Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

USA: Interview with the Director of Hollaback!PHILLY

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Anna Kegler & Rochelle Keyhan with one of their SETPA ads.

By: Erin McKelle, Jan. – June 2013 SSH Blog Correspondents

Rochelle Keyhan is the Director of Hollaback!PHILLY, lawyer, activist and writer. She started working on anti-street harassment non-profit Hollaback! in 2010 when she incorporated the organization as a non-profit 501(c) (3) pro-bono. She’s been an active feminist since her undergraduate years at UCLA, where she was the Editor in Chief of the university’s feminist magazine. She’s truly remarkable and I wanted to get her take on street harassment, working as a feminist activist and her work with Hollaback!

Erin: Can you tell me a little about yourself and your work both with Hollaback! and outside of it?

Rochelle: My passion is fighting gender-based violence and inequity. My day job is as a criminal lawyer, and I do all of my work on Hollaback! in my free time outside of work. I first became aware of Hollaback! while working with a different non profit, running their social media pages. Hollaback! posted a request for assistance with filing their 501(c)(3) application, which I had just learned how to do. In filling out that application you learn everything there is to know about the organization, and the more I learned, the more I became enamored with the movement. Soon after completing the application I joined Hollaback!’s Board of Directors and am currently the Treasurer on the Board. A year later in April 2011 I started HollabackPHILLY and have been the director ever since.

Erin: I saw that you first got involved with Hollaback! by volunteering to incorporate them as a non-profit. What drew you to the organization and what led you to start a chapter in your city?

Rochelle: At the time I discovered Hollaback! I was already a pretty outspoken and passionate feminist, but had been so desensitized to street harassment that it was an epiphany for me that I deserved to be angry about street harassment. The fact that it was such a new, less-explored issue, got me excited to be a part of it almost immediately. After a year on the board, I was more familiar with the organization and its long term activist goals, and I just knew that I needed to bring the movement to Philadelphia, which has its own serious street harassment problem. By raising awareness about street harassment, we’re expanding the reach of the fight against gender-based violence by going after the behaviors across the spectrum, instead of just focusing on the most physical forms of the violence.

Erin: Street harassment is obviously a huge problem and it is often not taken seriously by the police. How do you think that the laws around street harassment can be written to better serve women and LGBT folks? How can we better educate law enforcement to make them aware of the problem?

Rochelle: I don’t think that laws are the solution, so I actually wouldn’t suggest any form of legal revision. The focus now should be on education and mindset change. A big part of that is bringing in men and law enforcement, recruiting them as allies and equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to spread the message. I wrote an article for COPS, a department out of the USDOJ on how law enforcement can help the cause, which is pretty responsive to this question.

Erin: Hollaback Philly’s SEPTA Subway Advertisement PSA Campaign has gotten a lot of press this spring. Have you seen any changes that have happened because of it? Did you see an increase in public awareness?

Rochelle: The ads had a significant local impact, putting our efforts on the radar of the larger feminist organizations in the city. They also got the attention of City Council, which opened the door for conversations about potential partnerships. We also have had a large outpouring of local support via email and social media, thanking us for our effort and commending our transit authority for extending the advertisements. The ads helped people start conversations by providing an ice breaker. They also encouraged people to think through the issues on their own, and in their own ways, by giving them the freedom to process the ideas individually, without forcing conversations. Beyond the impact in Philadelphia, the ads went viral online, with over 500,000 Facebook impressions and 100,000 Tumblr re-blogs, expanding the conversation to a global dialogue about what cities can do to help spread the word about making our streets and transit systems safer for women and LGBTQ folks.

Erin: Do you see street harassment as being a potential defining issue of 4th wave feminism? Do you think it’s important that it be?

Rochelle: It’s already a large part of the fourth wave narrative, with organizations all over the world organizing around and marching against street harassment, while openly condemning the behavior online. People rising up to regain their rights to safe access to public spaces, fighting discrimination based on their gender, and holding their communities accountable, is of course an important part of any wave of feminism, so the 4th wave is no exception.

