Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

What were you wearing when you were sexually harassed?

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Yesterday Jezebel asked this question in an informal poll on their website. Today they posted the results:

I clicked several of the choices and I also clicked “other” and wrote in running clothes because I’ve been harassed the most while running.

Some of the other “other” options they listed include:

  • while picking my nose
  • in a bar, in a car, in a hat, on a mat…
  • carrying stacks of books around from the library
  • in scout uniform, in overalls and in granny jumpers
  • wearing a hijab
  • walking, waiting for a bus, generally being female
  • wearing USMC camo uniform
  • with women/with my girlfriend/at pride and/or queer events
  • walking to a restaurant with my parents at age 13
  • picking up dog poop
  • giving a guy a lapdance.
  • doing the time warp
  • in an ambulance after I broke my LEG.
  • While at the top of a 20 foot ladder.
  • entering a house of worship
  • Unbathed in the aftermath of a hurricane by out of state rescue workers.
  • dressed as the Virgin Mary (not a joke)
  • karate uniform
  • dressed as a toy soldier for a production of The Nutcracker, at age 12
  • crying my eyes out over a family death
  • walking my son in stroller; attending a pro-choice lobby day at my state capital
  • wearing my Arby’s uniform
  • while having a job interview at an outside cafe
  • crying/ about to get an abortion
  • Like a fucking Amish lady
  • As a 9 year old, wearing overalls.
  • with horse-manure stains on my clothes and hay in my hair
  • wearing ann taylor
  • in a gargoyle costume (it was Halloween, and no, I wasn’t a “sexy gargoyle.”

In India, Blank Noise collects articles of clothing to show how men harass women in all sorts of clothes and that women “Never Ask For It.” This poll demonstrates the same thing. What is so frustrating to me about gender-based harassment compared to other forms of harassment is how much time we have to spend undoing victim-blaming, showing that this is an issue that women don’t bring on themselves, and proving its existence.

As hard as it may be for some people to believe or to have to face, the reality is that every day women are harassed by men just because we are women, not because of what we wear!! This is a societal problem and it must end before women will ever have a chance of achieving equality with men.

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Tokyo subway gropers organize online

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I’m conducting research for a street harassment article and I’ve gotten totally sidetracked by a story that escaped my attention last September.

As I’ve noted before, men groping women on the Tokyo subway system is a huge problem. There are even women-only cars to try to combat it. Well, last September Tokyo stepped it up a notch to hold “Groping Prevention Week” because men were organizing online and plotting out the best places to grope women!

Via MSN:

“The growing problem of groping on public transit has been exacerbated by the internet, as Japanese authorities have reported there are over a hundred websites in Japan designed for gropers — to swap information on the best train lines and travel times to cop a feel, and exchange stories and images of sneaky squeezes.

Guilty gropers face a fine of $6,000 and up to six months in prison, but it is believed that thousands of women keep uninvited train touches quiet due to modesty.”

Via Newser:

“Some gropers, encouraged by the websites, have been organizing into gangs to surround a victim while accomplices block the view of fellow passengers. Police warn that convicted gropers face up to 6 months in prison and a $6,000 fine. The crackdown—described as “groping prevention week”—snared its first groper within minutes: a 30-year-old man charged with grabbing a 15-year-old girl.”

Via Japan Today. High school girls help raise awareness about groping on the subway.

Via Japan Today:

“The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department launched an anti-groping campaign on Monday, with some 200 people including high school girls handing out fliers and tissues at Ikebukuro station and plain-clothed officers being posted aboard trains on lines which run through Tokyo.

Police said that plain-clothed male and female officers trained in anti-pickpocketing and other crime-prevention measures would patrol carriages [and] they would beef up their uniformed presence at major stations nine lines…Police said the number of incidents is increasing, and there have already been nearly 1,000 reported cases of groping or photos being taken up skirts in the first half of this year.”

So gropers have figured out how to use the Internet and are using it to get organized? Hmm. It is a high tech country and look at Japanese games like RapeLay…I guess it was inevitable. Let’s hope the crackdown by police lasted longer than a week (can’t tell from my google searches) so more of these idiots are arrested and others are deterred.

