Activist Interviews Archives | Page 2 of 26

UK: “We need men on our side, working alongside us”

March 22, 2017 By Correspondent

Annabel Laughton, Gloucestershire, UK, SSH Blog Correspondent

This month I had the chance to speak to Michael Conroy, National Coordinator for A CALL TO MEN UK. After hearing from feminist activist Finn Mackay last month about the importance of working with men and boys to challenge and change the culture that continues to allow street harassment and all forms of violence against women to exist, I was keen to find out more about an organisation doing exactly that.

A CALL TO MEN UK was set up in 2011 by Kay Clarke, who after years of working with women survivors of men’s violence began to think about prevention. Conroy got involved when he saw Tony Porter (co-founder of the US based A CALL TO MEN) speak. “I watched a session and thought ‘This is really important work and I should be doing this too!’”, he says.

And the aim is as big as it is important: to create a critical mass of younger men who will no longer uphold the cultural beliefs driving violence and coercive behaviour. This will be a “tipping point”, Conroy says, which will enable the shrinking of the spaces where misogyny flourishes and allow healthier norms to become embedded. The organisation works towards this goal in a variety of clever ways, focusing on “creating opportunities for creative, challenging dialogues with boys and young men around what it means to be a man and how some of the messages we receive can be really harmful, not just to women and girls, but also to ourselves as men.”

One example is the FreeUp programme which starts “the kind of conversations that just don’t happen often enough – about porn, consent, objectification, autonomy, the rules of the ‘manbox’ and how we as males sometimes police each other by invoking rules of masculinity”.

Ingeniously, A CALL TO MEN UK trains staff already working with groups of boys and young men, people they already trust, to deliver the programme. This can include teachers, social workers, Family Support workers or sports coaches, and has the added benefit of educating staff in these settings, which helps to secure the values of the training as part of the ethos in these organisations.

And does street harassment get covered in these programmes with young men? Absolutely.

“Our programmes involve a close look at objectifying practices, which include street harassment, cat-calling, unwanted comments and sexualising behaviour. We unpick the belief system that makes it seem ok to behave in that way. Our analysis, which is clear in our programme, explicitly links that kind of abusive behaviour to the rules of the ‘manbox’, by which men have to – or at least feel empowered to – publicly prove their heterosexuality and by which they believe women are of lesser value and in effect the property, particularly sexual property, of men.” Conroy goes on to say that the programmes also tackle victim blaming, which is “probably part of most street-harassers’ stock script”.

The programmes help boys and men to realise that their actions are their responsibility, and theirs alone.

The programmes Conroy coordinates do not shy away from big questions, and seek to be part of huge and fundamental changes in the way men are socialised, and their self-image. “At the core is a need to un-believe in gender myths and delegitimise the permissions they offer and restrictions that they place on us, unequally, as men and women. Beyond our bodies there is no set of features, attributes, characteristics or interests that we can say are male or female, although centuries of history lie heavily upon our personal and collective consciousness and can persuade some that sex roles are innate. Masculinity and femininity are harmful constructs that we need to urgently debunk for the sake of men and women whose lives are affected by their strictures.”

He’s also unequivocal in one practical way men can create far reaching change in society: at home, by doing an equal share of housework and childcare. “That unsung and unsexy stuff is all too often overlooked but if we can’t or won’t do that, then what hope for the ‘big’ stuff?”

Learning about this fantastic organisation reminds me again how much we need male allies to be part of our fight against street harassment, against sexism, misogyny and patriarchy itself. We need men on our side, working alongside us and taking the message to those who will not hear us, and we need to hold men to account – including those many, many good and decent men who still believe that misogyny is not their fight and thus stay silent.

Annabel is involved in campaigns for human rights, mental health, environmental issues and social justice. She has an honours degree in Classical Studies, a diploma in counselling, and works in Higher Education.

Philippines: It’s Not Fun to Get Catcalled in the Philippines

February 27, 2017 By Correspondent

Ken Rodrigo, Makati City, Philippines, SSH Blog Correspondent

Women, girls and members of the LGBT+ in the Philippines continue to face the terrifying experience of being catcalled on the streets and other public spaces. This can make the experience, for both the locals and tourists, not fun! Fortunately, in the recent years, there is a growing recognition of the issue of gender-based harassment most apparent in catcalling. This can be attributed to a number of factors such as the rise of the LGBT+ movement and the availability of awareness promotion instruments such as the social media.