Erin: Street harassment comes from the difference in power and acts as an oppressor and reminder for oppressed groups that they are such. It’s a way for the dominant group to assert power. Do you think it will take ending sexism to end street harassment?

Rochelle: I actually think street harassment can end before sexism does, because it’s easier to be angry about violence and disrespect than it is to redefine masculine roles and claims to power by doing things like evening out salaries, sharing household duties, and electing more women into political power. Basically, it’s “giving up” less to eliminate street harassment than to eliminate sexism.

Erin: There has obviously been an increase in recent years in the feminist movement to end street harassment and the movement has been gaining ground. In your opinion, what is the best approach we can take to end street harassment both as activists and everyday citizens?

Rochelle: That’s a difficult question to answer. The “best” way to approach street harassment varies by situation and individual. But what I’ve learned over the past few years is that the most productive and effective conversations I’ve had with men and non believers happens when I come from a place of love and understanding. Curbing the anger goes a long way in creating the conversations as safe spaces for people to voice questions they might be embarrassed to ask, allowing for deeper, more nuanced conversations about the issue and how it impacts people differently. Hopefully the more conversations we have, the more people will join in the effort and the less careful the conversations will have to be to avoid isolating people from the movement.

Erin is an e-activist and blogger based in Ohio. You can find more of her work here and here.

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Meet Our 15 New Blog Correspondents!

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The SSH Blog has been growing by leaps and bounds (we had a record number of story submissions last month!). Contributing to that growth, today, the second cohort of SSH Blog Correspondents begins.

Meet the new correspondents by reading their bios.

They will each write monthly articles through December 2013 to discuss street harassment issues and activism in their communities.

This blog is all about documenting street harassment, sharing ideas for how to end it, and bringing more attention to this human rights issue and I’m grateful to the correspondents for being willing to share their time and talents to these ends.

I also want to give a huge THANK YOU to the first cohort of SSH Blog Correspondents who contributed monthly articles between January and June 2013. They wrote compelling articles about street harassment from Pakistan to Colombia and all across the USA. They were the pilot program and were patient with me as I figured out the process and system! I thank them for their stellar articles.

 

 

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Colombia: Violence and abuse

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By: Adriana Pérez-Rodríguez, SSH Correspondent

The well-known black feminist, bell hooks, argues that the first act of violence men, living in a patriarchal system, must commit is not violence against women but against themselves by emotionally crippling themselves and so, when achieving it, they can then start abusing women. By doing so, men will be fulfilling gender roles about masculinity which and will be able to socially position themselves as individuals.

Seems to be then, that patriarchy is intrinsically based on violence, defining every aspect of our everyday lives and not only affecting us as women but also affecting men and the ways they are constructed. It is important to keep this in mind because when we tend to think of violence we imagine domestic violence or rape scenes in our heads, ignoring underlying logics. Violence is more than beatings and battering, violence is also the act of thinking our bodies belong to someone else and that can be appropriated at any time by words and language. Based on this logic, an act of clear cut violence is committed against women every time they encounter sexual harassment in the streets because the underlying premise is the male and patriarchal authority over our bodies, acting as reminders that we can be accessed against our will. Beatings and rape, in this case, would only be the ending and most dreadful results of this chain of violence reproduced daily by language, looks and images –glorifying violence against women- whenever we enter the public sphere.

Hence, street harassment becomes a wider issue that involves us all as opposed to the idea of it being a women’s issue because, for women to be thought as accessible, male socialisation, as hooks said, must be filled with violent ideas of how they must behave and socialise. Boys from very early ages internalise ideas they must behave as predators and that their character is that of rapist that doesn’t have control over himself. Thus, women must protect themselves from them. By changing how we view this issue and realising it’s not just a women’s one, we will be able to analyse how our society is organized under principles of violence which also affect boys and men, obviously not with the same dimensions, but that barely go noticed as they are left in a privileged position.

