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It’s open season for shooting sperm at women

February 26, 2011 By HKearl

You may remember that last summer, Michael W. Edwards of Maryland was accused of spraying semen from a bottle onto women’s backs in Giant grocery stores and Michael’s craft stores in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At the time, Edwards admitted to the grossness.

When I heard about it, I was not only disgusted by his actions, but I also was annoyed at the reporting. The Washington Post author of the article about it kept mentioning how “normal” Edwards is and how he attends church, etc.

Big whoop-dee-doo. Maybe the writer would feel differently had Edwards shooted semen on HIM at a grocery store.

Well, someone on Facebook gave me a tip that Edwards was recently sentenced to three years in jail for two counts of second-degree assault. But because he attends church and otherwise follows the law, his sentence was reduced to probation, no jail time. The only silver lining is that he has to see a therapist during probation.

Now maybe prison wouldn’t have solved anything either, but shouldn’t he have some other punishment? Especially since it sounds like it was a hate crime.

Edwards claims his “actions” were the result of “misplaced anger after breaking up with his girlfriend.” So because he was upset over a break up, he bottled up some of his semen and went looking for innocent women in stores to shoot it at. That’s a hate crime against women. And yet, again, he faces virtually no consequences.

So guys, go ahead and load up. It’s open season for shooting sperm at women. Well, as long as you attend church, have no prior criminal record, and have “misplaced anger” against women.

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Filed Under: News stories Tagged With: grocery store sperm shooter, hate crime, michael w edwards

Street Harassment Snapshot: February 20, 2011

February 20, 2011 By HKearl

Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week and find relevant announcements and upcoming street harassment events.

Street Harassment Stories:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

You can read new street harassment stories on the Web from the past week at:

  • Stop Street Harassment Blog
  • HollaBack Atlanta
  • HollaBack Buenos Aires
  • HollaBack Chicago
  • HollaBack DC!
  • HollaBack France
  • HollaBack Israel
  • HollaBack London
  • HollaBack Mumbai
  • HollaBack NYC
  • HollaBack Portland
  • HollaBack SoCal

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

  • Deccan Herald, “‘There is no respect for women‘”
  • India Today, “Delhi: Man killed for shielding daughter from harassment“
  • Fox News, “Hollaback! at Harassment“
  • New American Media, “Letter From India: An “Eve-Teasing” Tragedy Stirs Outrage-and Shame“
  • After the harassment and sexual assault of CBS correspondent Lara Logan i Cairo became public, there were many articles and blog posts about street harassment in Egypt and beyond
    • Stop Street Harassment, “Street harassment in Egypt and Lara Logan“
    • Ms. Magazine, “Lara Logan and Egypt’s Next Revolution“
    • CNN, “Egypt’s harassed women need their own revolution“
    • Washington Post, “What happened to Logan was unacceptable“
    • The Daily Beast, “Egypt’s Women Rally Behind Lara Logan“
    • Guardian, “Adding insult to Lara Logan’s injury“
    • The Boston Globe, “No rights for women, no freedom in a nation“
    • Women’s E News, “Logan Attack Doesn’t Brand the Entire Middle East“
    • NPR, “Why Have many Comments About The Attack on Lara Logan Been Removed?“
    • Washington Post, “Egyptian women’s issues highlighted by Logan case“
    • HR Reality Check, “Women’s Human Rights in Egypt: Cautious Optimism and the Way Forward“
    • The Atlantic, “Street Harassment is Everywhere“
    • Huffington Post, “Egypt’s Ongoing Problem with Sexual Harassment“
    • Slate, “Why Lara Logan’s Sexual Assault is Demoralizing for Egyptian Women“
    • All Headline News, “CBS correspondent latest victim of sexual harassment, assault in Egypt“
  • The Times of India, “Eve-teasers thrash bus driver, conductor“
  • Washington City Paper, “The Needle: Valentine’s Play Edition“
  • Clutch Magazine, “Next Time a Street Harasser Bothers You, Hit Him With This“
  • FreshOutlook, “Street Harassment in the UK“
  • Herald Scotland, “Cat Steward on…hollaback, girls“
  • Ms Magazine, “At Last, SoCal Women Can Holla Back“
  • Next Magazine, “Under Siege Under Ground“

Events:

  • Feb. 24: Stop Street Harassment Book Talk, James Madison University (VA), 6:30 p.m., Miller 1101
  • Feb. 26: HollaBack Atlanta’s launch party
  • Feb. 26: BLANK_NOISE’s #actionheroes college network meeting in Bangalore, India
  • March 10: Town Hall & Community Forum on Mass Transit, NYC, 6 p.m.

