Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

USA: Anti-Flirt Club and Hassle-Free Zones, 100 Years of Activism

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By Lauren McEwen, Washington, D.C., USA, SSH Correspondent

A while back, I read an interesting post by a male ally about street harassment in which he attempted to explain to other cis men why gendered harassment in public spaces is not OK. It basically amounted to him saying, “Hey, I know it’s hard to understand that some of the social norms we were spoon-fed as kids isn’t OK, but it’s the 21st century, and we now officially know that street harassment is unacceptable.”

While I appreciate all positive support for something I believe in, here’s the thing: the anti-street harassment movement is not a new phenomenon. It can be argued that street harassment has been a problem since women began moving through public spaces on their own. There have been studies conducted, books written and protests waved to fight against street harassment for generations.

Today’s anti-street harassment movement has something that all of the other efforts did not – the power of the Internet. Each day, I come across about three to five stories about street harassment. I see tweets from people affected by it venting and comforting each other, in turn. The saturation of news and opinions and anecdotes about street harassment all over the web can make it seem like street harassment has been tolerable up until this new generation of overly sensitive, politically correct kids came of age, but it’s not.

This post is about times in the past 100 years when street harassment was both documented and fought.

Early 1900s: Mashing

Street harassment was called “mashing” in the early 1900s, and some women decided to take matters in their own hands, stabbing mashers with their hatpins, and punching or hitting harassers across the face with their handbags. They also reported harassment to the police and in some cases, were successful in getting the masher arrested.

While it’s not advisable to get into physical altercations with street harassers, these accounts prove that there was not a time when street harassment was universally viewed as a “compliment.” It was threatening enough in the 1930s for these women to attack their harassers, and one can only assume that the actual words and actions that present-day street harassers employ are can be even more vulgar than those used by their predecessors.

[Editor’s Note: Stanford professor Estelle Freedman’s new book Redefining Rape includes a chapter about mashers/street harassers from the 1880s to 1920s.]

1920s: The Anti-Flirt Club

In the 1920s, a group of D.C. women formed the Anti-Flirt Club and held the first and only Anti-Flirt Week. During World War I, it became common practice for men to offer female pedestrians rides when they saw them walking down the street as part of their civic duty. But soon, those offered rides became tainted by aggressive flirting on the part of the driver. Although the group’s secretary acknowledged that here were other “flirts” about, the drivers were the most worrisome.

The Atlantic reprinted excerpts from a 1920s Washington Post article that detailed the rules of the Anti-Flirt Club, and although some of the advice seems sound enough, (“Don’t accept rides from flirting motorists—they don’t all invite you in to save you a walk.” “Don’t let elderly men with an eye to a flirtation pat you on the shoulder and take a fatherly interest in you. Those are usually the kind who want to forget they are fathers.”) some of the rules were tinged with slut-shaming (“Don’t flirt; those who flirt in haste oft repent in leisure.” “Don’t use your eyes for ogling—they were made for worthier purposes.”)

The trouble with the Anti-Flirt Club was that, once again, the onus for preventing “flirting” (or rather, street harassment) was once again placed on women. Don’t make eye contact. Don’t smile. But be sure to keep your options open, because you never know where your future husband may be hiding.

The Manhattan-based version of the Anti-Flirt Club was run by men, and placed the burden of ending street harassment on women in another, slightly less oppressive, way. They wanted “to educate public opinion to the point where a woman will consider it her duty to prosecute the masher who attempts to force his attentions upon her. The association intends to have its own counsel, who will aid in prosecuting all masher cases.” (More on “mashers” in a bit.)

According to The Atlantic, it isn’t clear what charges could have been drawn against these early 20th century street harassers, but interestingly, two politicians tried (and failed) to get anti-street harassment bills passed in 1897, and in 1931, the Chicago Tribune quoted the Acting Police Commissioner John Alock saying, “This street flirting has got to stop in Chicago. No longer may young men in automobiles edge over to the curb and honk their horns at pretty girls on the sidewalk. They must quit ogling women from loafing places in front of drug stores, cigar stores and other public hangouts.”

Eventually, the efforts seemed to fizzle – fewer articles were written about the anti-flirt movement – but police and politicians from generations ago at least appeared to take sexual harassment seriously. Seems like we have regressed quite a bit over the years.

1940s: “Hands Off! Self Defense for Women”

In 1942, a book by Major W.E. Fairbairn was published that sought to teach women “basic methods of attack and defense” in order to help them defend themselves should they be attacked. It served as a sort of wartime manual to teach readers some of the self-defense tactics Fairbairn picked up while serving with the Shanghai Municipal Police.

