Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Silly women, you don’t own the streets!

By

My very good female friend lives just two doors down from me and I was leaving her flat tonight – we stood on the steps together and were laughing raucously as we said goodbye. A guy walking past started to shout something up at us, which we couldn’t hear, but he kept at it and was determined to interrupt our laughter.

I left my friends to enter the front door to my flat – which is opposite a bus stop – and was carrying a pizza box. Some guy standing at the bus stop waited until I was just going through the door (coward!) and shouted ‘You want someone to share that pizza with?’ (Er, yeah – I just shared it with my friends. You know, friends, not seedy older men who shout at women in the street…)

So a nice double whammy for me there. What I find very interesting about this harassment is that in the first instance my friend and I were laughing very loudly, and in doing so were noisy and in ownership of the street were we live. I think the man walking past just couldn’t bear to let that go unchallenged. He had to remind us that the street was male space – and only ‘manslaughter’ should be heard, not the laughter of women.

The second instance was just the usual, but I think there was an inference of ‘you shouldn’t be eating a whole pizza by yourself, you should be starving yourself for the sake of making yourself tiny and skeletal so men will find you attractive’. I don’t think he seriously expected me to invite him in for pizza, so the only motivation for him to shout was to intimidate and weirdly ‘guilt-trip’ me.

– CB

Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England UK

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

Share

Street harassment is psychological intimidation

By

The ‘drive-by’ —

Coming back home by myself after coffee at a a cafe, it had started raining. I was wearing cut-offs and a t-shirt. Just about to cross a road, some guys in a van shouted ‘wa-hey’ as it sped past. Because I was by myself, they couldn’t resist the opportunity to reinforce their ownership of the public space. It’s interesting how I felt I should ‘explain’ what I was wearing to recount the story… I think that is a big part of the psychological intimidation – you are expected to reflect on and evaluate how you appeared to the men.

– Anonymous

Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

Share

“The bus stops are horrible for me”

By

It’s finally the summer, and just when I want to go out, have fun, and do what i want to do, I am consistently reminded of careless no-life perverts in my area. I can’t step out of my house without knowing if there is going to be a bunch of guys posted outside & ready to attempt to spit game and start a conversation.

I keep thinkin to myself, “DONT THESE MUTHA FUCKAS HAVE JOBS?!” I mean, come on! The economy can’t be that bad for there to be hella big ass groups of dudes surrounding me at each corner of my area, doin nuthin but smoking and looking for trouble. The bus stops are horrible for me especially because of the fact I have to wait for the bus leaving me vulnerable to street harassers and wanna-be thugs.

There’s nothing wrong with a simple hello, but if I feel i just wanna be left alone….Then all i want to do is be left alone. That’s ALL.

I try to use my phone and ipod to keep me distracted, but I cant always count on that. One guy in his car slowly pulls up while im waiting, and I just let him know on the spot, displayed the promise ring my boyfriend gave me, and told him that it was ALL BAD….but in an assertive way. It’s so hard to be assertive when you really just feel like cursing up a storm at whack ass dudes these days. But to be safe, and knowing how violent my community is these days, I have to be assertive in a polite way and know to keep repeating my standards. Usually I have my best friend or boyfriend help me, but I have to learn how to take care of myself and also protect myself as well.

– “Fedup with cat-callers”

Location: “Bus Stop (in general)”

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

Share

“Check out the jugs on her”

By

I was cycling home alone along the canal after work yesterday and a group of about 10 male cyclists passed me in the opposite direction. The head of the group shouted, “Check out the jugs on her,” and the rest followed suit with lewd comments of their own. I felt quite angry and swore at them.p

I recounted this story to a female colleague today, and whilst she is of the opinion that they are idiots and shouldn’t have said what they said, she also stated that ‘it’s just a fact of life’, and that men get confused with women wearing lowcut tops and that some women do use their bodies to attract men, and that i just shouldn’t worry about it. I feel like this is a common response to what i felt was harrassment and intimidation. My colleague thinks it’s unlikely that they realised they were being intimidating. I think perhaps it needs spelling out.

– JS

Location: Regent’s Canal, London

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

Share

In Indonesia, women face harassment every day

By

In Jakarta, Indonesia, street harassment impacts women’s lives every day. Like many countries, in Indonesia there is no legal regulation against street harassment, perpetrators claim they think they are doing women no harm, and women have been conditioned to stay silent about it. Combined, it means street harassment makes life hell for women when they’re on the streets, taking public transportation, and driving their own cars.

Two experts quoted for the  Jakarta Post give more insight into the problem and share their opinions about what needs to change:

“Women feel humiliated even though wolf whistles, cat calls and other sexual comments were not physical sexual harassment, said Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) chairwoman.

A culture of sexual harassment in Indonesia is nurtured by both genders, Yuniyanti said. ‘Patriarchal culture is not an excuse for both genders to justify such harassment,’ she added…

Legal expert and activist Rita Serena Kolibonso said that there were no adequate laws against such offenses. ‘Our law is weak in relation to sexual harassment,’ she said…

‘We need a strong and binding law on sexual harassment, including those forms of small offenses like intimidating verbal gesture. We could propose an independent law or integrate sexual harassment into existing the Criminal Code, only if it explicitly specifies the offenses,’  she said.”

Two thoughts jumped at me after reading these quotes.

First, Chuzaifah makes an interesting point that while gender-based street harassers are primarily men, both women and men can contribute to its occurrence. It’s clear how men do – by engaging in harassment and not stopping other men from doing it – but what about women?

There are a few ways. Some women argue that it’s complimentary when men say inappropriate comments to them. Others slut-shame and say, “What do women expect with their low cut tops?” Others don’t speak out when their sons or brothers or uncles or male friends harass women. And some women do great damage by telling girls and other women that the harassment is their fault, demand they cover up, or admonish them to learn to take a compliment. None of those opinions or behaviors will ever help end street harassment.

Second, I hope activists and lawmakers will work to incorporate sexual harassment in current criminal laws in Indonesia, as Kolibonso suggests. The more often people talk about it and say there’s a need for it, the more likely it is that change will occur. That’s what’s been happening in Egypt, and maybe one day that’s what will happen in the US, too.

Share