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USA: Street Harassment on a College Campus, One Year Later

May 25, 2018 By Correspondent

Connie DiSanto, USA SSH Blog Correspondent

It was just over a year ago when I connected with Stop Street Harassment’s founder Holly Kearl over a controversial exhibit I created with a student here a UNH. I remember when I first ran the idea by a staff member who works at the exhibit location, his comment to me on the subject matter of street harassment, was “I thought that cat call stuff went out with the 80s?”

And during a residential hall program that our staff was offering to a group of students, the RA for the hall was informed that the program was going to be about street harassment and then replied, “Does that really happen here at UNH? I always thought it was just something in big cities.”

Those comments are more reasons why we still need to talk about street harassment, and specifically, we need to talk about it on college campuses. As part of last year’s exhibit, a survey was conducted by our student volunteers and it concluded that statistically speaking, what happens on this campus is very similar to what happens nationally with regard to street harassment.

As we end the final semester for the year we realize there is much more work to be done. We know that even our students struggle with identifying what street harassment is and what it looks like on their own campus. We’ve heard from many students who recall sexually harassing comments made to them at a very early age yet when applying it to situations that happen within their community they begin to expect it on a college campus as part of the college culture.

On April 11 we participated in a TweetChat about street harassment on college campuses led by our friends at the Women & Gender Studies Program at George Mason University and we talked about some key questions:

  • What is street harassment? How does it look like? How does it feel like?
  • How can we stop street harassment on campus?
  • What are some barriers in identifying or reporting street harassment?
  • What are some resources available to report street harassment?

You can look back to the conversation at #MasonAntiSH but I’d love to hear from you! You can email me with any answers to the above questions.

UNH student Jordyn Haime with UNH staff members Liz Fowler, Connie DiSanto and Megan Bresnahan

This year our exhibit for International Anti-Street Harassment week was in a new location at our campus library (since we were not allowed back to the more visible campus spot). One year later we are proud of the work we’ve been able to do and we look forward to continuing the conversation and bringing in new campus members as allies to help in the fight to end street harassment and all forms of sexual violence.

Connie is the Marketing Communications Specialist for the Sexual Harassment & Rape Prevention Program (SHARPP) at the University of New Hampshire. She can be reached at connie.disanto@unh.edu.

 

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, correspondents, street harassment Tagged With: college, UNH

Brazil: Virtual engagement and perceptions about violence

April 28, 2018 By Correspondent

Yasmin Curzi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, SSH Blog Correspondent

In order to address sexual violence, the first and necessary step is to identify what is violence. This involves the engagement of government and civil society as a whole.

In 2013, Avon Institute launched a report showing that some violent behaviors are not seen as such. Even though 52 million Brazilian men acknowledged what constitutes domestic abuse or violence against a female partner, 9.4 million admitted that they committed violence in their own personal relations. This study also showed that when the violence is detailed, the positive answers of respondents increases, meaning that there are some kinds of behaviors that are not comprehended as being violent by their perpetrators.

Another contradiction is the fact that 41% of Brazilian population knows a man that was violent with at least one of his female partners. However, only 16% admitted that they were violent with the actual or ex-partner and 12% admitted violence against the current female partner. The most common type of violence that appeared in the report was verbal insult, with 53% of the men admitting to it. This data can have a bias since it’s generally not as shocking as forcing the partner to have sex, what only 2% of the male respondents admitted to have done.

The report also shows that there’s no differentiation of class when it comes to general violence against women. Even though poor and Black women suffer with more lethal and sadist behaviors, around 50% of the male-respondent in every social class (high, medium and low) admitted that they had committed violence.

Male-respondents also affirm that the violence perpetrated by them weren’t isolated cases: 87% of the men who had once insulted their female partner, insulted them more than once, and the average is that it happens around 21 times per man; also, 74% of the men who had once forced sex, forced it more than once, and it happens around 5 times per man on average. Another shocking data point is that 37% of male respondents said that the law against domestic abuse makes them disrespect women more.