Platforms such as Facebook, blogs and interactive online news provide venue for discussion and exchange. In the Philippines, an ally of the Stop Street Harassment movement is a public Facebook page called ‘Catcalled in the Philippines’ founded in June 2016. In an interview I conducted with creator Raymond Peter Campiglio, he said he felt the need to provide a platform for people who suffer catcalling and other forms of abuse in public spaces. For him, there is a “lack of empathy and understanding regarding acts of personal violation.” It is also his intention to show that catcalling is not an isolated incident or happens because of the victim’s fault, but a social issue that is prevalent and must therefore be addressed.

Catcalled in the Philippines currently has nearly 16,000 likes and counting. It is a community where members are free to share their stories and learn from each other’s experiences. Apart from catcalling, issues such as sexual violence, the rape culture, and the various manifestations of misogyny in Philippine media and politics are also discussed.

Facebook: a double-edged sword

According to Raymond, the overall response to Catcalled in the Philippines is supportive, but he also stressed the challenges to his cause. He said: “I was surprised with the divided stance of a lot of people. Most of the supporters are female yet there are some female detractors as well. It showed me that internalized misogyny is more prevalent than I imagined. The overall response is support but a lot of the pushback are from people who feel that mobilization against it is a form of cultural disobedience.”

He also labelled Facebook as a double-edged sword, that while it is one of the widest and quickest ways to spread positive ideas, it does the same for negative ideas. For someone who simply wants to help address catcalling, he was shocked with his experience of being reported, causing the page to be paralyzed. He claims “the reporting system can be weaponized as a form of censorship and silencing.”

A message of hope

Asked to give a message to the public, Raymond said: “I want them to know that there will always be someone who is willing to help. Cliché as it sounds, they should never give up hope that the streets will be safer but patience will be needed. Apart from that, courage. Courage to stand up against it, even the courage to ask for help.”

Raymond explains that what he does is dedicated to his mother who as a single-parent raised him with values such as respect, passion and conviction to defend what he believes in, no matter the outcome.

Something bigger

Earlier this month, Raymond was invited by the Office of Senator Risa Hontiveros to participate in the press conference of the senator’s Safe Spaces Bill. The bill which aims to eliminate catcalling on a national scale is currently deliberated in the Senate. Additionally, a Catcalled in the Philippines website is a work in progress according to Raymond.

Ken is a teacher of international studies at a university in Manila. After law school, she traveled to Denmark and eventually studied in Malmö University in Sweden where she earned her master’s in Human Rights. You can contact her at krnrdrg@gmail.com or on Facebook.

UK: “We Need to Change the Whole Picture”

February 16, 2017 By Correspondent

Annabel Laughton, Gloucestershire, UK, SSH Blog Correspondent

Finn Mackay. Credit: Rosie Charlotte Mackay

This week I was delighted to meet Dr. Finn Mackay, a teacher and feminist activist. She’s a sociology lecturer and former youth worker, and has a special interest in working with boys and men, as a researcher and campaigner. She’s involved with the White Ribbon Campaign, and domestic violence prevention work, and speaks and writes about feminism and male violence against women.

First we talk about Reclaim the Night. Mackay set up the London Feminist Network in 2004 and revived a national women-only Reclaim the Night march held in London every November. Mackay explains how Reclaim the Night marches directly tackle intimidation of women in public space. “Public space is gendered, though it shouldn’t be,” she says.

As the name suggests, Reclaim the Night is women’s takeover of public space from men. I ask her about the street harassment I experienced on my local Reclaim the Night march in November, and she laughs wryly. “That happens on all the marches. Groping, asking the way to brothels… it’s an explicit reaction to women taking back the space. Men feel we are trespassing. It’s their way of saying, ‘these are our streets; go back home.'”

