Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Bonus Day: Anti-Street Harassment Week 2015

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A few groups are getting a head-start on International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 12 – 18) and are holding events on April 11…Hundreds of people will gather in New York City for a rally, the University of Scranton is holding a resource fair, and the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre in London is holding a street demonstration.

We wish them and everyone else who is participating great luck with their/your events and actions. Thank you for making the time for this. It is important. There is power in our collective outrage and voice. We hope it will be an empowering experience personally and one that positively impacts communities around the globe.

 
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More than 30 Countries will Speak Out!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
04/07/15

Contact:
Holly Kearl, hkearl@stopstreetharassment.org

More than 30 Countries to Participate in 5th Annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week

WASHINGTON — In its fifth and largest year, International Anti-Street Harassment Week will be observed in more than 30 countries from April 12-18, 2015. Tens of thousands of people will take action to speak out against the prevalent social problem of gender-based street harassment, something that studies suggest most women and many LGBTQ individuals face.

Groups in countries like Afghanistan, France, Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua, Mexico, South Korea, and Zimbabwe will host various actions, both offline and online.

Stop Harcelement de Rue members will distribute information about street harassment at various Paris subway stations. CoHabita/Habitajes will paste 65 “Stop Telling Women to Smile” posters along 45 stations on Line 1 of the Metrobus in Mexico City.  Volunteers from HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Nepal will be chalking sidewalks and hanging posters around Kathmandu throughout the week. The Women Against Street Harassment Movement in Zimbabwe will be speaking at schools, handing out information, hanging posters, appearing on radio and television, and inviting people to sign a street harassment petition.

“Street harassment is a global problem that limits people’s access to public spaces,” said Holly Kearl, author two books and a national study on street harassment and the founder of the nonprofit organization Stop Street Harassment. “I am thrilled that so many people plan to band together to challenge this human rights violation and to advocate for safe public spaces for all.”

Stop Telling Women to Smile is a primary co-sponsor of the week and any interested people and groups can request PDFs of the famous “Stop telling women to smile” posters and paste them on walls in their community on April 17. “The idea behind the wheat pasting night is to create a night of solidarity,” founder Tatyana Fazlalizadeh said. “People from all over can participate in a night of action, knowing that hundreds of people in different parts of the world are doing the same thing.”

Events hosted in the United States include a rally in New York City; chalk walks in states like Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; workshops on bystander intervention, and the distribution of information about harassment on transit systems. The Washington, DC-area alone has eight scheduled events. The week falls within Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

There will be many virtual events as well, including a Google+ Hangout panel on April 12 at 7 p.m. EDT and six Tweet Chats (use hashtag #EndSH). Twenty groups will co-host a Tweetathon on April 14 to share facts and resources about street harassment throughout the day from seven time zones.

Any individual can help speak out against street harassment during the week simply by sharing stories on and offline. Visit www.MeetUsontheStreet.org for more information about the week and how to be involved.

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Stop Street Harassment is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting and ending gender-based street harassment worldwide through public education and community mobilization. SSH organizes International Anti-Street Harassment Week annually and helps activists with local campaigns through the Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program. They commissioned a 2014 nationally representative survey on street harassment in the USA.

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SSH Board Member Talks

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Several SSH board members spoke on panels and gave talks this week! Two of us also have upcoming talks. I’m speaking at NYU on April 8 and Lindsey Middlecamp is speaking at the Minnesota NOW Conference. 

If you are interested in having a board member speak at your event, see if there is one in your area and get in touch! HKearl @ stopstreetharassment.org.

SSH board member Maureen Evans Arthurs spoke on a panel titled Malcolm X Talks: Feminism and Intersectionality in the 21st Century in Maryland on March 30, 2015. It was organized by Hollaback! Bmore and the photo is by them, too.

I gave a workshop to sorority and fraternity members and gave a campus talk at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania on March 31, 2015. It was sponsored by the SU Women’s Center, Women’s Studies Department (Director Dr. Karol Weaver is pictured with me) and PanHellenic Council. Photo by Paul Weaver.

SSH board member Patrick McNeil spoke at George Washington University on April 1, 2015 about life after graduate school. Pictured with him are ’12 Women’s and Gender Studies master’s program graduates Ashley Badgley, Layne Amerikaner, and Alisa Chester.

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Iowa City Addresses Street Harassment

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Compared to most cities, people in Iowa City are doing a lot to address street harassment. Since 2006 there have been anti-harassment bus PSAs . The University of Iowa’s Women’s Resource Action Center (WRAC) has held events and awareness-raising demonstrations about street harassment and their staff are currently working with bars on how to address harassment in their venues. And last fall Stella Hart formed the Ending Street Harassment in Iowa City group which has held a public forum/discussion and conducted a bystander training. It also has an online discussion space.

Stella’s group and WRAC hosted me at WRAC’s building last evening for a lecture and informal Q&A about street harassment. For anyone who doubts that harassment is a problem in smaller towns or the Midwest, it is. They had stories to tell, just as people do in communities all over the world. Many fraternity men are offenders. Several people shared how they had tried to talk to the police about specific incidents and had gotten no where. I brought copies of the Iowa section of our Know Your Rights toolkit so they can use it to show police which laws DO address street harassment…but by the end of the night they were ready to plan action without the police.

Today they began putting their plan in place by creating a communications chain so that if anyone sees a harasser at the same spot (e.g. not passing by in a car but hanging out on a street corner or fraternity house front porch), they can rally people together to come out and tell the harasser to stop. Collective action. They also talked about doing sidewalk chalking on football game days because that is when street harassment is particularly bad…they  shared how they feel too unsafe to hold a march, rally or distribute materials on those days given that the harassers are mostly drunk and adrenalized.But they decided to try out chalking next fall and see how that goes. They also discussed asking the incoming new university president to sign a contact promising to address street harassment.

We ended the night by each making signs that either had something we could envision ourselves saying to harassers or general pro-respect messages.

Way to go Ending Street Harassment group and WRAC for addressing this important issue.

“Practice the golden rule. Stop street harassment!”

“Don’t be an ass. Don’t street harass!”

“I am not yours to claim. Stop Street Harassment”

“Don’t harass me!”

“I don’t go outside for you to look or comment on! I have places to go and people to meet!”

“Yeah, Don’t.”

“Did I ask you to do that?”

“And if I want to take a walk alone at night you will not make me feel unsafe.”

 

 

“Not today. Respect my space and don’t harass me!”

“Respect Our Community Humanity. Stop Street Harassment”

“Don’t harass me! It’s not okay”

“Respect yourself by giving me some respect.”

“RUDE!”

“Don’t harass me”
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UN Women march and campus talks

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Yesterday, I walked with members of the Brazil anti-street harassment group Chega de Fiu Fiu and our ally Ben of Voices of Men in the UN Women’s International Women’s Day march in New York City…. because street harassment is an issue we must address globally if we want to see equality for women!!

On Saturday, our board member Lindsey Middlecamp led a workshop on street harassment at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. She was thrilled by the attendance and engagement of the students.

And on Wednesday, I met with a senior seminar class at Shenandoah University to talk about street harassment, activism, and a career in the non-profit world. We also strategized ways to deal with harassers both on and off their campus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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