The importance of social engagement to stop violence against women is evident when we see that violent men have grown with abuse in their homes. Traditional roles, therefore, are their references. Male socialization is violent and often boys are taught not to show their emotions, except anger. Family and school are often environments that enhance toxic masculinity. The majority of the male respondents don’t see in their fathers a figure of care (only 14%), but only in their mothers (74%). Also 81% of the men who committed violence were beaten in their childhood.

The Internet creates the possibility for the victims to express their individual stories of abuse and violence. This is a big step for transforming culture since most violent behaviors are not seen as such, neither by the perpetrators nor by the victims, as the report shows.

Communicating with others makes it clear that an experience of violence is not an individual experience. When other women say that they have suffered with similar experiences, it changes other victims’ perception of that reality. I think that the most important thing is that they stop thinking that the situation that occurred to them was their fault, and instead, they start to see that there are many other stories like theirs and that it may be part of a larger structure. Their particular case starts to be seen as a collective issue. This is true of all forms of violence, from domestic abuse to street harassment.

But for the last step to be fulfilled, it’s inherently necessary that the public institutions take women’s issues seriously. Women must be listened to in order to change the perceptions of what is “publicly relevant” in policy-makers’ agendas.

Yasmin is a Research Assistant at the Center for Research on Law and Economics at FGV-Rio. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences from PUC-Rio where she wrote her thesis on street harassment and feminists’ struggles for recognition. 

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Filed Under: correspondents

USA: Intimate Partner Violence and Female Homicide Rates

April 26, 2018 By Correspondent

Patrick Hogan, Chicago, IL, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Domestic violence and intimate partner violence are certainly heinous situations. Many victims manage to liberate themselves from such horrid partnerships, others remain trapped in continued victimization. Others still die at the hands of their partner.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey states that “About 1 in 4 women (24.3%) and 1 in 7 men (13.8%) have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner (e.g., hit with a fist or something hard, beaten, slammed against something) at some point in their lifetime.” It also states that “1 in 6 women and 1 in 19 men in the U.S. have experienced stalking at some point in their lives in which they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed”.

How likely is it that these fears come to fruition? According to a different CDC study, very — “nearly half of [female victims of homicide] victims are killed by a current or former male intimate partner.”

You read that right: nearly half of all woman murdered in the United States are killed by an intimate partner.

Escaping domestic violence situations is often easier said than done. Economic status, housing status, parenthood, manipulation, danger and a variety of other factors make escaping domestic violence a difficult task. Even leaving an abusive or dangerous partnership can lead to issues, as stalking (as mentioned above) and angry outbursts may be a violent partner’s reaction. Attempting to leave a violent situation may not only be economically difficult, but may spur the violent partner to violence. What, then, can be done to end the epidemic of intimate partner violence?

Unfortunately, the answer is not simple; fortunately, it is not impossible. The response must be holistic, attempting to end existing violence, help victims, and prevent future violence. The CDC offers “scientifically credible” steps that can be taken: “addressing the beliefs, attitudes and messages that are deeply embedded in our social structures and that create a social climate that condones sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence. One way is through norms change”.

Changing societal norms is much easier said than done, but can be done. In her “Intimate Partner Violence: Causes and Prevention,” researcher Rachel Jewkes writes: “two factors seem to be necessary in an epidemiological sense: the unequal position of women in a particular relationship (and in society) and the normative use of violence in conflict. Without either of these factors, intimate partner violence would not occur”.

That is, gender equality and peaceful conflict resolution-strategies, if implemented, could greatly reduce intimate-partner violence. Children who are taught to settle conflict primarily with violence can be conditioned to continue to use violence as a problem-solving strategy. If women are still less-than equal in society, they can be more susceptible to violence. Thus, while many strategies have been, and need to be employed further, one strategy that is severely over-looked is education.

