Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

USA: What To Do When What We’re Doing Isn’t Working

By

Emily Gillingham, Washington, DC, USA, Blog Correspondent

If you’re reading this, we’re probably on the same page that street harassment is awful. You’ve probably read about the toll that street harassment has on victims. If you study street harassment in the United States, you understand that there are a slew of laws covering every inch of the country designed to protect people from things like threatening language, upskirt photos, unwanted touching, being followed, obscene language, indecent exposure, and more. Penalties for violating those laws can include large fines or jail or prison time. But you also know that street harassment persists. It is pervasive. It directs where we go, what we do, the company we keep, and the clothes we wear.

As a law student hoping to spend my career advocating for women, I think often about what public policy changes could address street harassment. Clearly, there are laws meant to protect victims of street harassment on the books. But I can say that I have no confidence that those laws would protect me from the run-of-the-mill sexual and harassing remarks hurled at me as I commute to and from work, even if a man hissed “hey baby” at me in earshot of a police officer. If I were to videotape an incident of street harassment I’d put my physical safety, personal property, and others around me at risk, with little expectation that the police would take my report seriously or bring the harasser to justice. If I were groped on the Metro, I would not expect bystanders to assist me and logistically could not fathom how I would ensure the perpetrator’s arrest and prosecution short of taping the incident and then cold-cocking him. Make no mistake: this is why these things continue to happen.

I don’t think that stopping street harassment can be solved by legislating against harassing behaviors. But I do think that progress lies in stressing the importance and attainability of street harassment reform to policymakers. If politicians, public health advocates, and nonprofits were to zealously pursue the following package of reforms, real progress will be made in eradicating street harassment.

Legislative, Legal, and Judicial Reforms

Laws should be comprehensive designed to keep up with new technology. Legislatures should pass well-drafted laws barring upskirt photos and other harassment with technology. State and federal evidentiary rules should be updated to ensure that electronic evidence of stalking and recordings made with digital recorders and cell phones are admissible into evidence when vetted properly. State bar associations should continue to expand training offered to attorneys and judges about how to obtain and preserve electronic evidence of stalking and street harassment in an admissible format.

Education

Education about street harassment is crucial; it can prevent people from becoming street harassers, better equip stakeholders to respond effectively to street harassment incidents, and change cultural attitudes that treat street harassment as a minor problem or no problem at all. School curricula should include age-appropriate education about respect for others, scientifically-rooted information about how being harassed is harmful to mental health, and safe means of responding to street harassment incidents they witness. School honor codes should explicitly state the school’s opposition to street harassment and describe penalties for students who engage in street harassment. College and university honor codes should reflect the same, and new student orientation should emphasize why street harassment is unacceptable and that harassment on-campus will not be tolerated.

Police officers and transit employees should be trained about street harassment laws and encouraged to take incidents reported to them seriously. Efforts should be made to teach the public how to report officials who fail to respond effectively to reports of street harassment.

Most importantly, nationwide movements encouraging bystander awareness in other areas should be built upon in the street harassment context. PSAs and other means of educating the public should be engaged to encourage bystanders to intervene when they witness street harassment incidents. They should stress why bystander intervention is important and describe effective strategies that bystanders can employ.

Funding

This is the most critical piece. Funding is why many reports of street harassment cannot be properly addressed and why public education about street harassment is so lacking. Funds should be allocated to build cybercrime units to take seriously the taking and distribution of upskirt photos- both to remove the content and to identify perpetrators and hold them accountable. Lawmakers need to earmark funds for street harassment prevention and prosecution, and tie funding for public safety, public health, and public transit to meeting benchmarks for street harassment training, education, and enforcement efforts. These proposals aren’t costly, but they won’t work without clearly defined benchmarks and penalties for failure to meet them.

Street harassment is a cultural problem and public health issue worthy of being prioritized in our public policy in these ways. Let’s hope that our policymakers start to see it this way too, to make our streets and public transportation safe and welcoming for everyone.

