Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Street Harassment Event in Asheville, NC

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heybabyartexhibitashevillencAre you in North Carolina? If so, on April 10, you can check out this free street harassment event in Asheville called “Hey Baby!: Resisting Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces, One Bloque at a Time.”

“A bunch of people I know were talking about sexual harassment in our neighborhood, especially downtown and in West Asheville,” Erin Johnson, one of the organizers  said. “We were frustrated by how we felt unsafe, even in groups of people. So we thought, ‘What are some ways that we can take the frustration and anger and make something productive?’”

But the art included in the event that will take place at Asheville BookWorks on April 10 isn’t meant to be hung on a gallery wall; it’s designed to be taken to the streets and be used as tools to prevent, resist or educate.

She views this exhibit as “the first step, raising awareness, and doing it through art,” she said.

For the event, Johnson is making magnetic bumper stickers that respond to particular instances of sexual harassment that she’s experienced riding her bike around downtown Asheville, she said. The magnets display such phrases as “You sexually harassed me,” which can be placed on a vehicle but can be removed by the offending occupant.

That way, “they have to interact with (the magnet) and have to think about it,” she said.

The organizers will be accepting submissions until Wednesday.

Other pieces already accepted include posters with radical cheerleading chants, bike flags and business cards with instructions for appropriate interaction, Johnson said.

The event will also include a viewing of a documentary as well as workshops about what to do if you are sexually harassed and ways to start a conversation about the issue, she said.”

I wish I could attend, it sounds like it will be a great event.

Where: Asheville BookWorks, 428 1/2 Haywood Road. When: 7-10 p.m. April 10. For more: To submit works, contact Erin Johnson at ejohnson00@gmail.com or drop work off at BookWorks 1-4 p.m. by April 8. For more information, call 255-8444 or visit www.AshevilleBookWorks.com.

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Judge Throws Out Subway Rape Case

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Remember the young woman in NYC who was raped by a man on a subway platform and sued the MTA and the two employees who essentially sat by (after calling the command center) while she was raped? Well, I just read that the judge has thrown out the suit.

scalejustice“In a nine-page ruling, Queens Supreme Court Justice Kevin Kerrigan concluded a token clerk and a subway conductor had no responsibility to intervene and were following work rules by not confronting the rapist.”

Meanwhile the attacker has never been caught. Surveillance video failed to capture the attack.

The woman who was raped is understandably devastated and she has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the judge’s decision.

It is difficult to say if any of us would have acted any differently had we been the MTA workers, especially if they were following company protocol. But at the same time, I have a hard time not feeling appalled and outraged that they knew this was occurring but they only did the bare minimum to stop it.  I really wish the outcome could have been different.

It’s Sexual Assault Awareness & Prevention Month right now, and while people are much more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone they know, these types of random attacks happen too. At the very least, MTA may want to rethink their procedure and/or protocol for when assaults do occur so that they can respond better to literal cries for help… And maybe if she appeals and gets to have a lawsuit, they will HAVE to rethink it.

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Update on Midtown Harassment Tragedy

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Picture of the scene
Picture of the scene

The NY Daily News has photos and more information about the two women who were hit by a street harasser in New York on Friday. Sadly/infuriatingly one of the women died and the other woman, thankfully, will survive her injuries.

“When the two [women] ignored the men’s advances, the van slammed into the women, pinning Katsiambanis, before coming to a stop at a CitiBank, police said…Cops arrested Keston Brown, 27, of the Bronx, and charged him with driving while intoxicated and possession of marijuana. Sources said Brown, who has prior arrests, was flirting with the women while driving by them. When they spurned him, he lost his temper – and control of the van, they said.”

In the other news stories I’ve read in the last year where street harassment escalated to murder, the women similarly ignored or turned down the men’s advances. In my research I’ve found that women’s most common response to a harasser is ignoring them, for numerous reasons, like they don’t want to give the men any sign of encouragement. But harassers can escalate whether they are being ignored or whether they get a reaction from the person they are harassing. This is why ending harassment boils down to a focus on the harasser, not how women respond. It may not matter how women respond because different harassers are looking for different reactions and when they don’t get them, or if they do get them, they escalate the harassment.

*Mar 27 - 00:05*All that being said, seeing the photo of the woman who was killed with her family is very saddening.

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Woman Killed in Midtown by Street Harassers

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Yesterday evening in Midtown Manhattan, two pedestrian women were hit by two men in a Gristede’s (supermarket chain) van as the women were heading home from their jobs at Israel Berger Associates, an architecture firm. One of the women was killed and the other woman is in serious condition at a hospital. The men were taking away in handcuffs by police officers.

The New York Times has a detailed description of the tragedy. What caught my eye was this paragraph, almost hidden within the full article text:

“There were two men in the front seat, a driver and passenger, and the passenger was leaning out the window and yelling at and harassing the women, Mr. Contreras said, citing his coworker’s account. All of a sudden, he said, the van shot up suddenly onto the curb.”

Street harassment. Nothing more is mentioned about the harassment or why the men’s van “suddenly” went up on the curb. I guess we are to assume they were distracted by harassing the women and weren’t paying attention and suddenly they ran them over? The article didn’t seem to imply that hitting them was intentional, though I have read a news story about a young woman in Florida who was intentionally hit by a car because she refused to talk to the man driving along beside her, harassing her. Both incidents are horrible.

An innocent woman and her future child (she was pregnant) are dead and her friend is in critical condition simply because they were female on a street (using the logic that the men were harassing them as females and they wouldn’t have run them over had they not been harassing them). Street harassment must stop!

Update: The driver of the van has been charged with [wo]manslaughter and assault.

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HollaBack Shout Outs

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Shout Outs to a few of my street harassment activist allies & an announcement about the upcoming launch of a new HollaBack DC blog:

  1. Brittany & Hilary of HollaBack Boston and HollaBackTalk. For nearly three years (May 06 – Jan 09) they raised awareness about street harassment and gave people in the Massachusetts area a place to share their harassment stories. They are on a break from their blogs now and I hope sometime soon their schedules will allow them to return to it. Shout Out to Brittany and Hilary for all their time and effort addressing street harassment!
  2. Emily, co-founder and current facilitator of HollaBack NYC. Without HollaBack NYC, there may not be as many people aware of or talking about street harassment. Its launch in 2005 set the stage for allowing people to have a space to share their stories online, feel empowered, and raise awareness about street harassment in NYC and beyond. It inspired dozens of other HollaBack websites. This week, Emily wrote a great article for On the Issues about HollaBack NYC – check it out. Shout Out to her for making sure HollaBack NYC continues and for all her work to make NYC safe for women.
  3. Chai & Shannon are officially launching a new HollaBack DC blog in April. If you’re in the Washington, DC area or have been harassed while visiting DC, send them your stories as they have started taking submissions in preparation for the launch. A DC resident myself (well, for work), I am thrilled to have them as nearby allies and look forward to seeing all they do in the DC area to combat street harassment. Shout Out to them both for embarking on this much-needed work – good luck ladies!
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