Educated individuals are more likely to have access to resources (health, legal, financial, social) that can prevent violence, and early education that encourages dialogue and non-violent problem solving can condition people to avoid violence. Violent tendencies can be learned: so can non-violent ones. “Education is of course not a silver bullet to fix a complex societal issue, but it is a often-neglected step. A UK organization, Refuge, states that: “Just 13 per cent of the young women questioned said they had learned about domestic violence when they were at school. Nearly 70 per cent of the young people said that they would have liked to have had lessons about domestic violence. Almost all those questioned said that domestic violence was as important, if not more important, than lessons on drugs and alcohol, sex and relationships education and the environment”.

Discussing intimate partner violence is taboo, and school sex-education classes seldom discuss the issue. This is an issue that should not be hidden; if it is to be solved it must be talked about, taught about, and addressed head-on.

Intimate partner violence, sexism, street harassment: these are all related in a societal disease that accepts (or at least ignores) these behaviors. Soraya Chemaly wrote for the Washington Post, “[street harassment] is a negative and costly phenomenon and part of a broader tolerance for a spectrum of gender-based violence. In the U.S., one in five women are raped, almost one in three women live with intimate partner violence, and three are killed every day by male partners.”

There are some who say street harassment is essentially harmless, or even intended to be flattering. This is not the case, however. No, instead street harassment is a public sign of a dangerous norm—a norm that allows for sexism and violence. A norm that must be dismantled.

Patrick is an undergraduate student majoring in anthropology and minoring in Islamic World Studies at Loyola University Chicago, preparing to continue onto law and graduate school. He is particularly interested in legal anthropology and the ways victims are viewed by legal systems.

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Filed Under: correspondents

USA: How the #MeToo Movement Can Help End Gender Norms

March 25, 2018 By Correspondent

Connie DiSanto, USA SSH Blog Correspondent

Stop Street Harassment’s, recent national report found that 81% of women reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. While this statistic is unfortunately not surprising, the study also found that 43% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. We know that numbers are overwhelming higher for women and girls who have experienced sexual harassment and assault, but the numbers for men and boys are in themselves, alarming too. And the #MeToo movement is continuing to reveal the enormity of this epidemic.

It’s been said that colleges could have predicted the #MeToo movement. Working at a college based crisis center, my colleagues and I already know that sexual assault and harassment occur at high rates on campuses across the nation. The #MeToo movement has sparked new energy into the work that continues to be done on campuses every day to protect survivors of sexual violence.

Working with one of our student peer advocates, we decided to give our community (students, faculty and staff) a chance to be in the #MeToo movement by offering them participation in a photo essay exhibit to be displayed during International Anti-Street Awareness Week. I asked a student assistant of ours if he wanted to participate in our #MeToo exhibit. He has been working with our program for over three years now, first as a trained peer advocate and then as our student direct services assistant. In the latter role, he is responsible for managing our fleet of trained students who work our 24/7 crisis hotline. We are fortunate to have both female and male students working with us to help end violence on our campus.

He told me that he wanted to help support the exhibit but he didn’t realize that I was asking if he wanted to participate in the exhibit. I could see from the look on his face that he was confused and wondering why I thought he could participate. I explained that the movement was for anyone who has been impacted by sexual assault or harassment. He understood but was still not seeing himself actually in it, rather as someone looking in from the outside. We talked a bit more and he was able to recall an incident that happened to him, however, he felt it probably ‘didn’t count’ and that it wasn’t a big deal. I asked him to play out the incident with the genders reversed. He immediately thought it would be wrong if a male student had said the same thing that was said to him, to a female student. I pointed out to him that it was wrong for a female student to say those things to him too. Sexual harassment is wrong, regardless of gender.

Rape culture, particularly on a college campus, emphasizes the myth that “guys can’t get raped” and boys learn at an early age that they are supposed to want to have sex with girls (and women in some cases), even when they don’t. Some boys and men don’t even realize when they have been sexually harassed or assaulted. Boys are taught the concept of masculinity which feed into ideas of what it means to be a man; that they should not show emotions, should not be sensitive and they should be dominant, especially over girls. And as boys grow into men, male gender norms can cement these toxic ideas of what a man should be.

