Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

USA: Reframing the Street Harassment Conversation with Men

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Kirstin Kelly, Monterey, California, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

We cannot stop street harassment from happening unless we understand why people do it in the first place.  To this end, I interviewed three mechanics at various stages in life, two of whom my boyfriend has witnessed engaging in street harassment.  All three men were more than happy to talk about what I referred to as catcalling (I didn’t want to shut them down by labeling it harassment), but none of them admitted doing it recently.  The two my boyfriend had seen admitted to catcalling women when they were younger.

All three men said they thought catcalling was stupid, and none of them were really sure why it happened in the first place.  However, they did point out that there were at least two good reasons for it to keep happening: sometimes it is an effective way to pick up women and it makes for a good joke between friends.  These two incentives tell us a lot about what we need to do to stop street harassment.

When I asked what they thought we should do to stop street harassment, the men I spoke to said that it was nature, that it’s impossible to prevent that behavior.  I disagree.  Across all theories of normative psychology, people are only motivated to engage in a given behavior if they believe their behavior will have a favorable impact on the ultimate outcome.  In this case, the men either believe they have a chance of successfully getting their target to come home with them or at least getting a good laugh from their friends.  This is important because for several of these men, fear of rejection means that street harassment is somewhat safe because it can be played off as a joke should the target not respond favorably.  None of the men I interviewed seemed to consider how their behavior made their targets feel unless they got a favorable response.

This is critical- framing street harassment as derogatory, scary, and socially unacceptable is probably the strongest way to change the pervasiveness of the behavior because it would make the perpetrators think about their behavior in a way that may not have before.  For victims, it feels like a loss of power, and perhaps that’s why some perpetrators engage in some types of street harassment, but for those that have never thought about that impact of their actions, reframing the conversation may have a significant impact on how willing people are to accept the behavior.  The bottom line is that it needs to stop being acceptable fodder for jokes.

The men I talked to also suggested that street harassment is something men grow out of when they get into more serious and committed relationships.  There might be something to that, but all three men are in committed relationships, and while they no longer admit to engaging in catcalling, they have been witnessed doing it in the past few months.  Their refusal to admit to catcalling women since entering committed relationships is telling.  It’s demonstrative of a feeling that street harassment is not acceptable behavior, and that to me suggests social change is possible because the type of change we need is already taking root.

Kirstin is a Master’s Student in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a news editor at the Women’s International Perspective (The WIP). You can follower her on Twitter at @KirstinKelley1, where she regularly posts about human rights issues around the world.

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Video: Street Harassment and the Law

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Two weeks ago, we held a briefing in Washington, D.C. about our new toolkit, Know Your Rights: Street Harassment and the Law.

This is an excerpt from the talk the lead author Talia Hagerty gave. She covered an overview of the toolkit and relevant laws, as well as the pro’s and con’s of reporting. This included touching on why some people and communities may choose not to engage police — and how that is ok!

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Thesis results: “Gender in Public Space”

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In April, I completed my senior thesis for Princeton University examining the policy frameworks that sustain street harassment. As a public policy major, I was especially interested in the way government policies defined the problem of sexual violence and, going forward, how policy at every level of government could effectively address street harassment. Through this analysis, I identified a complex structure of policy that makes street harassment appear to be an inevitable fact of life, though it is anything but. While writing my thesis I came to realize that none of the needed reforms are insurmountable. Further, there is great precedent for the type of policy changes needed.

Examining government rhetoric about sexual violence, the first theme I noticed was that most official advice and information on sexual violence focuses on minimizing victims’ risk. A fact sheet from the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health illustrates this position.

“How can I lower my risk of sexual assault? These are things you can do to reduce your chance of being sexually assaulted…Be wary of isolated spots, like underground garages, offices after business hours, and apartment laundry rooms. Avoid walking or jogging alone, especially at night.”[1]

It is hard to imagine what kind of life a person would live if she wished to follow this advice. More worrisome, though, is that in this construction of sexual violence people are able to prevent their own victimization. In terms of policy solutions, this conceptualization is frighteningly close to a ‘blame the victim’ approach. And of course—if women could prevent being victims of sexual violence, it is hard to justify policy interventions to reduce this type of violence. This understanding of sexual violence explains the lack of coherent and effective laws to combat street harassment, as well as police inattention to the problem.