In the foreword, Fairbairn explained what motivated him to write the book. As more American women began to work outside of the home, taking the places of men who were away at war, they would be in new and unfamiliar situations, and should be able to defend themselves in case their safety was threatened.

1980s: The Hassle-Free Zone Campaign

In 1985, several community organizations, including the D.C. Rape Crisis Center (the first rape crisis center in the U.S.), the D.C. Women’s Law Center and D.C. Men Against Sexual Violence teamed up to organize an effort to convert the District into a “hassle-free zone.”

Marty Langelan, the former president of the D.C. Rape Crisis Center and the author of Back Off: How to Confront and Stop Sexual Harassment and Harassers, detailed the 1985 campaign in her book and talked to me about it in an interview.

Posters and flyers were created by Linda Leaks and the African American Women’s Committee for Community Education, local law students researched ways to potentially prosecute harassers and self defense instructors from the D.C. Rape Crises Center taught women confrontation classes.

In September 1985, they focused on street harassment during the Take Back the Night March and the annual Anti-Rape Week program, and got then-Mayor Marion Barry to issue a proclamation asking that all Washingtonians strive to make the District a Hassle-Free Zone. A resolution supporting the campaign was passed by the City Council.

The following spring, the campaign hosted speakouts in street harassment hotspots, like parks and Metro Stations, after work and during lunchtime, when there would be more people on the street. There were skits, speeches and “open mike sessions to give women a chance to sound off about their harassment experiences.” They held their final public speakout during October 1986.

It’s hard to say if it is inspiring or disheartening to realize that groups have been fighting to end street harassment for generations. It does, however, serve as a reminder that we are not battling a non-issue, but something that has hindered the happiness and safety of people for longer than we would like to imagine.

Lauren is a recent graduate of Howard University where she majored in print journalism with a minor in photography. You can check out more of her work at laurenmcewen.weebly.com and follow her on Twitter at @angrywritergirl.
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South Africa: Harassment of Women within Political and Activist Movements

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By: Gcobani Qambela, South Africa, SSH Correspondent

**Trigger Warning**

A few days ago, I was shocked when I woke up to a tweet from a colleague who works in youth activist circles with me. In the tweet he said: “Activism without facts is like winking at a girl in the dark. No one knows you’re doing it #Factivism”. I was shocked that he would tweet this because he is a man working in youth activist circles that seek to especially advance women and especially young girls from the harmful ravages of patriarchy in Africa.

I was thus surprised that someone working in these spaces that promote not only gender parity in Africa, but also seeks to create an open African society where young women do not have to contend with harassment from men winking at them whether in the dark or public sphere without express permission to do so.

A few days after, I would encounter the same misogynistic type of tweet being retweeted into my timeline by someone who is a member of the new controversial political party, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa. The young man who was retweeted, Khaya Caluza, maintains close links to the African National Congress (ANC), the governing political party in South Africa. In the tweet Caluza, using violently patriarchal languages, relegates women back to being alive only to look after and please men sexually.

These might appear to be isolated incidents, but misogyny and harassment of women (and sometimes LGBTIQ people) in heteronormative activist and political circles in South Africa, and Africa more broadly is a serious problem. The tweets and retweets by these young activist young men reminded me that even in activists’ and political movements, where women are supposed to be united with men for a common purpose, women also often have to contend with the extra-burden of not only doing activist and political work, but also combating patriarchal, sexual and misogynist attitudes and harassment from some of their fellow men. These attitudes carried by these men that a woman’s place is in the kitchen doing the dishes, or that winking at women is cool, especially when it is seen by others, is worrying because it means these attitudes also infiltrate into the gender dynamics of the work that must be done.

In The Guardian’s “Top 10 sexist moments in politics” is included the case of South Africa’s Lindiwe Mazibuko who constantly receives sexist comments in the course of her political work. Earlier in the year for instance she was criticized at a budget debate by two ANC MP’s for her dress sense. Writing for the Mail and Guardian, Nomalanga Mkhize, Mathe Maema, Babalwa Magoqwana and Siphokazi Magadla note that while Lindiwe is famous because of her political position in (South Africa’s main opposition party) the Democratic Alliance, they note that “Mazibuko’s case is only the latest in a number of public incidents where women are dismissed on the basis of body, age and dress – that age old language of reminding women that even when we [as women] have our right to leadership, we are not truly to be taken seriously in the public sphere.”