This is revealing because men will have to also start confronting those principles under which our societies are organized and by which they are privileged social subjects. By becoming conscientious of their social position and why they are there, they can start politicising reality and joining women in the struggle against patriarchy. This isn’t easy, of course, it’s hard to confront our privileges and realise why we have. This, however, cannot be an excuse but an encouragement: they also make part of society, so they must also join the struggle. One last thing though: before waiving the flags against patriarchy and the abuse women encounter daily, think about how you, as a guy, reproduce these logics of violence over their bodies. It isn’t easy, it’s a hard and even painful process, also because most of the times these logics are reproduced without even directly thinking about them, but it isn’t a good start, it is the start.

Adriana is a Colombian national who’s passionate about all topics concerning social justice, especially gender-based justice.

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USA: Street Harassment of Gay and Bisexual Men

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Patrick receiving his award

By Sean Crosbie, SSH Correspondent

The event commemorating the fifth anniversary of Stop Street Harassment was held at Vinoteca in D.C. and celebrated the work of many courageous individuals and organizations. Patrick Ryne McNeil was among those honored for his groundbreaking research into street harassment of gay and bisexual men. Patrick’s Master’s thesis at George Washington University here in Washington, D.C. deals specifically on how this street harassment of gay and bisexual men occurs as well as how it relates to – and differs from – women who experience street harassment. I interviewed Patrick for the Stop Street Harassment blog about his research, and his views on how this degradation of gay and bisexual men can be alleviated.

Sean: You have done research on street harassment of gay and bisexual men. What is the most interesting fact you have uncovered in your research on this topic? Did you discover data that surprised you?

Patrick: I think it’s interesting that the percentage of men who reported constantly assessing their surroundings in public was actually larger for the men who perceived their masculinity to be higher than those who perceived their masculinity to be lower. While the figures are relatively close, it is a noticeable departure from what may initially be predicted. It is conceivable that men who perceive their masculinity to be higher are actually hypervigilant of possible stigmatization and therefore are more aware of potential threats to their desired level of masculinity. Men in the lower range may view harassment as inevitable – and have experienced it more frequently – and are thus less concerned with auditing public spaces for potential harassment because they already know how likely it is. At some point for these men, ‘constantly assessing their surroundings’ loses meaning because for them it is simply living. Lower levels may be reported because, although they are assessing surroundings, they are doing so unconsciously because of the ever-present very real possibility of harassment. For men who perceive higher levels of masculinity, guarding themselves against public acts of harassment is a more conscious process and thus reported at higher levels. This, of course, is just my interpretation.

Sean: How common is street harassment towards gay and bisexual men? Does this affect how gay and bisexual men use public spaces?

Patrick: As I’ve written about before, my survey respondents reported sometimes, often, or always feeling unwelcome in public about 90 percent of the time because of their perceived sexual orientation – and this affects how they navigate public spaces. About 71 percent said they constantly assess their surroundings, 69 percent said they avoid specific neighborhoods or areas, 67 percent reported not making eye contact with others, and 59 percent said they cross streets or take alternate routes – all to escape potential stranger harassment.

Sean: How common is street harassment among gay and bisexual men towards one another? Does this affect how gay and bisexual men interact with one another?

Patrick: I don’t have a lot of specific data on this, but did find that there are certain forms of harassment that are more commonly enacted by another gay/bisexual man than enacted by men perceived to be heterosexual. For example, getting whistled at or being touched/grabbed in a sexual way are forms of harassment that my respondents more often reported coming specifically from men they identify as gay, though it’s unclear how often this occurs, if it is specific to particular geographies, what sort of age or race dynamics might be at work, etc. Learning more about this will require more focused research – it’s something I wish I had thought more about before finalizing my survey.