The narrative of sexual violence that frames the problem as an inevitable way men interact with women is one cause of street harassment’s frequency. What is less often discussed is the role police play in exacerbating street harassment, both by perpetrating it themselves and by fostering an institutional culture unconcerned with sexual violence. One NYC study found that

“Quite unexpectedly, almost two-fifths of the young women surveyed indicated that in the past 12 months, male police officers had flirted, whistled or ‘come on to them.’”[2]

Similarly, women often do not report incidents of street harassment. A Manhattan Borough President’s Office survey found that 96% of respondents who reported being sexually harassed on the subway had not filed a report with the New York Police Department or Metropolitan Transit Authority nor did they call the police for help.[3] Indeed, police sexual harassment is pervasive enough that there is a sub-field of criminology which focuses on “police sexual violence” toward other police officers, a phenomenon that has been documented worldwide.[4] Although there is great value in creating specific policies to combat street harassment, the corrupt institutional culture of police departments is equally important to change: without adequate enforcement, most policy to combat street harassment will be meaningless.

Though in my thesis I spent considerable time looking at the policy frameworks and failures that contribute to street harassment’s prevalence, my research also left me feeling optimistic that societal attitudes toward street harassment could change quite quickly.

Bullying, for instance, was recently seen as a fact of life, immune to societal intervention and harmless for its victims. In the early 1990s, within academia the idea that bullying had larger, more negative consequences gained traction. By the 2000s, activist groups formed to combat bullying. Now, government is involved in addressing the problem through law, school-level policy changes, and public awareness campaigns. Social norms toward bullying have changed dramatically, too.

Remarkably, the definition of bullying today is quite similar to street harassment. According to the American Psychological Association,

“Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words or more subtle actions. The bullied individual typically has trouble defending him or herself and does nothing to “cause” the bullying.”[5]

Leaving aside the ‘repeated’ nature of bullying in the APA definition, the behavior outlined above could equally describe street harassment. Indeed, given the strength of the movement to reconceptualize the harms of bullying, I found it somewhat surprising that perceptions of street harassment hadn’t already begun to change.

By the time I submitted my thesis, despite the fact that street harassment has been ignored by policymakers for decades, I was not convinced that changing norms and social behaviors would be that difficult. With varying levels of success, bullying, sexual harassment, and smoking have all undergone massive norm shifts within a few decades. Even limited bans or targeted policies can have wide reaching effects, especially in changing societal perceptions of what is normal and acceptable. This, of course, would be the use of ‘harassment-free zones’, or areas of cities like schools or parks where harassing behavior is disallowed.

With street harassment, there is a general lack of clarity about whether harassing behavior is normal and acceptable. Still, it is easy to imagine how small, well-designed policy changes could have far-reaching impacts: changing government approaches to sexual violence, reforming police departments so they can adequately respond to sexual violence, and creating ‘harassment free zones’ could together change the social norms of street harassment. Now, what remains is convincing legislators to pass these reforms—and making street harassment an obsolete part of public life.

Jarrah O’Neill recently graduated from Princeton University where she wrote her senior thesis, “Gender in Public Space: Policy Frameworks and the Failure to Prevent Street Harassment.”

[1] Womenshealth.gov, “Sexual Assault Fact Sheet.”

[4] Kaska, “To Serve and Pursue: Exploring Police Sexual Violence Against Women.” and Eschholz, “Police Sexual violence and rape myths: Civil Liability under Section 1983.”

[5] American Psychological Association, “Bullying.”

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Snapshot of street harassment stories, news, announcements & tweets: February 19, 2012

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Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week.

** Sign up to receive a monthly e-newsletter from Stop Street Harassment ***

Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read street harassment stories on the Web at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

HarassMap Egypt

Resist Harassment Lebanon

Many of the Hollaback sites

In the News, on the Blogs:

* Hura, “For the Harassers Only: Yemeni Women are not Prostitutes“

* The Sydney Morning Herald, “Low expectations, not necklines, to blame for misogyny“

* Jezebel, “Woman Gets Super Sweet Valentine’s Day Note Asking Her Not to Dress Like Such a Whore“

* Daily News & Analysis, “These women will bring you to your knees“

* Maps4Aid, “Street Sexual Harassment: 20 year old Student saves sister from molesters, beaten up.”