The tweets by these young men remind me that while we must tackle the harassment that women experience in public and in the streets, we also need to devote attention to the harassment women activists and politicians are subjected to.

Political and activist spaces are supposed to be spaces where all of us in our different genders and sexualities are supposed to come together, be free and united in common purpose of carving a positive change in society. However, because of harmful heteropatriarchy in South Africa, many women find themselves fighting what South African researcher and gender activist, Rethabile Mashale, calls a “dual war” for women.

She tells me “the dual war is unrelenting, and what is further troubling is the extent to which not only men, but also women nowadays in South Africa have become complicit in perpetuating deep misogyny against women like Mazibuko and not recognising the interconnectedness of our struggles as women. It’s not only sad, but deeply worrying.” I couldn’t agree with Mashale more. I hope that as all men (and women) in the activist and political movements especially, that we will start examining and correcting the ways in which our internalised (patriarchal) attitudes and words are harmful against many of our fellow men, women and LGBTIQ family in the anti-patriarchy and anti-street harassment movement.

Gcobani is completing his Masters in Medical Anthropology through Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. His research centres around issues of risk, responsibility and vulnerability amongst Xhosa men (and women) in a rural town in South Africa living in the context of HIV/AIDS. Follow him on Twitter, @GcobaniQambela.

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USA:The Many Ugly Heads of Street Harassment

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By Nikoletta Gjoni, Maryland, USA, SSH Correspondent

My mom always says that the more choices someone is offered, the harder it is to decide—whatever that decision may be about. In a strange way, that could very well apply to street harassment as well. Just follow me for a minute here. The term street harassment sounds very straightforward and is obvious as to what it refers to. It doesn’t leave much room for interpretation as to what would be considered street harassment vs. what wouldn’t be. However in today’s day and age, it’s becoming grayer, trickier, and harder to confine the definition of street harassment and where and how it can be encountered.

In my first article, I wrote about the reasons for and ramifications of using technology in public in an effort to thwart harassment. I focused on the use of ear buds, cell phones, and laptops as a means to deter men from communicating with women, but a recent article featured in the New York Times made me consider how technology itself encourages harassment on the Internet that can or cannot manifest into harassment encountered on the street.

In “Victims Push Laws to End Online Revenge Posts,” new light is shed on the ever growing problem with “revenge porn”—sites that cater to vindictive exes, overwhelmingly male exes, who post nude photos of ex-girlfriends/ex-wives/ex-lovers, sometimes with phone numbers, home addresses, and employment addresses attached to them.

Aside from the very obvious fact that this is intrusive and formulaically vengeful, it can spark, and in fact already has sparked, a slew of problems for the women whose pictures are posted—loss of jobs, alienation from friends and/or family, and not least of all, exposure to stalkers.

Ms. Taschinger, the twenty-three-year-old profiled in the article whose ex-boyfriend shared a dozen or so nude photos of hers on the Internet, states that on many occasions upon coming home from work, she would spot a man sitting in a car outside of her house. She eventually quit her job at a restaurant. Others have also experienced getting approached and hassled in public spaces.

“Sometimes I want to get into a fetal position and cry,” says Taschinger.

The Women’s Center states that 1 in 20 women will be stalked in their lifetime; 79% of women know their stalkers, 50% of women have been in a relationship with the stalker, and 80% of those relationships were abusive.

While it’s important to note that yes, these women did willingly give their then boyfriends/husbands/lovers their photographs, it is immeasurably more important to recognize that they did not agree to having them shared with the Internet world, a fact that seems to fall through the cracks of empathy and land right into the gutter of blame.

While street harassment is recognized as an unwelcome sexual advance, either verbal or physical, that occurs in real life while out on the street, I start to wonder whether or not that could and should include the Internet. Through the use of cell phones, laptops, and tablets we are exposed to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram—blog sites, porn sites, private sites, and public sites—free sites and sites that charge.

For a lot of us, ‘real life’ weaves on and off the Internet and everything we post becomes a reflection of our every day lives. In a world so highly charged and high speed where the sense of privacy diminishes a little more with each new piece of technology that is unveiled and every new app that is downloaded, I wonder if street harassment can be stretched out to encompass and define the pixelated paths of every WWW site we may encounter, particularly when they in turn create the kind of street harassment we typically classify as such.

Someone who isn’t brave enough to holler on the street may take the route of anonymity the Internet oftentimes provides. Someone who feels jilted can take to the Internet to post private photos without the photographed knowing.