Emily is a 3L at Michigan State University College of Law, and the president of her school’s chapter of LSRJ. Follow her on Twitter @emgillingham.

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USA: Yik Yak Messages Promote a Culture of Harassment

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Tyler Bradley, Michigan, USA Blog Correspondent

Up until a year ago or so, I hadn’t considered street harassment as being as prevalent in small communities like the one I live in. I’m enrolled at Saginaw Valley State University, a mid-sized public institution in Mid-Michigan with a student population of about 9,800. I always considered it being more so a problem in large cities, where harassers assume they won’t run into their victims again. The shroud of anonymity I think is a large prerequisite that prompts an environment of harassment. Harassers act when they may feel they cannot be identified nor judged for the actions they perform.

That’s why, at my institution, harassment does not often take the form of sidewalk catcalling incidents. The institution is just too small to provide anonymity. But new outlets enable individuals at the institution to take on the shroud of anonymity, which has prompted a culture of harassment.

I first took a more critical look at harassment after a launching an “I, Too, Am Saginaw Valley” campaign, similar to “I, Too, Am Harvard” that highlights the voices and faces of black students, but opening it too all identities — mostly to get a more positive reception within the community. One of my participants wrote on her board, “I’m NOT a dog, don’t whistle at me,” after perpetually being catcalled from others shouting out their residence hall windows. After this, I began seeing the other methods students utilize to victimize others.

Yik Yak, a popular college app where users post anonymous messages that are then voted up or down by their peers, has stormed through the campus community, and brought harassment issues to light. While many of the posts can take on humorous perspectives of campus life, many of them venture on to defaming women, treating them as objects, and other forms of harassment.

It’s been an issue at many campuses, and Boston College even made a video to address some of the Yaks from their students, although it received much backlash from its student body.

Here are a few Yaks that have appeared on our campus:

“If her bra matches her panties when you take off her clothes, it wasn’t you who decided to have sex.”

“You probably shouldn’t be at college if you can’t tell a guy “stop.”

“To the girl who posted about sexual harassment… there’s no way you get sexually harassed, if you catch my drift.”

“Do you ever sit in class and look at this cute girl and think, I would love to bang you after class!”

“You ever just look at a girl and think ‘she could probably suck a mean dick.'”

I shouldn’t need explanation on why each of these posts contribute to a negative campus climate, but they perpetuate myths that “she was asking for it” and that there’s a standard of beauty required to be sexually harassed.

I usually feel more comfortable seeing these posts down-voted to the point where they are removed, which requires a total down-vote of a -5 before it vanishes from the app. But nearly all of these posts registered as positive messages within the campus community and became some of the most popular Yaks on the feed at the time.

While the app usually refrains from targeting individuals, it can justify beliefs that lead to a culture with highly sexualized and objectified women.

Further perpetuating this culture, in March of 2013, we had a Twitter page go rampant among our community. Dubbed “Dbags of the Valley” students submitted passive aggressive complaints about the university, faculty, students, or really whatever they felt like complaining about through Ask.fm, and then the posts would be re-posted on a now-disbanded Twitter account.

Full of hate speech, posts ventured into areas such as “To the girl wearing those tight, see-thru leggings in the library; stop wearing that shit, or I’ll rape you. #DressForSuccess #SVSUdbags.”

By September 2013, assumedly, the manager of the page promptly shut the page down after complaints. The university eventually identified the student behind the page, but decided to not release the name to the public.

Yik Yak and this page are not the only perpetrators of harassment on campus.

Sitting in at 4,585 followers and counting, is the ever-so-popular @SVSUCrushes2. It has a stronger social media following than any university-affiliated accounts, with the exception of the main SVSU social media pages.  It takes the same approach as the “Dbags” page, getting submissions from Ask.fm then posting on Twitter. Independently-operated pages began ravaging college campuses for the past couple of years. This account has racked up more than 14,000 crushes tweeted in its two-year lifetime. Most students see this page as harmless, despite relative agreement that some tweets that include “She can sit on my face anytime though..” cross the line. That tweet, by the way, is within the top fifteen favorited and retweeted posts by the page.