Reclaim the Night marches are a powerful statement. For her book, Radical Feminism: Feminist Activism in Movement, Mackay interviewed women about Reclaim the Night, and many women said the march was the only time they could feel safe and powerful.

Is street harassment getting better or worse, I asked?

Her answer is grimly definite: worse. Mackay explains that in her experience, young women say street harassment is an inevitable part of a night out, and how if they reported every instance, they’d never be off the phone. Working in secondary schools in London on anti-bullying campaigns, it was common for girls to report that they would go out wearing two pairs of pants, or would wear tights in summer, because it was so normal for boys to try to grope them inside their underwear. She believes women feel they have to appear unaffected by incidents, not wanting to appear delicate, prudish, or like a victim, and talks about women priding themselves on thinking of witty ripostes to sexual comments. She also explains that most people don’t know the definition of sexual assault (in the UK this is any unwanted intentional sexual touching), and are unsure at what point harassment becomes a criminal offence.

Next I want to find out what Mackay thinks about other areas that interlock with street harassment, like porn. Her view is that it’s an enabler. “Porn is part of a culture where men have to do things to women, and women have to put up with them; a predator/prey dynamic.”

Even more directly, a man can see violent images online and think, “I’ll go and do that to a woman”. Likewise, online harassment is part of that culture of women putting up with everything. The vicious, vitriolic online misogyny experienced by women has contributed to the development of a dialogue where the victim is expected to “toughen up” – because it “happens to everyone”.

Finally, we talk about causes and prevention. Good sex and relationships education (SRE) in schools, including education around consent, would go a long way. At present, there is no duty on schools to teach more than the biology of reproduction, despite many attempts by campaign groups, so provision varies. While there is some progressive, radical work in schools, others offer no SRE, and even in schools that do, it’s often taught by an over-worked gym teacher or someone else without adequate training. Mackay is sceptical about statutory consent campaigns.

“One recent one was, ‘Give it: Get it’. This doesn’t take apart the predator/ prey dynamic. In fact, it sets it up. It’s obvious who’s doing the giving and who’s doing the getting. This is still about controlling women’s sexuality; it removes their sexual agency, as well as assuming men are desperate for sex and women have to be persuaded. And what can be given, can also be taken.”

This points to an urgent need for educating men and boys, and for tackling the expectations of how men behave. In Mackay’s experience, men are usually shocked and defensive about how they come across, even perpetrators of domestic violence. “They split the power thrill [of the act of violence] from the reaction. This is a status defence; they know they have higher status. Men need help. We need to think about how we’re constructing masculinity.”

In the end, though, Mackay sees street harassment in the broadest possible context: the whole of society. “We live in a male supremacy; there’s no getting away from that. All our major institutions are run by men. Ultimately, we need to change the whole picture.”

Canada: Promoting Right to Space on University Campuses

December 11, 2016 By Correspondent

An interview with Arianne Kent and Dina Al Shawwa from Women in Cities International’s Right to Campus Campaign

Alexandra Jurecko, Montreal, Canada, SSH Blog Correspondent

Right to Campus Team, Arianne and Dina — *Right to Campus Team: Arianne and Dina*

Arianne Kent and Dina Al Shawwa met this summer during their research internship at Women in Cities International. In June, they started work on their own project, Right to Campus, which brings WICI’s goals and tactics to McGill University in Montreal. Both Dina and Arianne are students at the university, with Dina being in her fifth year of Civil Engineering and Women’s Studies, and Arianne in her third year of studying Sociology and Women Studies.

“The idea is to take what Women in Cities International does and bring it onto campus,” says Arianne. “More broadly,” adds Dina, “we’re implementing the concepts of the larger Right to the City movement”. “What we want to do is to create more inclusive spaces on campus,” Arianne goes on, “Campus space should be equitable and safe for everyone. No one should have to bend and mold and make themselves uncomfortable to fit in the McGill space.”

Their first effort on campus was to incorporate the Right to Campus principles into the training for the university’s orientation week. “I was an orientation leader two years ago,” explains Arianne, “and I saw a lot of problems with this. As orientation leaders we’re kind of on the front line, we’re the first people who meet all these incoming students and we have a huge responsibility of conveying what’s acceptable behaviour as a McGill student. That covers everything from consent, respect, anti-discrimination, safety, all these complicated concepts that you’re trying to relay to these incoming students and we weren’t equipped enough to do so from our training.”

