So Day 2 is a weekday and, with my day job to attend to and an anti-street harassment week event to host tonight in Washington, DC, I could not keep up with all the tweets, blog posts, Facebook posts and more that flooded the Internet today about street harassment. And that is a good thing! It means the stories, the messages are spreading. Here are some of the posts and videos I saw today (please add any I missed to the comments. The Sh*t Men Say video launched today but I’m waiting to post on the blog until tomorrow morning, when I can post it with an article from its creators):

A Long Walk Home in Chicago, IL, co-sponsors International Anti-Street Harassment Week. ALWH’s Girl/Friends Leadership Institute youth directors created Anti-Street Harassment signs for an awareness walk at their high school taking place later this week.

What About Our Daughters:

“Blogmother” writes about the street harassment-related murders of Adilah Gaither, Tanganika Stanton, Mildred Beaubrun and Sakia Gunn. This is a serious issue.

The F Word Blog:

“Street harassment affects women so deeply that we change our routes to school and work, avoid using public transport at night, stop going out running, feel anxious every time we walk past a group of men, and walk with our heads down and eyes averted instead of enjoying the space around us, to list just a few of the self-imposed limitations mentioned by commenters on my blog post. We’re hurt and angered by our experiences of street harassment hours, days and even years after they occur. I can’t count the number of times my day has turned sour because some wanker decided to harass me on my way home and I couldn’t think of a decent response or was too afraid to call him out. I hate how powerless that makes me feel.

So for International Anti-Street Harassment Week, I’d quite simply like men on the street to stop. Stop with the wolf whistles, the beeping horns, the demands for attention, the sexual comments, the stares, the touching, the groping, the jokes at our expense. And for the men who don’t do those things, recognise that we can’t differentiate you from the rest of them. Move out the way, don’t block the pavement when you’re in a group, cross the road if you find yourself walking close behind a woman at night. Learn how to be an ally. Street harassment has to end.”

Harlem World Magazine:

“The Window Sex Project: World Premiere, is a dance-theater work that tackles sexual harassment on the street. This performance is presented by Sydnie L. Mosley Dances, a Harlem-based contemporary dance company that seeks to actively engage the audience. Choreographer Sydnie L. Mosley’s work reflects real life experiences exploring, but not limited to, interest in black cultures and the experiences of women….The performance gives voice to this human rights issue and restores agency to women by equipping them to manage street harassment and uses the body, the site of harassment, as a mode of political action. The Window Sex Project: World Premiere in Harlem will take place on Friday, March 23, 2012 7:30pm.”

Dark Moon Lilith:

“For years, I’ve been on my own anti-street harassment campaign. While many people have thought me crazy – both the men I confront and some women who think I’m “asking for trouble” (playing the victim role has never been a comfortable skin for me) – when I stop what I’m doing, retrace my steps and ask the Neanderthal who’s just sullied my day with a whistle, a whoop, or a “hey, baby, lookin’ good,” I believe I’m doing something good. When I call a street harasser out on his shit, that part of me that is both saddened by and rages against unkindness and injustice swells up and out of me, and I feel I’m being an active agent of change.”

Black Feminist UK:

“For all it’s distinctive qualities, my street harassment story is ridiculously prototypical. Men, strange men, feel and believe they have a right to your body, to attempt to own it with their whistles, stares and words. When their sense of entitlement is challenged you are made to feel as though there is something deviant about withholding the correct complying response. You become the problem. An uppity woman who thinks she is better than she actually is. It is, yet another, daily form of violence against women.”

East London Lines:

“[Vicky] Simister is also positive about the potential for new legislation [in the UK] to make a difference.

“We have laws against sexual harassment in the workplace, but for some reason we don’t feel the need to protect people from sexual harassment on the streets. I think we need specific police training on how to handle these sorts of complaints, and local councils need to back this up. We need research into where the harassment ‘hot-spots’ are so that we can have more constables patrolling these areas – particularly at weekends.”

Simister and teams of volunteers will spend Anti-Street Harassment Week talking to both men and women on the streets of London, asking them to pose with the slogan, ‘Flirting. Harassment. Real men know the difference’.

The pictures will be displayed on the ASH campaign website, and are to be turned into a video campaign and art installation.”