Announcements:

New:

  • If you’re in London, submit street harassment stories for inclusion in the publication Langdon Oglar
  • Participate in a new study for Dr. Kimberly Fairchild
  • Check out the Catcaller Form by The Riot
  • htownhollaback Remember, we’re giving away a copy of @hkearl ‘s book “Stop Street Harassment” once the Facebook [group] hits 50 members! http://tinyurl.com/4n25j2h

On-going:

  • Have an encounter with gender-based violence on NYC mass transit to share? http://tinyurl.com/transitstory (via RightRides)
  • If you live in Washington, DC, take a street harassment survey for HollaBack DC!
  • If you’re a queer woman of color in New York City, please take this survey about your street harassment experiences for Kimberlynn Acevedo’s work on the topic
  • Are you in Egypt? Use HarassMap to report your street harassers
  • Have an iPhone? Download the Hollaback iPhone app that lets you report street harassers

10 Tweets from the Week:

  • kintoall I’m a bit concerned about the hooplah re-abuses of Muslim women & on street harassment. Come to the USA, & you will see the same. sorry2say
  • SarahDobbs Oh, good, street harassment. I thought this day wasn’t going shittily enough.
  • HitchDied Nice weather doesn’t make me hate running any less. Street harassment makes me hate it much, much more.
  • femmeniste “Damn girl. Mmmm.” Oh, great… looks like #StreetHarassment season came early. #Gross #NYC
  • natalieraymond I’d almost forgotten how much worse street harassment gets as soon as the big puffy coats come off.
  • Muhammad_J http://bit.ly/fI4yKT ‘Up to 100% of American women suffer street harassment.’ So let’s not bash #Egypt Arab/Muslims for Logan’s ordeal.
  • SparkerPants I usually chase aftr thm, proposng marriage. RT @GuyKawasaki: A questionnre 4 men who catcall womn http://is.gd/a1VTsh
  • hollyface Wow, in a 10 minute walk I got sleazed on twice. Street harassment is NOT COOL!
  • Alyssa4602 The prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual assault in #Egypt is one of reasons a revolution was needed.
  • Cairo_On_a_Cone #thistimenextyear THERE WILL BE NO SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE STREETS OF #EGYPT #Jan25 #tahrir #womenrights
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Filed Under: Events, hollaback, News stories, Resources, Stories, street harassment, weekly round up Tagged With: Egypt, eve teasing, hollaback, Lara Logan, sexual harassment, street harassment

Lara Logan and Egypt’s Next Revolution

February 16, 2011 By HKearl

Building on my blog post from last night, I wrote an article for Ms magazine about the attack on Lara Logan and how Egypt’s next revolution should be to address street harassment and public sexual assault!

An excerpt:

As disappointing as it is to see that street harassment is back—and even more devastating, to know through Logan’s story that so is public sexual assault—I see a glimmer of hope.

The people of Egypt, including women, know their power. I hope their next revolution will be to end gender-based harassment and assault. And I know that many there hope for the same.

After the Logan news broke, these were some of the Tweets I read:

  • @cpaschyn Women rise and fight misogyny, gender violence and sexual harassment in #Egypt. Take back your country. #LaraLogan #tahrir
  • @Cairo_On_a_Cone #thistimenextyear THERE WILL BE NO SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE STREETS OF #EGYPT #Jan25 #tahrir #womenrights
  • @Faridahelmy next on the agenda: sexual harassment #egypt #tahrir #revolution

This morning Mohamed Safi created a Change.org petition asking Egyptians to resist sexual harassment. Ending gender-based harassment and assault is the kind of revolution that every country needs.

You can also read similar cries for a revolution to end street harassment and assault in Egypt at CNN.com and The Daily Beast.

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Filed Under: News stories Tagged With: Egypt, Lara Logan, sexual assault, sexual revolution, street harassment

Street harassment in Egypt and Lara Logan

February 15, 2011 By HKearl

Image from CBS, taken moments before the Feb. 11 attack

Like many major cities around the world, there are high rates of gender-based street harassment against women in Cairo. A 2008 report by the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights found that 83 percent of Egyptian women experienced it and 98 percent of foreign women.

During the weeks of protests against Hosni Mubarak’s regime, I observed conversations on twitter and among my Egyptian Facebook friends that public sexual harassment was pretty much gone. Everyone was banding together. A miracle? Was Egypt cured of this global problem? But then once Mubarak stepped down, I started seeing comments about sexual harassment again.

Most notably, tonight, I read about how a mob of men harassed and then sexually assaulted CBS journalist Lara Logan last Friday, as she went through the crowds with her team to do her job, report on what was happening. A group of women and soldiers rescued her and she flew back to the United States on Saturday. She was then hospitalized due to her injuries.

The amazing journalist Mona Eltaahawy is tracking what people are saying about the attack on Logan, including in the context of harassment in Egypt: http://twitter.com/monaeltahawy

At this point, many of us are waiting for more news about who the attackers may have been and I know there is great hope that they were outlier “thugs” and not members of the peaceful revolution. But, given that the number of Egyptian men who openly admit to harassing women (more than 60 percent) and the repeat occurrence of mass harassment and sexual attacks on women during Eid, it’s hard to say.