In preparation for the event, Dina and Arianne worked alongside the orientation development coordinator: “We were trying to reframe the entire training in terms of space,” says Dina. “We were working within the system to improve the training itself. We thought if we reframe it in terms of space, we can explain that excluding someone from a group is taking away their right to space within that group.” According to Arianne and Dina, it is crucial to change the space itself to be accommodating for everyone rather than asking people to fit in. “The space needs to be comfortable for everyone in order for people to even want the right to space,” they explain.

rtc_2 — *McGill Community Engagement Day and the safety audit Arianne and Dina organized with the help of volunteers.*

For orientation week, they prepared a Frosh zine and guidelines that could be applied to different scenarios, as well as a summary of campus and Montreal resources. During Community Engagement Day in September, the team lead a series of safety audits to explore issues of security and use of space on campus. “We recruited volunteers and walked them through the process of a safety audit which involves looking at different features of the social environment and we got their feedback and opinions,” remembers Arianne. “McGill security does their own official safety audits checking whether lighting is up to par and whether everything is technically safe, but we thought it would be interesting for students to do it as well since they are the ones who primarily use the space. And, student opinions might differ vastly from those of adults and security personnel.”

The group has since been invited to join McGill campus security on their annual safety walks and they are further planning on writing up a report covering the findings from their student-led safety audits: “We’re talking to them now about perhaps using our checklist for safety audits, which is based on the principles of design for safety, on their walks.”

Inter-University Parking Day in Montreal. McGill students are explaining why having equal right to space is important to them. — *Inter-University Parking Day in Montreal. McGill students explain why having equal right to space is important to them.*

Right to Campus’ first goal is to get students involved and talking. “We want to make campus safety everyone’s responsibility and not only women’s responsibility,” stresses Arianne. “Too often the message is that it’s women’s job to make sure they are safe, but men pay an equal part in this.” Arianne and Dina hope that through starting the conversation and by engaging people through their on-campus events, they will establish their ideas for campus safety and right to space among their fellow students: “We think that’s where tangible things grow from.”

These themes occupy Dina and Arianne also in their own academic research. As a Civil Engineering student, Dina wants to explore how to implement safety in people’s minds as well as in the physical environment. “I’m especially interested in the role of Engineers in the built environment that determines people’s perception of safety,” explains Dina. “I’m using safety audits to understand how people’s identity influences how they perceive safety on campus and at the same time I’m trying to understand how identity plays a role in that perception.”

For their next project, the Right to Campus team is planning an art show in spring next year. “We want to ask people what right to space means to them. It can be any personal interpretation of space”, says Dina, “how they feel in space, how they navigate that space.” In the long run, Dina and Arianna are hoping to expand Right to Campus from McGill University and implement the campaign on university campuses worldwide: “We want to take the Right to Campus toolkit to other universities in Montreal, Canada and across the world and make it a resource for students everywhere.”

Alexandra is a freelance writer and recent graduate of Heidelberg University in Germany, where she earned a BA in South Asian Studies and English Literature. Having moved across the pond to live and work in Montreal, she now focuses on refreshing her French skills while volunteering her time to various community-outreach programs. You can follow her on twitter @alexjurecko.

The Bahamas: Interview with Founder of #LifeInLeggings

December 7, 2016 By Correspondent

Guest post by former Blog Correspondent Alicia Wallace

*Image via: https://redforgender.files.wordpress.com*

From #BlackLivesMatter in the U.S. to #SupportThePuff in The Bahamas, we’ve seen the power of social media, the rise of hashtag movements, and the propensity of new media to create change. Recently, #LifeInLeggings has gained the attention of the Caribbean region, giving women the space to share their stories of sexual violence ranging from harassment to rape. Started in Barbados by Ronelle King, the hashtag made its way to Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Bahamas among among other countries.