Sean: What do you think can be done by community groups or local governments to alleviate street harassment of gay and bisexual men?

Patrick: It’s difficult to say what community groups or local governments can do to immediately alleviate street harassment, since it will likely take a cultural shift to really get to the root of the problem. Some of the most effective work being done here in DC is the harassment-focused WMATA advertisement campaign and the indecent exposure legislation that passed in February of this year. While there is of course much work to be done, these are very visible efforts that I think are creating real change – change that will lead us, I hope, to that cultural shift. Street harassment is still an issue that receives less attention than many other forms of harassment and violence, so Stop Street Harassment’s awareness-raising efforts are still critically important, such as International Anti-Street Harassment Week and the stories shared on its blog (and on other sites). I think the more we lift up the message that street harassment is occurring at alarming rates and that it affects people very deeply, and the more we call out companies for trivializing and at times promoting street harassment, the closer we will get to achieving equal access to public spaces.

Sean: Do you mind describing one of your experiences with street harassment? What happened, and how did that make you feel?

Patrick: I’ve written on Stop Street Harassment’s blog here and here about two particular times I was harassed on the street, and there are of course many more. And while these incidents are memorable, it’s important to note that not all incidents of harassment involve lengthy exchanges or even words at all. I’ve been harassed for holding hands with another boy, both verbally and non-verbally, and I’ve been harassed countless times while alone in often non-verbal ways. A shake of the head, a stare, an expression of disapproval – these actions force me to over-evaluate and to consider all public interactions as possibly threatening in some way.

Patrick’s work dealing specifically with street harassment has been published on Huffington Post, Fem2pt0, and Feministe, in addition to the Stop Street Harassment blog. You can follow Patrick on Twitter @patrickryne.

Sean has written for Stop Street Harassment since April 2011.  He is a library/research assistant at a labor union in Washington, D.C. and holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from American University.

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USA:Tzniut and Street Harassment

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By: Talia Weisberg, SSH Correspondent

As a female who lives in New York City, I’ve received my share of unwanted looks from guys. However, I’ve never really been the victim of anything worse than a creepy stare. Ever since I learned about the existence of the term street harassment, and especially after I started serving as a SSH Correspondent, I’ve tried to figure out why I’m an exception to the nearly 100% of women who have been harassed on the street. The only (weak) reason I could think of is because I’m an Orthodox Jew who mostly adheres to the laws of tzniut (SNEE-oot) in dress, meaning that I only wear skirts past the knee, sleeves that at least touch the elbow, and nothing low-cut or too tight.

If we accept my assumption for why I have never really been street harassed as true, one could argue that the solution to street harassment is for women dress according to tzniut. However, this solution would be unfair and ineffective for several reasons.

First of all, a woman’s mode of dress doesn’t always influence a would-be harasser. A few weeks ago, I began discussing street harassment with a group of my friends, who were unfamiliar with the term. After I described what constitutes street harassment, one of my friends – someone who also dresses according to tzniut – shared how she had been groped and stalked for several days while going to and coming home from school when she was in ninth grade. Hearing this friend’s story helped me realize that although it’s possible that how a woman is dressed may sometimes impact a man’s words or actions towards her, it isn’t the definitive cause for street harassment.

Another reason is because it’s women’s right as human beings to walk down the street, whether in a foreign country our own neighborhoods, without being harassed. We can’t blame the victim and tell women that it’s their job to protect themselves from street harassment; instead, we have to tell the perpetrators not to harass women on the street. Although I have chosen to dress in the manner of tzniut, and perhaps it has spared me from being victimized by street harassment, I strongly discourage women from dressing in a certain manner just to avoid street harassment. They’re our streets too, and we have every right to walk down them undisturbed.

Talia Weisberg is a Harvard-bound feminist hoping to concentrate in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her work has appeared in over 40 publications and she runs the blog Star of Davida blog (starofdavida.blogspot.com).

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