Choices. And though they always existed in the simple form of you can either be the person who harasses or you can be the person who doesn’t, it has now become more complicated than that. You can holler; you can click and share; you can click and forward; you can click and view. Who is guilty of harassing? Who is guilty of perpetuating, and is perpetuating on the Internet the same as perpetuating on the street?

And if not—well, why not?

Nikoletta Gjoni graduated from UMBC in 2009 with a B.A. in English Literature. After graduation, she did almost four years of freelance work in a D.C. broadcast station, in addition to having worked as a literacy and linguistics assessor for pre-k classrooms in D.C.’s charter schools.  To get to know her better, she can be tracked on both her creative blog and Twitter, @nikigjoni.

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Canada: Judging the Book by its Cover

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By: Lisane Thirsk, Ottawa, Canada, SSH Correspondent

I have a habit of holding off on consuming popular culture and trends. Only once the hype is over do I go back and indulge to see what the craze was about.

By the time I’m in the middle of whatever it is I resisted (Harry Potter, Pinterest, Breaking Bad, etc.), people tend not to be eager to chat about it, since by then it’s old news and has already been analyzed to death. Yet I enjoy being able to evaluate what I really think about the latest book/TV show/film/technology with less of the mainstream hype around it.

A few weeks ago I needed another book for my commute to downtown Ottawa, so, in a typical move, I picked up a tattered copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from the Thrift Store.

On my way home from work the other day I was reading my new-old book on a bench while waiting for a transfer bus. Suddenly, I was on my guard after a young man sat down too close to me on the long and otherwise vacant bench.

As buses pulled up and I glanced over to see if it was my bus, I caught glimpses of my seat neighbour. He was a teenager, maybe seventeen years old.

Suddenly he turned to me and said, “Can I ask you something?”

At this point I admit saying in my head: No, I don’t feel like making small talk because you’re bored and feel entitled to interrupt me with a comment about my appearance. No, I don’t care to justify the fact that I enjoy reading. No, you can’t have my phone number, little boy.

I closed my book and turned to him with a somewhat icy look in anticipation of what I thought was coming. Still, I said, “Sure.”

“On a scale of one to ten, how good is that book?”

My shoulders relaxed. As a matter of fact, I’d just been pondering how I felt about it.

I gave it a four and explained why. I watched him closely as I gave him an earful of a response, throwing out references to other guilty-pleasure thriller reads from the past few years, which he caught.

We talked a little longer about bestsellers from past years before he got on a bus that pulled up.

The chat actually improved my mood for the rest of the trip home. I interpreted this particular encounter as positive, despite my initial unease with him sitting so close.

What had I been expecting, based on my experience in similar situations? Street harassment.

No matter which city I’m in, it’s not uncommon for men and even boys I don’t know to intrude on my space and time in a way women never do. This is especially true on and around public transit in all the cities I’ve spent time in.

And I’m usually supremely annoyed by men who use what I’m reading in public as an excuse to start a conversation that quickly becomes unwelcome. In my opinion this is generally solid advice: See a Woman Reading? Leave Her Alone.

At the same time, I like people watching and I’m always interested in strangers carrying around books instead of e-readers (and why I adore the Underground New York Public Library project). My commute is more interesting when out of the corner of my eye I see someone reading an unexpected title.

This particular day, based on a combination of factors, I felt it was acceptable to be interrupted with that question; I was happy to spend a few minutes chatting about a paperback bestseller from a few years ago.

Why not celebrate interactions with strangers that make life enjoyable? That’s why I love the Street Respect Stories on the Stop Street Harassment blog. The brief conversation with a teenager at a bus stop was neutral, if not pleasant, compared to what I had braced myself for.

The relief I felt at not having to deal with harassment during my commute that day was anything but neutral, of course. It was based on my personal experiences, gendered socialization, and the power dynamics present in all street interactions.

The bottom line, though, is that it’s time for street respect to be the rule, not the exception for women reading – or doing anything – in public.

Lisane works in the non-profit communications sector and supports local anti-street harassment advocacy through Hollaback! Ottawa. In 2012, she completed a Master’s in Socio-Legal Studies at York University in Toronto, where she wrote her Major Research Paper on gender-based street harassment. She holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies and Spanish from the University of British Columbia.