Despite becoming temporarily unavailable when the “Dbags” account went under heavy scrutiny, the account still holds a strong presence on campus. The operators of the page reported in an anonymous interview “We know for sure that we know how to handle Crushes in a responsible way,” but it enables a culture of window shopping and objectification on physical appearance.

Through these contributors of harassment, I’ve learned changing a culture is easier said than done, but not doing anything about this would be a greater injustice than the injustice itself. I only have a few more months left at this institution, but I remain hopeful that education will advance the environment here.

Tyler is a senior majoring in graphic design at Saginaw Valley State University and plans to undertake a graduate program in higher education in the fall. Follow Tyler on Twitter, @MysteriousLuigi.

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USA: Stopping Street Harassment in Houston

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Madison Ford, Texas, USA, Blog Correspondent

Although the fight against street harassment has been gaining strength over the past few years, some areas are only beginning to get organized. Metropolitan regions in the upper east coast of the United States receive a lot of attention in regard to this issue and most data on street harassment has been collected in such areas. Regions of the world and the United States without a lot of foot traffic or public transportation may overall have fewer instances of street harassment, but they are just as damaging.

My first personal experience with street harassment happened in a town with less than 40,000 people. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to bring the fight against street harassment to Texas. I gained a Texan ally when I spoke with Hermie Escamilla of Hollaback Houston and learned about transportation, social media, and building a community of people to get organized.

Transportation

Transportation is a big part of street harassment in Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States. Cars and trucks are popular in Harris County with about 80% of county residents driving to work. Just under 3% of Harris County’s population uses public transportation to get to work and less than half a percent ride their bikes. Compare this with approximately 28% of New York City commuters driving a car, 56% using public transportation, and .8% riding their bicycles. Hermie tells me about her experience as a Houston cyclist:

“Since 2006 I’ve just commuted by bike. For me, being part of that subset of cyclists – you can get the feeling of what it means to be an irritation – everyone is supposed to be in a car or a truck, why are you in my way on your bike? For cyclists it’s sort of a twofold harassment; people are run off the road, intimidated, add in being a woman and that’s when the sexual comments show up. The stalking.”

Hollaback Houston’s website, where those who have experienced street harassment can report the incident to the community, is filled with tales of pedestrians and cyclists being harassed by people in cars.

“In Texas, less people have a stake in this issue because of the high number of motorists that aren’t experiencing [street harassment] as frequently.”

Social Media

Connecting with cycling organizations would help in the fight against street harassment not just in Texas; for Hermie, it was the Facebook page of a cycling group in LA that got her involved in Hollaback in the first place. Like many of us, Hermie got involved in the movement through social media.

“When I was looking down at the comments on a photo someone had posted about the LA chapter of Hollaback. Coming across Hollaback is what allowed me to have the language to speak about street harassment; that was a term I didn’t use until I started visiting their website. I didn’t have a word for it or a means to reach out or read about other people’s experiences with it. Having the reach that the internet allows us is what really helps us spread the message far and wide to anyone that wants to see it or maybe doesn’t want to see it.”

In a huge state like Texas without a large number of vocal activists against street harassment, connecting over the Internet is vital to increasing awareness. I would never have found Hermie were it not for my own use of social media.

Community

But the value of social media goes far beyond the boundaries of the Lone Star State; people around the country and the world have been connecting over the web in activist efforts. There’s a strong foundation, but those who hope to end street harassment need to continue building community as the issue receives more public attention. When I asked Hermie what her short and long term goals were for Hollaback Houston, she told me her first priority was being able to grow her team.

“I think that’s both a short term and long term goal. For me that was the most daunting thing – I was the only chapter in Texas and this is a huge state. There’s a chapter in Lubbock and I reached out to them but I’ve never really been alone in this – I have the network to reach out to. I would hope to see more sites pop up in Texas. I want to get more people so there’s more variety in our message. That’s all we want to do – empower and provide support. And prove that this is a problem.”