Traditional gender norms are a social construct and are damaging to everyone, but we as a society can change them.

Connie is the Marketing Communications Specialist for the Sexual Harassment & Rape Prevention Program (SHARPP) at the University of New Hampshire.

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Filed Under: correspondents Tagged With: boys, campuses, men, metoo

USA: Three Stalking Survivors Share Their Stories

March 21, 2018 By Correspondent

Patrick Hogan, Chicago, IL, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Stalking is perhaps one of the most frightening forms of street harassment. It’s an experience that 1 in 5 women have experienced in public spaces by a stranger and 1 in 3 women have experienced, period (by known persons or strangers).

The University of Michigan’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center describes six types of stalkers based on stalker’s motivations: “rejected stalker”, “resentful stalker”, “predatory stalker”, “intimacy seeker”, “Incompetent suitor”, and “erotomania and morbidly infatuated.” The University’s Center also notes that “Even though there are general categories of stalkers, that does not mean that every stalker will fit neatly into a category. Stalkers can have any characteristics and come from any type of background.”

Whether a stalker is an ex-romantic partner, delusional and infatuated with a victim, or a stranger intending violence, the dangers of being stalked need not be reiterated.

For this piece, three women shared their experiences as stalking survivors in the hopes that their experiences may help inspire action.

Woman #1 was riding a public train home after spending the day downtown Chicago visiting family when a man moved from one side of the train car to sit next to her. She thought this behavior was weird, but did not think much of it. The man proceeded to talk to her, at first friendly, starting with a greeting and a discussion of the weather. What had started as a pleasant discussion rapidly deteriorated as the man began making sexual comments about her body. She was clearly uncomfortable, and got up to leave the train at the next stop. The man got up to leave with her. They both left the train and the man continued the barrage of inappropriate comments. She swiftly walked down the platform away from the man, past other people, as he followed her. Finally, she slipped a canister of pepper spray out of her purse, turned, and aimed the pepper spray canister directly between the man’s eyes. His eyes got wider as he realized what was looking at, and turned to run away.

Woman #2 was leaving a business lunch, walking down a busy side walk to return to her car parked a block away. A man walked up to her and began inquiring into her relationship status. She told him she was uncomfortable with his questioning. His response: “You bitch! F**k you!” She jogged away as he shouted and followed her. She ran into a coffee shop and he did not follow her in.

Woman #3 was walking home from her gym when three men began to follow her no more than 100 meters behind. When she noticed them tailing her, she turned around to confront them, asking, “What? What do you want?” The men laughed and one shouted back: “You, whore!” The men kept following her while other pedestrians moved to the adjacent sidewalk so as not to walk past the men. She called 911, and notified the men with another shout, “I’m calling the cops!” She ducked into a nearby store, and then men did not follow her in.

All three instances demonstrated startling and tragic commonalities: the women, who were each alone, were stalked in broad day light and in crowded public areas, but they did not receive any assistance from anyone else. People could have helped them, but no one did. Perhaps people were scared, perhaps they did not know how to intervene, perhaps they do not want to do the right thing. Whatever the reason, it was not a good enough reason for staying silent.

These women stood up for themselves but the men lashed out or escalated their behavior. The onus cannot be on persons who are facing harassment and stalking alone to stop incidents. These women offer their stories as a lesson to us all—to you, the reader. Be an active bystander; do not allow people to fear for their lives if you can do something to help them. If one person stands by to help a victim, others may join in.

Complacency and apathy cannot be accepted when someone else’s safety is endangered by a stalker. Hopefully, in the #MeToo era, similar testimonies will end with victims being helped and the harassers sent away. But that can only happen if people–individuals, you and I–stand up as advocates, choosing to get involved rather than shying away when harassment happens in front of us.

Patrick is an undergraduate student majoring in anthropology and minoring in Islamic World Studies at Loyola University Chicago, preparing to continue onto law and graduate school. He is particularly interested in legal anthropology and the ways victims are viewed by legal systems.

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Filed Under: correspondents Tagged With: followed, stalking

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