Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
I just found this video clip today & I am glad that there is another place women have been able to share their street harassment stories and experiences. It reinforces that this is a real problem for soo many women! And this video clip brings in some of the complexities of race that intersect with so much of street harassment.
[blip.tv ?posts_id=295570&dest=-1]
Reuters reports that: “more than 35 young women wearing tight trousers have been arrested for ‘disturbing the peace’ in south Sudan . . . The women were arrested on Sunday night, but released without charge on Monday after appearing in court. ‘They were wearing trousers that were too tight, disturbing the peace,’ said Deputy Police Commissioner of Juba County Raiman Lege.”
Does “disturbing the peace” because of tight pants mean getting harassed by men or “distracting” men because they can see what women’s legs look like? I’m not clear on that but I’m assuming so and thus adding it to this blog, which is full of street harassment-related news stories lately. Kudos to reporters for keeping these issues in the news, and boo to the people who harass and assault women and say stupid things like women should wear veils that reveal only one eye.
And in other news, almost 700 people have taken my full survey and almost 300 others answered the questions on the first page. If you haven’t taken this informal, anonymous survey yet, please do! I’ll be shutting it down soon.
Three years ago a young woman was raped on a deserted subway platform in New York City. While a toll booth attendant and subway driver both saw and called the police, they did nothing more to help her or stop the attacker. The police arrived a long ten minutes later. This news article details what happened – but warning, it’s very upsetting to read parts of it. This brave young woman is suing the NYC Transit and her trial in civil court will be heard soon (don’t know the date). I will be anxious to hear how it goes.
The young woman took the subway at 2 a.m. and she was the only person in the subway car with her attacker and the only one on the platform when she got off and he pursued her. She thought she would be safe and I wish she had been. If you live in NYC and don’t feel safe taking the subway home late Saturday nights, contact RightRides. They offer women, transgender and queer folks free, safe rides home late Saturday nights in numerous NYC neighborhoods. They always need volunteers & donations to keep their program going and to expand their services, so considering getting involved/helping them out!
According to the BBC:
“A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.
Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.”
WHAT?!!!?
In my mind there are two main arguments about veils and related items used to “protect” women. 1. A full veil can lessen sexualized harassment and treatment based on looks. 2. Women shouldn’t be the ones who have to change their lives because men won’t restrain themselves – men are the problem, not the women.
In an ideal world, we’d go with #2 and men would treat women with respect and not harass them no matter what they wear, but since that isn’t always the case, the “quick fix” (and it’s arguable whether or not these behaviors really “fix” anything) is to go with #1 and cover women up, put them on women-only public transportation, or tell them not to go out alone and not to wear “provocative” clothing or makeup.
What really upsets me is when women are made to modify their behavior in such a way that their freedom, mobility, and/or dignity are infringed upon. I have not worn a veil but I suspect it would be even harder to navigate the public sphere while wearing one that only lets me see with one eye.
And I am overwhelmed by the stupidity and hatred for women this man is demonstrating. He sees women as the problem, what with their two provocative eyes looking at those poor victimized men who are able to walk the streets without being harassed and without clothing restraints. And where’s the logic in letting women still reveal one of their two seductive eyes? Why not put have them put buckets over their heads or make them stay home all of the time?
And it’s not like Americans are so enlightened compared to Saudi Arabia. It’s pretty common for girls/women to be told to do X, Y, and Z in order to protect themselves from men instead of boys/men being told not to harass and assault women…
It’s been a short two weeks since I started collecting informal, anonymous online surveys about people’s experiences with stranger interactions in public & specifically with street harassment.
I’ve had many more people take it than I expected at this point in time:
I’m very close to my original goal of collecting a minimum of 500 responses and I am surprised at how quickly I was able to achieve this. I thought it would take months. The downside is that soon I’ll have to go through all of the surveys and then actually write the book proposal (the scary part)!
I had a long list of people I wanted to thank who’ve helped make this happen by not only taking the survey but passing it along and posting it on listservs but this entry got eaten up once already (despite the fact that I clicked save) and I don’t have the time… But quickly, here are a few people I want to thank because they told me they posted or forwarded the survey: Emily @ HollaBack NYC, Brittany @ HollaBack Boston, Jasmeen @ Blank Noise, Joseph @ Word Warrior, Cara Ellison on her blog, Emily @ Advocates for Youth, the Feministing Community, various friends & family & coworkers of mine, and especially my parents and sister. THANK YOU!
I’m brainstorming more conservative leaning listservs and blogs to send this to, any suggestions?
And if you haven’t taken it yet, please do!