Whether you’re in Texas or halfway across the world, there are always people you can connect with. Learn from other members of the street harassment network and figure out what makes your community unique. The movement is growing – get involved!

“Any contribution is important. It could be a share on Facebook, writing a piece on your blog or creating a video – take inventory of your personal skills and know that anything you do matters so much. All of these little things add up and increase awareness.”

Madison is a soon-to-be graduate of the University of Texas at Austin studying literature and sociology. Follow her on Twitter, @madiford222.

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Brazil: The hijab and the concept of oppression

By

Juliana Guarany, Brazil, Blog Correspondent

Read it in Portuguese. 

Image by Malcolm Evans

This week American First Lady Michelle Obama didn’t wear a headscarf on a trip to Saudi Arabia. This led to outrage from some and support from others. It is incredible how a headscarf or hijab, one piece of cloth, can cause such emotional reactions when the wearing of it is simply to signify: this woman is Muslim and her life is guided by the laws of Islam.

It has been said many times that the hijab is a symbol of oppression of women, and it actually has been transformed into that in countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan or Iran: restricted societies have taken advantage of Islam’s values over modesty to oppress women, hiding them behind burkas, segregating them from men in public spaces. Because of that, the hijab has been demonized by western societies, but it really doesn’t have to be like that.

February 1st is World Hijab Day, a date created by New York resident Nazma Khan to encourage non-Muslim women to wear a hijab for one day and experiment how it is to walk out as a Muslim. The website makes a good effort to deconstruct the demonized vision western societies have over the hijab. Many women tell how they felt more protected and appreciated as a person than as a sexual object while wearing it. I have done the experiment in Germany and wrote about it. I talked to friends about it, too. It seems it is one thing when the hijab is a choice made by someone thinking of her religious beliefs. It is a completely different situation when the veil is mandatory by law.

A non-Muslim friend was in Malaysia for her vacation and was invited to try on the hijab. She lives in Germany and has seen many Muslims wearing dark clothes, but in Malaysia, as she could notice, women had colorful veils: “I fell in love with the clothes. I wanted to try it out, but felt a bit insecure, I didn’t know anyone. When I walked by a mosque, a group of women asked if I wanted to try. So I decided to do it. I opted for the niqab, leaving only my eyes out. I was stunned by how my eyes popped out, stronger than ever! I loved the experience”. I asked her if she faced any glimpses or any other problems by walking around without a hijab: “Not even a little bit”, she says, “in the western world we have the arrogance of thinking that anything different from us is wrong. I walked around Malaysia with modest clothes, but my hair was out there and I was never harassed because of it”.

Another friend visited Kuwait and had a very different experience: “it is a tribal society that treats people differently not only based in their gender, but also their social status, their family history and what line of Islam they follow. In the 70s you could see women wearing miniskirts in Kuwait. Now, you need a burka to go out, especially if it’s a traditional region”. As a foreigner, she was able to walk around without a hijab, but had local teens following her into malls and markets. She talked about Saudi Arabia in similar terms as well. Indeed, Saudi film director Haifaa al-Mansour recently spoke about segregation in her country on CNN. She has to direct her film from inside the car because she couldn’t be seen around men. But she said her country is changing – very slowly, but changing.

Another friend could not go out in the streets of Yemen without a burka, fearing she could be kidnapped for being a foreign woman: “It was not just the hijab, but also wearing pants. Just the line of my legs and crunch are seen as an act of disrespect”. In Iraq, she said, the veil can be optional, but going out without it makes people uncomfortable: “it’s like as if I was walking around naked”. But even in those countries, she said, women are not addressed with such disrespect as in Egypt: “I got spit on, pissed on, even a cab driver masturbated when I was in the car”, but that has very little to do with the veil, as both Muslim and non-Muslim women are harassed constantly in the streets. As a more opened Muslim country, Egypt seems to get the worst part of both worlds, creating the most disrespectful environment women can be exposed to.