King, founder of #LifeinLeggings, told me she was frustrated by her own experiences of sexual violence. “I had an idea to create a hashtag that would create a forum for Caribbean women to share their daily experiences of sexual harassment and abuse.” She recently worked with B-GLAD (Barbados Gays, Lesbians and All-Sexuals Against Discrimination), but has found social media and blogging to better suited forms of activism for her personality and schedule.

The launch of #LifeInLeggings on the first day of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence was coincidental. “I wasn’t aware of the 16 days of activism until the hashtag took off and people starting mentioning it in correlation with the hashtag.” King noted the importance of the annual campaign, and said she is happy to have #LifeInLeggings play a role in bringing awareness to the issue of gender-based violence.

It is difficult to predict the success of a hashtag movement, whether by geographical reach or number of participants, but King was certain she would receive support from her friends and women in Barbados, knowing it’s an everyday reality for them.

“I did intend for it to spread through the Caribbean. Rape culture isn’t just a Barbadian issue; it’s a Caribbean issue as well as a global one, so I know that support would pour in from the other countries.”

Sexual violence is a pervasive issue in the Caribbean, as evidenced by statistics. In a survey conducted in nine Caribbean countries 48% of adolescent girls reported that their sexual initiation was “forced” or “somewhat forced.” The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank report noted, “While the worldwide average for rape was 15 per 100,000, The Bahamas had an average of 133, St. Vincent and the Grenadines 112, Jamaica 51, Dominica 34, Barbados 25 and Trinidad and Tobago 18.”

#LifeInLeggings has given Caribbean women space to put their names, faces, and stories next to those statistics, making them a visible reality for the people around them.

In Dominica, Delroy Nesta Williams and Khadijah Moore saw the effects of #LifeInLeggings and the potential to have a national conversation. The pair started #LévéDomnik to engage the country of less than 73,000, primarily on Facebook, in the discussion. Within days, they had collected over 400 stories, some of which were shared anonymously — sent to someone’s inbox and then posted on their behalf.

Williams said this is only the beginning of the conversation in Dominica. The #LévéDomnik has met with the country’s Bureau of Women’s Affairs and several NGOs, and is planning activities for 2017 that include advocacy training, yoga sessions, focus group meetings, and educational talks. “We want people to be more empathetic towards survivors, and we want to address institutional issues that act as emotional and psychological barriers to reporting sexual offenses and seeking redress through the judicial system.”

For King, #LévéDomnik is proof that #LifeInLeggings is serving its purpose. “The hashtag was created to not only show the realities of rape culture in Barbados, but in the Caribbean. It is a defiant cry for justice and a blatant refusal to be silent.”

Sexual violence is still a taboo subject, and survivors often find it difficult to talk about their experiences. In sharing our stories, we have the opportunity to sensitize people and bring attention to an issue that is often avoided in both private conversations and public discussion. Unfortunately, large numbers of people are unmoved by issues that do not directly affect them or people close to them. People participating in the #LifeInLeggings movement have commented on changes in attitudes of men around them who have been privy to the conversation. King shared that she personally received numerous messages from men who admitted they were a part of the problem, and intend to do better.

The Barbados team encourages those following #LifeInLeggings to reflect on their own experiences with sexual violence, and think of ways to keep the discussion going in family, peer, and community groups. It is also imperative that we consider the ways our words and actions contribute to women’s everyday experiences.

#LifeInLeggings started as a simple idea, and a group of dedicated women worked together to make it region-wide conversation. It caught the attention of two women in politics and Tanya Stephens among others, and is evidence of the power we all have to make a difference. In sharing our stories, women call upon men in The Bahamas and throughout the Caribbean to respect women as human beings, and take on the responsibility in engaging other men in these important conversations and holding them accountable for their actions.

We are not only responsible for what we do, but for what we allow to happen. Bystander intervention is critical to the creation of a new culture where sexual violence has not place. Bahamian women are invited to share their stories on Facebook and/or Twitter using #LifeInLeggings. Hollaback! Bahamas is accepting stories via an online form and will post on Facebook and/or Twitter for those who would like to remain anonymous.

Alicia Wallace is a women’s rights activist, public educator, and movement builder. She is the Director of Hollaback! Bahamas, produces The Culture Rush monthly newsletter, and tweets as @_AliciaAudrey.

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