* IAfrica.com, “Miniskirts paralyse Joburg” and Washington Post, “South African women wear miniskirts, march through Johannesburg to protest sexual harassment“

* Khaama Press, “Afghan women suffer street harassment“

* NZHerald, “Friend watches girl’s ‘violent’ assault“

* The Morung Express, “A view on Dimapur“

* Women’s Web, “Talking about Street Sexual Harassment“

* Oppression is Yucky, “trigger warning sexual assault, street harassment, disordered eating, mental health.”

* Women Speak, “I felt like the perpetrator“

Activism Announcements:

New:

* College men in the USA share tips on how men can stop street harassment

* Women in South Africa marched against street harassment; women in Afghanistan held an event showing art and a documentary about street harassment

Reminders:

* SSH founder Holly Kearl is quoted in the March 2012 issue of Cosmo magazine with advice on dealing with gropers. Read an extended version of her advice on the blog.

* If you live in the Washington, DC-area, you can testify about harassment on the Metro system at a hearing on Feb. 22. Details.

* What were you wearing when you got stared at or street harassed? Submit your photo

* Start planning for International Anti-Street Harassment Week, March 18-24

* The Adventures of Salwa campaign has a hotline for sexual harassment cases in Lebanon: 76-676862.

* In Bangalore, India, there is a helpline for street harassment 080 – 22943225 / 22864023

10 Tweets from the Week:

1. @SpookSquad I can relate to that very high level of stress. MT@hkearl: woman w/PTSD says #streetharassment can cause her 2 have panic attacks, disassociate

2. @froovyjosie I think I am going to write a blog post about street harassment. And how f*cking frustrating/scary it can be. ARGH

3. @Lailaelrefai writing dissertation about sexual harassment in #egypt. sources are hard to find. please link me to any reports or books you know of. #EndSH

4. @iHollaback We’re on a call with our site leaders developing a cross-site cross-culuture survey on #streetharassment!

5. @NadaHKandil Walking to the bus stop with my neighbour,got followed by a construction worker who only stopped when a taxi driver shouted at him :/ #EndSH

6. @dopegirlfresh street harassment begins seems to have one source: a sense of entitlement. nobody owes you a hello. IDGAF what you think.

7. @WomenSpeakPro Street harassment makes women change their routine, become defensive and wary, as if they’re the perpetrators. womenspeak.tumblr.com/post/177142043…

8. @tanya_elena @hkearl actually, #sexualharrassment is much better on #wmata than Ny #mta. If only so much wasn’t from agency staff…

9. @jesseadamsstein Good opinion by @Jo_Tovey on sexual harassment on the street: as women well know, it’s not about what you’re wearing bit.ly/x2VpiI

10.  @jatshea I frequently give the finger to men who catcall me.

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Groping: The Sex Crime No One Talks About

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If you pick up the March 2012 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, which just hit newsstands today, and turn to page 180, you can find a four-page article about the problem of men groping women in public places. (And I know some men have been groped too, but the article focused on men groping women.)

I’m glad to see Cosmo take on this under-reported and under-acknowledged, but widespread problem. When I conducted a survey of 816 women for my book Stop Street Harassment, over half of the women, including me, had been groped by a stranger on the street at least once. Cosmo said that 77 percent of respondents in a survey they did reported being the target of this behavior.

I did an interview for the article author, Stephanie Booth, and shared my advice for how to respond if that happens to you. Given the article length and how long my responses were, only some of my advice made the cut. I’m including my longer responses below in case they’re useful to readers. Feel free to share your own advice in the comments.