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USA: Hollaback! Boston Releases State of the Streets

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By: Delia Harrington, Massachusetts, USA, SSH Correspondent

“I Hollaback because I shouldn’t ride my bike in order to avoid harassment.” – Nai

Hollaback! Boston released their State of the Streets report today, based on data collected from over 500 Bostonians during the month of August.  A startling 88% of respondents had experienced street harassment, proving that there is absolutely a place in Boston for the work of organizations like Hollaback!, Everyday Feminism, and of course Stop Street Harassment.

As readers may know, Hollaback! was co-founded in New York City by Emily May, and has since become a worldwide movement.  The organization strives to end street harassment; conducting workshops and campaigns, and empowering those affected by street harassment by gathering and sharing their stories.

The Boston chapter was co-founded by current leaders Britni de la Cretaz and Kate Ziegler in 2011.  While each branch operates autonomously, they share strategies with one another.  According to today’s Report, the Boston branch was inspired by Hollaback! Ottawa’s own fact-finding.  Similarly, some recommendations mention the successes of other Hollaback! branches.

The report details how Bostonians define harassment, where and how often they experience it, how it makes them feel, as well as recommendations moving forward from Hollaback!  According to the report, Hollaback! Boston decided to collect information not only to see the scope of the issue in Boston, but also to educate others.  While the site leaders hear stories of street harassment often, many others don’t.  As they say in the report,

“We wanted to find a way to communicate this fact to people, especially people that may not think that street harassment is really a problem or people that don’t experience street harassment themselves. We wanted to put the reality of what we face when we walk out the doors and out onto the streets of Boston in black and white.”

Respondents to the survey were overwhelmingly women (86%) and  people in the LGBTQIA community (31%).    Of those respondents, 87% were female-identified,  90% were LGBTQIA-identified, 94% identified as a person of color, 96% identified as both LGBTQIA & POC,  and 90% identified as being a person with a disAbility, reported experiencing street harassment.  This supports the notion long held among those attempting to end street harassment that POC, LGBTQIA folks and those with a disAbility experience particularly high levels of street harassment.

“I Hollaback because I have the right to feel safe. And you need to know it.” – Becca

Harassment is largely taking place on the street (97%), on the MBTA (63%),  in bars or clubs (37%),  in public parks (32%), and at  school (14%).  Not surprisingly, those respondents experiencing harassment said it made them feel angry (85%), nervous (80%) , annoyed (78%), disgusted  (72%) , and scared (64%).   And for  those who claim street harassment is enjoyable for the victim, or that it is not a big deal, only 14% of respondents said  they were ‘flattered’, and only4% said street harassment ‘didn’t bother’ them.  While the report refrained from editorializing, I’d like to note that while some respondents were flattered or not bothered, it is impossible to tell whether the person you’re seeing on the street will be nervous or flattered by the attention, so it’s best to err on the side of caution (and the numbers) and treat everyone as though they wouldn’t like it.

Like many working in this space, Hollaback! Boston sees bystander intervention as a key tool to combat street harassment.  Unfortunately, only 14% of respondents reported an instance of someone intervening on their behalf.   As a result, Hollaback! suggests the, “creation of a public education campaign that focuses on tangible ways that people can safely intervene.”

The data is likely unsurprising to readers of this site and fans of Hollaback’s work, but it is incredibly valuable to have hard statistics to show to potential partners moving forward.  For example, given that 63% of respondents reported feeling harassed on the MBTA, the report’s suggestion of an ad campaign (similar to that created by Hollaback! Philadelphia and run on SEPTA trains), training for MBTA employees on how to respond to street harassment, and an awareness campaign (à la “See Something, Say Something”) about available reporting mechanisms may all be seen as higher priorities by MBTA officials.  Moreover, while Hollaback! makes several suggestions moving forward, they are all constructive and include next steps for themselves as an organization.  Hopefully this approach will continue to be successful as they use their model of presenting a problem and a potential solution that includes their assistance at the same time.

I hope that other Hollaback! branches and similar organizations are able to conduct a similar survey in the future, so other cities can wield statistics that accurately reflect the unique picture of street harassment in their area.  I hope Hollaback! Boston continues to receive good local press coverage, which could pressure businesses and city officials to prioritize street harassment.  Congratulations to Hollaback! Boston, and we look forward to the implementation of the recommendations.

Delia Harrington is a recent graduate of Northeastern University and calls Boston home. In recent years, she has found herself studying, working, and volunteering in Egypt, Cuba, France, Benin, the Dominican Republic, Turkey, Germany, and Greece.  You can read more of her writing on her blog, or follow her on Facebook and Twitter, @deliamary.

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