London Feminist:

“After #ididnotreport revealed an epidemic of non-reporting, both of street harassment and serious attack, what can we do to stop street harassment?

It’s not a change to the law we necessarily need to see.  We already have laws in place to deal with street harassment:  following a woman down a street calling her a slut is a s.4A public order offence, for example.  Without a specific intention to cause alarm, such behaviour is still a s.5 public order offence.  Sexual assault is obviously an offence, and the starting point according to the Magistrates Court Sentencing Guidelines, for non-genital contact with part of a victim other than genitals (eg boob-grabbing) is a medium level community order. The laws are there.  The sentencing guidelines are there.  Why is it still happening, and what would you do to stop it if you were in charge?”

A Bookish Beemer:

“…That time, my response was anger, and it served me well. Other times, it’s embarrassed me, or made me feel like I was a piece of shit. None of those are abnormal or wrong. Street harassment comes in a variety of forms, which may or may not involve assault or a harasser following their target around. All of them are equally wrong. Like Tory said, reacting in a way that moved me away from my harasser and to safety is not an overreaction.”

Quick posts by:

* PreventConnect

* RH Reality Check

* Hollaback

* Nicole Clark

* Womanifesting

* Star of Davida

* Verity

* The Viral Media Lab

* Gal’s Corner

(These are a few posts I saw today…I know I must have missed a lot so please add a link in the comments if you posted on 3/18 for anti-street harassment week!)

Chicago NOW:

“…For some men, I think being female is enough to warrant
their attention. During my same walk through Oak Park, I got “holla’d” at by a group of men that were gathered at least a block and a half away from where I was walking. A block and half. Who does that? Apparently those dudes. They couldn’t see my face to gauge my attractiveness. I was wearing a long Maxi dress, with a jacket tied around my waist, so they really couldn’t see my figure. The ability to see me from that distance and make out that I was a woman was enough to garner all types of “Hey ma! Hey ma! Yooooooo! Slow up!” from them.

I lived to tell about it, but 16-year-old Adilah Gaither wasn’t so lucky. Black Woman Walking is dedicated to the memory of young Adilah, who was shot and killed in 1998 while standing at a bus stop because she wouldn’t give a boy who was trying to holla her phone number. Almost as heartbreaking as the incident itself is the fact that there is very little information about Adilah’s story on the Internet. In 1998, social media wasn’t a phrase in most people’s vocabulary, so it’s not surprising. It is still very unfortunate, nonetheless.

I hope that during this 2012  observance of International Anti-Street Harassment Week (March 18-24) women and men will take time to talk candidly about street harassment and send a prayer up for Adilah and all the young girls and women like her just trying to walk through life unharmed.”

Black Feminist UK:

“Since puberty – not adulthood, PUBERTY- I have been routinely subject to sexual, agressive comments by men in the street, on public transport, in the workplace, day and night. Walking home from work, I run a gauntlet of barber shops, pubs, cafes, bookies, outside each one a group of men smoking, watching, staring, every day every day (please please please don’t notice me, please don’t say anything to me)…

Sometimes, men have touched me around my waist, breasts, arse… often, without speaking to me (not that it makes a difference). Once, in a bar a man grabbed me between my legs – labia, everything – then laughed when I turned around: “I was only joking…you’re really fit…”

NYE man also probably thought he was paying me a compliment of some sort. Or maybe he thought that because I was walking down the street (our streets!) on my own I was also up for a shag. I don’t know. Someone explain it to me please. Where are the men – the good ones, right? the ones I’m mates with, yeah? – speaking to other men and calling them out for what this is? HARASSMENT.”

Makings of Me:

“…So my experience last week brought me back to that place as a young 12 year old girl afraid of the leering eyes of adult men.  Devising different ways to walk home to avoid the harassment. Internalizing the cat calls and blaming myself, thinking “maybe if I would not have worn those pant, he would not have said that to me”. Believing my worth lied in how I was shaped and nothing more. But above all else feeling violated, ashamed and unsafe. This cycle must end. We must hold each other accountable. We must create sisterhoods and brotherhoods among each other where safe spaces exist.”

