Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

I was harassed on my run during Anti-Street Harassment Week

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Running Stop Street Harassment is my part-time unpaid job — and unfortunately this week travel/event for a paid job overlapped with International Anti-Street Harassment Week. So I’m in Arizona, multi-tasking as much as I can, and also jetlagged.

I woke up earlier than needed today and had time to go for a quick four mile run along the sidewalk of a trafficked road (and to also quickly write this!). I really needed it after a 21 hour day yesterday that was preceeded by four hours of sleep and a 17 hour work day (#EndSHWeek + regular job = a lot of work!). I only had a mile left and my mind felt clearer, my body stronger, when I heard a beep from an approaching car. I was on the sidewalk and not in the way so I looked up surprised… only to see a white middle-age man making a creepy/vulgar face at me. At 7:15 a.m. UGH.

I wasn’t in danger and he was gone in a second, before I could react,, but it was demeaning, disgusting, and annoying. What did he hope to accomplish by doing that? To show he is a man in public space and can demand my attention in a creepy way? To treat me like a piece of meat?

It’s pretty ironic, huh, that the founder of International Anti-Street Harassment Week can get street harassed during International Anti-Street Harassment Week?

It happened last year during the week too, while I was helping hand out anti-harassment flyers at a Washington, D.C. Metro station. A man kept asking me if I was married and could he talk to me after I said no. He even had an anti-harassment flyer in his hand he had picked up from someone else.

I heard about other female activists getting harased while speaking out against the issue last year during the week – women from Oregon to New York were the target of men’s harassment as they wrote anti-harassment sidewalk chalk messages and participated in rallies. So far this week, I’ve heard about an #EndSHWeek tweet chats getting attacked by anti-women tweeters.

That’s the thing about this issue — no woman is immune. You never know when it will happen or why or how far it will escalate. You never know why you’re being targeted. You may not always feel safe to respond or have time to, like in my sitation this morning.

I’ve given close to 150 talks on this topic alone and many of them are at night. I hate that after we talk about the issue and what we can do, the reality is, many women who hear my talk still leave the room and worry about getting home safetly. They talk about checking the back seats of their cars, going to bus stops in groups, and strategize which streets to avoid while bicycling home.

I HATE that I can’t stop my friends, family members, the people who attend my talks — or myself — from being harassed, even though I work on this issue every day.

One reason why I founded International Anti-Street Harassment Week was to try to harness actions and work of small groups around the world who are working on this issue to garner more attention, to get larger groups and organizations and governments on board.

And it is working. When the United Nations, New York Times and Everyday Health are tweeting about the week, writing about the week, and participating in it, we’re making progress. But we do need more groups, more people to be involved. I hope anyone out there reading this will pledge to take a stand. Will share a story or talk about this issue with one person today. Make everyone aware that this is a problem.

Yesterday I was at an Arizona high school doing art work against street harassment with students and one student’s poster slogan was this –  “I want to be able to walk down the street safely at night — or anytime.”

That’s all we want. To be safe. To be unharassed. To be respected.

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Anti Street Harassment Week 2014

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Cross-posted with permission from Teeny Titch

Hello Beautiful People,
This week is Anti Street Harassment week.  I didn’t even know this was a thing, until I saw Leena from justkissmyfrog’s video about it earlier this week. That this is a thing makes me incredibly hopeful, because it is something that has bothered me since before I even understood what street harassment was. The fact that there is a week designated to raise awareness of it, makes me really hopeful that a change can be made.
Personally, I don’t think I know one female friend who has not been subject to street harassment, whether it be, catcalling, sexist remarks, or assault. I can’t remember a week when I haven’t been subject to some form of street harassment on my walk to or from uni. And it is harassment. One of the most worrying things about street harassment is the number of people who don’t realise that it is a form of harassment. It’s such a common occurrence, that it becomes trivialised and we view it as the norm.
I have become much more aware of it as a form of harassment in recent years, as I’ve become more aware of feminism in general, discovered the Everyday Sexism Project, and started to think about how street harassment has effect my attitude to being out and about.
In this post, I want to explain the purpose of Anti Street Harassment Week, what constitutes as street harassment, and generally try to start a discussion, so we can raise awareness of this form of harassment. Because it is harassment.
I’ll put a load of links at the end of this post so you can see where I got all my information from, find out some more for yourself, and have a look at Leena’s videos, because she is much more articulate on this subject than I am.
What is Anti Street Harassment Week?
It’s this week, March 30th – April 5th.
The purpose of the week is to raise awareness of street harassment and that it’s not acceptable. It’s an opportunity for activists to amplify their voices and draw the attention of mainstream media.
It’s held in April because it’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the USA and spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when there is an increase in harassment, because of the longer days and warmer weather. Harassment is often seen as inevitable part of a change in seasons and that shouldn’t be the case.
What is Street Harassment?
Sexual Harassment is defined as engaging in unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature with the purpose or effect of:
  • Violating a person’s dignity
  • Creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment
‘Of a sexual nature’ can refer verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct including:
  • Comments about the way you look which you find demeaning
  • Indecent remarks
  • Questions about your sex life
  • Sexual jokes
  • Unwelcome sexual advance
  • Inappropriate touching
  • Forms of sexual assault
  • Sexual demands by a member of your own or the opposite sex
Stop Street Harassment and Meet Us On The Streets list the following as acts of street harassment:
  • Catcalls
  • Sexually explicit comments
  • Sexist remarks
  • Groping
  • Leering
  • Stalking
  • Public Masturbation
  • Assault