1. Stephanie Booth (SB): What is the best way for a woman to respond to a groping incident?

Holly Kearl (HK): Every situation is different so there is no one perfect response that will work in all scenarios. A primary piece of advice is to assess the situation quickly and decide how safe you are before choosing a response. If you feel safe (e.g. there are people around, it’s daylight, you’re in a familiar area, and you’re with friends or family), telling the harasser to stop or to back off, shouting out to bystanders about what just happened, demanding some kind of apology or accountability from the harasser are all good options. If you are quick on your feet, using humor can also be effective. This is one of my favorite stories, included in my book, about how a woman handled her harasser after the slapped her backside:

Living in France, I often felt harassed and didn’t know how to deal with the harasser/language and culture barrier. One night while walking home, a group of young men who often whistled at me or called at me began their usual routine. I usually ignored them, but this time the ringleader slapped my butt as I walked by. I turned around and in French said to him, “Congratulations. Is that the first time you’ve touched a woman?” I turned around and walked away while his friends laughed at him. I felt that I had really turned their game against them, and they never bothered me again.

If you feel unsafe, leave the situation as quickly as possible and get someplace where you do feel safe.

Regardless of how you respond in the moment, if someone has groped, grabbed, or slapped you, that is assault and it can be reported to the police, and/to transportation authorities, and/or to business owners/managers (depending on where the harassment happened and what outcome you hope to see). A lot of harassers are repeat harassers so reporting them to ensure they face some kind of penalty for their behavior can hopefully help deter them from harassing someone else.

2. SB: Of course, police should take such a complaint seriously, but is it there a chance it will get blown off? Are there certain “buzz words” a woman should use when she calls police to get them to pay attention?

HK: Yes, based on feedback from women who have reported harassers, there is a chance that police will not take the report seriously. But many police officers do, so it’s worth trying (if people have the time/energy to do so).

I haven’t heard of any buzz words women should use, but looking up their city’s laws and then citing the specific law that was violated may help. For example, in Washington, DC, “misdemeanor sexual abuse” is defined as engaging “in a sexual act or sexual contact with another person . . .  without that other person’s permission,” where “sexual contact” is “the touching with any clothed or unclothed body part or any object, either directly or through the clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person.”

So a person who is groped in Washington, DC, can call the police to report a case of “misdemeanor sexual abuse.” There’s no guarantee that describing it in those terms will make the police pay more attention than if the person called it “groping,” but it’s worth a try.

3. SB: Is it ever smart to verbally confront a man who is groping you? (Like a woman recently did in the NY subway?) What do you say?

HK: Yes, if you feel safe, it can be very impactful to verbally confront a groper or any type of harasser. People grope and harass because they think they can get away with it and if you’re silent after being groped or harassed (which is sometimes necessary for safety reasons) that often lets them continue to get away with it. Calling them out lets them know you won’t stand by and let them abuse you and calling them out can inspire others around you to help stop the harasser or groper and to stand up to their own harassers or gropers.

If gropers/harassers can no longer grope and harass and then carry on their merry way because suddenly they are being confronted by their target, they will hopefully be less inclined to harass or grope again.

Additionally, as the former Executive Director of the Washington, D.C. Rape Crisis Center, Martha Langelan, teaches in her sexual harassment seminars, there are a few men out there who use street harassment, including groping, as a rape test. They may attempt rape depending on how a woman responds to street harassment. If she is assertive and forceful, they will leave her alone, but if she cowers, freezes, or humors them, they may escalate the harassment to rape.

4.  SB: Should you ever snap his photo with your cell phone and post to a hollaback website?

HK: Yes, you can snap a photo, but if you do, it’s usually more productive to submit it with a police report than to post it on a website. Since harassers are strangers, snapping a photo can help police identify the harasser. Very few police check the Hollaback sites (although last year Holla Back DC! did have a case where a photo of an upskirter posted on their site led to his arrest because a police officer visited their site and saw the photo). Since probably no harassers go on the site either, it’s not a very effective way to deter them from harassing again. A better deterrent may be to print his photo on a flier and post it all around the place where the harassment occurred. He may often pass by that area and see it or someone he knows may walk by and see it.

But sharing one’s story on the Hollaback sites or my site Stop Street Harassment with or without a photo is important because it helps document the problem and it often makes women feel empowered to share what happened with a supportive audience.

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