International Planned Parenthood Federation Western Hemisphere Region:

“…Based in Argentina and coordinated by Redmujer, the Cities Without Violence Against Women, Safe Cities For All project is being carried out in several urban areas throughout Latin America — such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. “The project is based on an assessment that shows that public safety policies in Latin America do not take into account violence against women in both the public and private spheres,” said Liliana Rainero.

After the assessment is complete, Redmujer will present city officials with concrete strategies on how to design safer cities. In the meantime, they are also engaged in public awareness campaigns and provide safety training for women, young people, and the police. Some local organizations involved in the project have also started neighborhood revitalization and public art projects to bring the community together to fight violence against women.”

The Broken Doll House:

“…Now, 16 years on, I am openly furious about street harassment. For me this has included whistling, staring, shouting, whispering and following. I’m one of the lucky ones, I have not been physically groped as far too many women have…or worse (because wolf whistling is the thin end of a much bigger, more sinister wedge). On the occasion where I have mentioned my disgust at this to others, I have on far too many times been met with ‘but you like it really don’t you?’, ‘take it as a compliment’, or ‘it’s just flattery’. (*SCREEEAAAMMMS!!!!!*) NO! NO! and NO! NO, no, no, no, no, no, no!!!

I don’t like it. It is not a compliment. It is not flattering. It makes me feel intimidated. It makes me feel uncomfortable and unsafe. It is uninvited and unwelcome. It is disrespectful. It is derogatory. It is sexist. It is humiliating. It is reducing me to something for you to look at and makes me feel like a piece of meat. It is not how you’d want your mother/sister/daughter/wife/girlfriend to be treated. It intrusive. It is rude. It is power play. It makes me feel like less than I am.”

Feminist Peace Network:

“…From March 18-24, 2012, thousands of women and men across the United States and throughout the world in cities such as Cairo, Delhi, Istanbul, Montreal, Oslo, and Sana’a will participate in International Anti-Street Harassment Week to collectively raise awareness about gender-based street harassment.

By age 12, nearly 1 in 4 girls worldwide experience unwanted sexual comments, leers, touches, and stalking in public places by strangers. Nearly 90 percent of women have that experience by age 19″

 

Editor’s Note: Today in Washington, DC, I’m co-curating an art exhibit on street harassment for International Anti-Street Harassment Week with the Deaf Abused Women’s Network. There are 35 pieces, including art work by high school students and from activists as far away as Yemen and Afghanistan. Tracey Chan and Stephanie Leitch each submitted work electronically for the exhibit. They guest wrote this post about their submissions.

My name is Tracey Chan and I’m a Trinidadian interdisciplinary visual artist and writer whose disciplines include drawing, illustration, and installation. I’m also involved in graphic design and art event management.

In 2011, I created an illustration as part of Simona Lee’s WomenSpeak project. I created an updated version called “Eyes” for this exhibition, which examines the daily challenges women face on the street and the negative feelings that arise with harassment incidents. It also represents my feelings of insecurity, and a stigma attached to simply walking around my own neighbourhood.

My latest project, with my art collective is an all women’s exhibition, Women Make Art: Home & Away (WOMA). WOMA 2011 celebrated International Women’s Day and was the first women’s art exhibition in Grenada. The current show, now in its second year, opens on 31st March in St. George’s, Grenada.

My name is Stephanie Leitch and I’m a social activist and conceptual artist. My work focuses on issues of gender equality both through performance and organizing. My 2011 International Women’s Day event evolved into an ongoing space for Caribbean feminist voices, WoMantra and the place where the collaboration for this project was hatched.

“Even though I got word of this project only two or three days before the deadline, it hit way too close to home for me to ignore. I have been dealing with public harassment since I was 12 years old and still in my primary school uniform. I remember a friend telling me once that she would no longer walk in the street with me because of how much attention I would get all the time. This is not a point of pride or ego booster but a sick social practice that I have had to endure for more than half my life. It has affected me deeply in many ways, from valuing it in earlier years to despising it and as a response changing aspects of my aesthetic to detract male attention. Some of these methods have stayed with me, most noticeably my decision to never wear my hair down.”

The collaborative series was created when Stephanie requested help to put several of her ideas and tags into visual format for the exhibition. Tracey then designed an image using one tag, “Encourage Women to Speak Out,” using bright colours and minimalist design to attract attention with the simple, powerful message. We will develop a series of posters from the remaining tags that may be used in future events or projects.