What we can say, is no matter who did it, sexual harassment and assault is terrible and should never occur. It not only negatively impacts the survivor but can also make all women who hear about it feel less safe as women in public places. Logan is brave for sharing what happened, especially given the victim-blaming directed at her (“what did she expect to happen” and comments about her looks), and I hope her attackers are brought to justice.

Update (2/16): Here are three articles about how ending gender-based violence needs to be the next revolution in Egypt! The first is by me, for Ms magazine and the other two are on CNN.com and The Daily Beast.

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Filed Under: News stories Tagged With: Egyptian revolution, Lara Logan, Mona Eltaahawy, sexual assault, sexual harassment, street harassment

Street harassment snapshot: February 6, 2011

February 6, 2011 By HKearl

Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week and find relevant announcements and upcoming street harassment events.

Street Harassment Stories:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

You can read new street harassment stories from the past week on:

  • Stop Street Harassment Blog
  • HollaBack Atlanta
  • HollaBack Baltimore
  • HollaBack Buenos Aires
  • HollaBack Como
  • HollaBack DC!
  • HollaBack France
  • HollaBack Houston
  • HollaBack Israel
  • HollaBack London
  • HollaBack Mumbai
  • HollaBack NYC
  • HollaBack Ottawa
  • HollaBack Portland
  • HollaBack SoCal

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

  • Guardian, “Why sexism is no laughing matter, despite what the boys might say“
  • Mikyamasr, “Egyptians come together in time of crisis“
  • AFP, “Egyptian women well represented in Tahrir protest“
  • Just Out, “Portland Launches Hollaback Site to Combat Street Harassment“
  • NBC, “Up-Skirt Filming Suspect Caught at Dulles“
  • Dawn.com, “No more `eve-teasing`“
  • Baltimore Sun, “Fighting back: Stepping into the world of self-defense“
  • Boing Boing, “Hollaback: fighting street harassment, one uploaded nimrod at a time“
  • Sify News, “Bangladesh says ‘eve-teasing’ belittles sex crimes“
  • Feminist Law Professors, “Harassment Intersection: Gender, Race, Class“
  • The Beautiful Struggler, “Feminist Fight, Mars/Venus, Race Matters – Nobody Smiling v 2.0“
  • Jezebel, “The War Against Street Harassment Goes Global“
  • Prague Blog!, “My name isn’t Sweetheart – HOLLABACK!“

Events:`

  • Feb. 12: HollaBack Baltimore Launch Party, Metro Gallery, 1700 N. Charles Street, 8 p.m.
  • Feb. 13: Street harassment planning meeting, In Other Words, Portland, OR, 6 p.m.
  • Feb. 24: Stop Street Harassment Book Talk, James Madison University (VA), 6:30 p.m.
  • Feb. 26: HollaBack Atlanta’s launch party
  • Feb. 26: BLANK_NOISE’s #actionheroes college network meeting in Bangalore, India

Announcements:

New:

  • Have an encounter with gender-based violence on NYC mass transit to share? http://tinyurl.com/transitstory (via RightRides)
  • If you live in Washington, DC, take a street harassment survey for HollaBack DC!
  • RightRides is hiring for a Communications & Outreach Intern and a Fundraising & Development Intern

On-going:

  • HollaBack is seeking a program associate intern
  • If you live in the United States or in Iran, please take this survey about street harassment: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/januarystudy
  • Are you in Egypt? Use HarassMap to report your street harassers
  • Have an iPhone? Download the Hollaback iPhone app that lets you report street harassers

Twitter:

  • hollabackatl Boots and a parka are no armor against street harassment: http://bit.ly/fwLRPk
  • gallifreychic went for a short run down terrigal and can’t even escape the creepy white racist pricks who when sighting an asian, catcall “nihao” at you.
  • sophwarnes I’d almost forgotten about the time I saw a guy wanking on the bus in front of me. #SexualHarassment Made me feel sick.
  • RightRides #Women + #LGBTQ folks – call 888-215-7233 12a-3a Fri+Sat for a free safe ride home in #NYC #Bronx #Brooklyn #Queens #fem2 #woc #p2 #safety
  • jennmariel #streetharassment M estoy muriendo d calor con jean, pero no puedo ponerm un short xq algunos hombres gustan d hacerm sentir 1 pdazo d carne
  • iHollaback Just got off the phone with an awesome girl who wrote an electropop song about street harassment. Music video time!
  • thekateblack Hate icy weather. Creeper blocked my path with his cane, told me I should take him home. No escape route bc of snowbanks. #streetharassment
  • 01_gav On the 20 minute walk to the cinema, Jess and i get loudly perved on twice. #streetharassment #WHY
  • lorenacupcake Dear Street Person: Today is NOT the best day to follow me down the street screaming about how pretty I am. Fuck Off, LC #streetharassment
  • HollabackOttawa Even the folks who run the iHollabacks sometimes have to hollaback. That was me this morning at McDonald’s. Ugh. http://bit.ly/i3NPWw
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Filed Under: Events, hollaback, News stories, Resources, Stories, street harassment, weekly round up Tagged With: street harassment

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