Devora? To Sarah? To Rachel?” I asked, not realizing that these men probably would have thought Rachel was a hottie. There is one move I still haven’t been bold enough to try yet, though: walking up to a dude, calmly touching his shoulder, and then announcing that I am menstruating.

I’m not sure if my one-woman campaign against Satmar street harassment has made any impact on their community or on the way that they think about women. Most of the men simply run away from me or act like they suddenly have an important text message to look at, but a few have told me that I should be flattered by any attention from a man. I informed one of them that my Jewish boyfriend spoke to me in a much more respectful manner and treats me like a person instead of walking cleavage, but that didn’t seem to go anywhere.

Street harassment is, sadly, a fact of life in many urban areas. There are entire websites and smartphone apps (like the excellent Hollaback NYC) devoted to helping women take down harassers. But why was it specifically Satmar street harassment that finally inspired me to stop grinning and bearing it? It was something about the fact that it was coming from inside my own community. Being able to use Judaism and Jewish language against these men and force them to examine their behaviors was something I couldn’t do with other kinds of harassers. The phone call, you see, was coming from inside the house.”

 

Share

“It really shook both of us up”

By

I was 12 years old and walking home from a shop after getting some sweets with my best friend. We were walking past a football field with men in their late teens when they started telling us to come over and perform sexual favours. When we ignored them they started picking up stones and throwing them at us while shouting out insults. It really shook both of us up and after that we never would go there without an adult.

– Anonymous

Location: Guatemala

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

Share

“We don’t owe anything to these strange men”

By

I was walking home from school and a car followed alongside me for about 10 minutes, constantly asking me if I wanted a ride several times. The last time he asked I looked him in the eye and said, “You’re obviously not going any faster than I am, so why would I want a ride?” He sped away.

Another time I was walking the same route and a man sitting on a bench asked me to come over and talk to him. I ignored him and kept walking. He shouted at me, “You’re not pretty enough to ignore me.”

The worst story I have was the time my female roommate and I met up with a boy in a public place to sell him her bike. He gave us cash, we gave him the bike, and we went our separate ways. As we were heading home, a man who had been sitting nearby asked my roommate how much money she got from the sale. She told him that it wasn’t any of his business and we continued walking home. He ran into his car and started driving alongside us, screaming profanities at us, namely calling us cunts. When it came time for us to cross the street, he attempted to run us over. We jumped out of the way and he sped off. I wasn’t able to remember his plates.

All three of these events left me shaken up and angry. We don’t owe anything to these strange men and I don’t know where they get the idea that we do.

– Jackie

Location: Savannah, GA

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

Share

Street harassment, water balloon fights & anime conventions

By

I’ve known Shawna Potter, Director of Hollaback Bmore (and the frontwoman for the band War on Women) for a year and a half, and I’m always impressed by the creative ways she brings attention to street harassment!  Here are just two recent examples. 

Two weeks ago, she talked about street harassment with the girls from St. Francis Community Center and helped them relieve their frustration with street harassers with….a water balloon fight!

Then, last week, she led a group of activists in an outreach effort at the harbor during Otakon, a fan convention for East Asian popular culture (“anime”). Otakon occurs in Baltimore every summer.

The Indypendent Reader published an article about what happened:

“As one of the largest anime conventions, the city fills with costumed attendees –each one personifying their favorite anime (or other East Asian icon) character. For many, it is a delightful and fantastic sight and experience to behold.

Wanting to make the most of this highly populated opportunity, the activists trekked over to the Convention Center for some direct feminist outreach.The group set-up shop on the corner by the front doors. Stuffing their pockets with “Hollaback! Bmore” buttons, for an hour the predominantly female organizers confidently approached the hundreds of Otakon attendees streaming in-and-out of the Center.

Potter began the outreach. Grabbing a stack of papers, where people could share their harassment stories, she walked up to a costumed group of presumably  female-bodied individuals and said, “We’re documenting women’s and LGBTQ folks’ stories of street harassment. Has this ever happened to you?”

Soon the other activists were following her lead, passing out flyers, buttons, engaging in candid discussion on street harassment, and documenting written and video stories.

Brooks, the only male-bodied Hollaback! activist present, observed, “It’s interesting to do direct outreach at an event like this. When they see us, they think we’re part of the convention. Then when they start talking to us, you can see the realization that what we’re talking about is really very serious. And most of them, are expecting attention due to their costumes. So you can see the exact shift towards thinking about how attention can be incredibly unwanted.”

Many of the attendees were teenagers or of college age, experiencing street harassment in its first confusing waves. Some expressed the “behavior” as “annoying” but “harmless”; one young woman even stated the all-too-common conception that the “behavior” was complimentary. This is an idea that Hollaback! actively works to combat; aiming to expose women to the truth that they do not need to find their worth as sexual beings and people in this world from this form of the objectifying male conduct — that when they allow objectification they allow the oppression of their identities.Others stated that they were from small towns and didn’t recognize what was being discussed. It should be noted that much street harassment research conveys that it is prevalent regardless of location, whether urban, suburban, or rural. However, more data is needed; hence the need for more Hollaback! geo-tracking.

This being stated, many also engaged excitedly about the topic. They discussed their street harassment stories, filled up our pads of paper, and went on camera to tell their tales.

Some didn’t want to share their stories but vocalized their support for the movement. One young woman became emotional when an activist approached her, stating that she had been “jumped” just the previous night. The activist strongly encouraged her to seek support through a variety of means..

Next Steps

As the flyer collection diminished and handfuls upon handfuls of buttons were dispersed,the activists excitedly gathered to discuss their work. Immediately palpable was the organizers thrill to have interacted so intimately with so many about street harassment.

“We’re definitely going to do this more often,” reflected Potter.“So much of this movement is about education. This is a  simple yet obviously effective way to publicly discuss and bring awareness to such an often invisible issue.”

Great work!!

Share