Charlie Hebdo

In the light of the latest terrorist attempt in France, Muslims have suffered from prejudice. In Brazil, a country with a very limited Muslim community, there have been acts of aggression. Wearing a hijab is just another excuse for harassment. A woman was recently hit by a rock in plain daylight in São Paulo because she was wearing a hijab: “Usually, we do not have any problems, but when a terrorist attack takes place, people around us start to blame our religion due to wrongful information passed by the media.” She clarifies one vision that takes the light of the problem out of religion: “It is wrong to say that Muslim women face violence and are oppressed, because women all around the world face violence and are oppressed just as much. This is not a matter of religion, it is a matter of gender”.

It is sad to see how aggressive the clash of western and Islamic worlds is. On one side, non-Muslims tend to think Muslim women are oppressed by their clothes. On the other, Muslim women send the message that they are the ones being judged only by who they are instead of what they look like. As women in general, we need to unite and, on top of it all, respect the choices we each make.

Juliana is a fellow from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and, together with Hamburg University, in Germany, is creating a digital campaign to connect all feminist initiatives around the globe. Read her blog Whistleblower and follow her on Twitter, @juguarany

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Germany: Stopping Sexist Advertisements

By

Lea Goelnitz, Berlin, Germany, Blog Correspondent

Sexist advertisement is still the norm in many countries, but fortunately there is resistance

Many companies ignore women as potential buyers when they create their advertisement and so use women to sell their products to men. In general most ads are still dominated by very rigid gender stereotypes, therefore it was quite unusual when the jewelry company Tiffany launched an ad that features a gay couple (though it is still aimed at a male audience, featuring two white men).

Why does this matter? A dialogue comparing German and Swedish ads proves the link between ads and how a society values women and how advanced gender equality is. In the German ad the same product is advertised showing women being stupid, doing chores or being naked, while in Swedish ads men and women are more likely to be portrayed as equal partners or it shows men playing with children. In Sweden, more men go on paternity leave than in Germany and working hours are more adapted to family responsibilities of both partners.

In various countries there is now a movement for more gender equality and more diversity to be reflected in advertisement. One example is Pink Stinks in the UK, which regularly names and shames companies that use limiting and damaging stereotypes or even violence. In the U.S. the Representation Project runs a #NotBuyingIt campaign that is particularly active around Super Bowl weekend.

In Germany, we actually have a so-called advertisement council, which is supposed to intervene in case of discriminatory and offensive ads. But most of the time complaints about sexist ads are rejected because they are deemed as being “humorous” and “entertaining.” As the official council for advertising seems to be unwilling to actually influence ads for the better, new regional/ city ad council were founded across the country.

In Berlin, 15 women from various women´s rights projects founded a working group against sexist, discriminatory and misogynist advertisement in 2014. They developed a catalogue of criteria to define sexist ads, which was presented in front of the city senate and subsequently approved. In some areas of Berlin, it is now illegal to put up ads which violate the criteria. The working group also serves as a platform to which people report sexist ads. The aim is to have a dialogue with the companies, which launch the ads and to explain alternatives to their problematic ads. The role model for this initiative is Austria, where the official advertisement council established an elaborate catalogue and intervenes in discriminatory ads.

The aim of the initiative is to sensitize people to sexism in ads and to explain why certain ads are discriminatory. The views on this are diverse. Sexism is defined along a blurry line. “One obstacle is, that often women themselves do not necessarily recognize sexism in an ad, because they internalized sexism and it is accepted in society at large,” Marisa Riah, who is a member of the working group, explained to me. “Sexist advertisement is one form of violence against one group of people and it helps to reinforce stereotypes and prejudice. Consequently ads have a relevant impact on how we portray people and treat each other. Ads influence people and society and it reflects the values of society as well”, says Marisa about her motivation to be part of the project.

It is still a long way to go, but there is progress. With this initiative, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, follows other cities in Germany, which managed to establish sexist-ads-free areas just in the past years.

Lea works in journalism and women´s rights and is involved in the women´s rights NGO Discover Football, which uses football as a tool for empowerment and gender equality. Follow her on Twitter, @LeaGoelnitz.

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