 

Gender-based street harassment effects 80% of women worldwide as well as many men, especially in the LGBQT community, making them feel less safe and limiting people’s mobility and access to public spaces.
Calling people out on Street Harassment
Whilst I can’t help but feel that anybody who is compelled to shout catcalls and make sexist remarks is probably a complete arsehole, that sort of behaviour is part of the wider social issue of everyday sexism, which make that behaviour seem excusable or to have been meant as a compliment.
However, that behaviour is not excusable or complimentary; it’s degrading and perpetuates insecurity. However innocent or humorous somebody claims their remarks or actions were, if the person they were directed act is made to feel uncomfortable and demeaned, then it’s not a compliment is harassment. Those comment don’t make you King of Hilarious Banter, they make you a shitty person. Yes I’m looking at you creepy van man, stopping me in the street to make sexual comments.
I strongly feel that people should be called out on harassing behaviour and that it should be more acceptable to do so, without being accused of moaning about nothing, or not be able to take a joke.
BUT

Only call people out on their behaviour if you feel safe in doing so. Don’t ever endanger your safety just to get the moral high ground on somebody. If you feel safe in the situation and want call someone out, by all means go for it, it’s a good thing to do, but never put yourself in danger.
I also find it helps to talk to someone about street harassment whenever you experience it. It alleviates that feeling of suffering in silence, whilst also raising awareness of the commonality of these incidences.
Reporting Harassment
It’s also extremely important to important to report serious harassment. You can report harassment to:
The police: If harasser is threatening, touching or following you, flashing or masturbating at you, or persisting in more benign forms of harassment, you should report them to the police.
Transport Authority: If the harasser is at bus stop, train station etc. or on any form of public transport, report them to the appropriate transport authority. The British Transport Police recently launched Project Guardian which specifically focuses on reducing sexual assault and unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport.
Employers: If the harasser works for an identifiable company, contact the company and report the incident(s) to them.
What can you do now?
Increase your own awareness by making sure you understand want constitutes as harassment and being aware if when it’s happening to you or people around you.
Call people out on harassment, but ONLY if you feel safe it doing so *do not put yourself in danger*.
Report incidences of harassment to the relevant authorities.
TALK ABOUT IT! The main purpose of this week is to raise awareness. So talk about it people! Don’t allow it to be trivialised and brushed under the carpet.
I hope you’ve found this interesting and informative, and have been able to take something from it.
Normal service of me rambling about life will resume next week.
Love
S

xxx

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GGE: Join Our #schoolpushout storytelling campaign

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From our allies Girls for Gender Equity:

In honor of International Anti-Street Harassment Week and April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we’re spearheading a storytelling campaign as an opportunity to raise awareness about school push-out as experienced by students, teachers, and parents/guardians. The stories will particularly lift up the experiences of girls of color, LGBTQ, and gender nonconforming youth.

Our goals:

* Change the hearts and minds of those in our school communities
* Spread awareness on students’ rights
* Advocate for the enforcing current policies to prevent school push-out and promote safety and prevention.

Let’s come together and tell our stories of injustice in school to transform the system. Join GGE’s storytelling and leadership project today! Tell your story. Take our survey.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and use #schoolpushout – Join us on Saturday, April 5th for International Anti-Sexual Harassment Week as we collect stories and surveys. Meet Us on The Street.

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Day 4: #EndSHWeek 2014

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Today was the fourth day of International Anti-Street Harassment Week!

Here are a few highlights:

More media coverage, including:

Daily Beast | BuzzFeed | Autostraddle | Liberation (France)

There were THREE tweet chats today:

1) Everyday Feminism and Fem2Pt0 hosted a conversation about street harassment, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.

2) Everyday Health hosted a chat about street harassment and health with several anti-street harassment groups and health leaders.

3) Secular Woman hosted a chat about harassment women face at conferences.

Notable Achievements:

Congratulations to our co-sponsors Safetipin for winning the Avon Communications’ Innovative Campaign Award! Download their free app and document how safe you feel places and check out what others have to say!

Some of the events that took place:

Safe City Nepal held dance performances and handed out flyers at a new location in Kathmandu again.

Hollaback! Dublin organized an event called “Exploring Street Harassment through Film” where the showed a variety of street harassment documentaries.

Hollaback! Bangalore led a workshop at a university in India.

Hollaback! Tucson and OASIS held a “Street Harassment 101: An Introduction” workshop at the University of Arizona’s Campus Health building.

A University of Illinois student group painted anti-street harassment messages on the windows of local businesses along Green Street, a campus town street rife with street harassment.

Hollaback! Twin Cities hosted an Open Mic Night at the Minnehaha Free Space in Minneapolis.

The Brooklyn Movement Center and the Brecht Forum held the event “PLANET BROOKLYN: Beyond Catcalls,” which explored street harassment incidents and organizing in the borough over the past 40 years. The intergenerational panel featured four Brooklynites contextualizing unhealthy masculinity, criminalization and gentrification within the broader anti-street harassment movement.

FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture and Collective Action for Safe Spaces co-hosted a workshop at MLK Library

There was a Human Trafficking Awareness Month event at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

BraveHeart Hawaii did sidewalk chalking yesterday (we missed the pics until today!)

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See the photo album of events.

Remember — here’s the report form where you can say how your action went (no matter how big or small). This information will be used for the annual wrap-up report and potentially for articles about the week.

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