And let’s hope that would-be-gropers in other countries don’t get any ideas about organizing. Although, maybe that would be better. If we found their sites and figured out their plots, it would make it easier to fight back and rally together protesters, police, and the media to shame and arrest them! Because that’s one of the worst things about street harassment (including groping), not knowing when or where it will happen and then being too shocked and paralyzed to do anything when it does. So please, harassers, if you’re going to grope, stalk, and harass us, at least let us know so we can be prepared to fight back.

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Flashers, masturbators, and gropers beware

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Guys who feel like masturbating, flashing, or groping people on the subway better think twice unless they want to get caught and charged with a crime. Thanks to cell phone cameras, it’s easier than ever for people to snap photos of perpetrators and report the crimes.

HollaBack NYC has long advocated for the use of cell phone pictures to shame harassers and report those who cross the line to criminal activity. In fact, the idea for the blog was born after a woman in NYC used her cell phone to snap a picture of a subway masturbator and report him.

[Update: If you’re in the Astoria area of NYC, look out for this alleged subway sexual assaulter and if you see him, contact the police. The woman snapped his picture and has reported him]

A few months ago in Washington, D.C., a photo of a metro station upskirter and groper posted on HollaBack DC! helped lead to his arrest.

Via CNN

And now in Boston, CNN reports that a MBTA rider’s cell phone picture posted on Twitter led to the arrest of a subway flasher.

“Rider Nay Khun was riding the train Wednesday afternoon when he spotted the suspect ‘fidgeting with his crotch area with his zipper open and his penis exposed,’ according to the MBTA.

Khun immediately posted to his Twitter account a photo of the man, saying ‘pervert on the 2nd car of the red line … help me report him.’

The man is a known offender, MBTA police told CNN affiliate WHDH.

He was arrested Friday for open and gross lewdness, according to a statement from MBTA police.”

Nice work Khun and a big thank you to the Boston transit authority and police for taking this issue seriously.

No matter where you live, if you can, take pictures of harassers and post them online. If they grope, stalk, threaten, or masturbate at you, report them! Let’s use technology to our advantage and put these creeps on notice. They should know there will be consequences for their actions.

(Thanks Violet Kittappa, Director of Research and Development for Hollaback NYC, for the CNN story tip)

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Weekly Round Up: August 8, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

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

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

10 Street Harassment Tweets from the Week:

  • adamfishpoet If you suffer #streetharassment, could you tweet giving location, and then tweeters who follow you could mass-report it?
  • hollabackdc reader at last nite’s event said, “when i read about street harassment, it’s not a big deal. but when it happens to you, it’s paralyzing.”
  • ABookishBeemer Nothing feels better than standing up to bullies. #streetharassment #feminism
  • ZoeBW I need to be able to feel safe walking down the street in broad daylight. #streetharassment #DC
  • MarianneDiNaps Bus driver watched me flip off guy harassing me, then lectured me on how “pretty girls need to learn to take a compliment” #streetharassment
  • CatCall Men: 99% of the time I make eye contact…I am just letting you know that I will be able to assist in making the police sketch.
  • IamHazelMay Creepy guys catcall me. Don’t care. Creepy guys catcall my daughter. Never knew I could snarl and go all ninja so fast. Yata!
  • CTrouper: @iHollaback Lovely new little online London #hollaback site http://bit.ly/9M1EgA #hollaBIKE
  • Snufkin Is it National Street Harassment week? Because I’ve had 2 creepy incidents in 3 days. It’s like being in Reno on North VA St.
  • hollabackdc Because street harassment is underacknowledged, many ppl think it’s okay. Help stop this with your vote: http://pep.si/c39T2R

Resource of the Week:

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Weekly Round Up: August 1, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

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

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

10 Street Harassment Tweets from the Week:

  • Mdotwrites Just had a street harassment moment on Rhode Is. + 3rd. I felt Like Oprah in Color Purple right before she goes to jail.
  • ethuiel Is barking the new catcall? Twice or thrice I would shrug, but this is confusing – I thought “woof” applied to dogs, not girls?
  • lpipes just angrily confronted a man who was following me down the street taking pics of me #HARASSMENT/STALKING
  • mmmbutters @blondemonde someone catcalled me from a PROFESSIONAL truck, so I called the number & told their boss.
  • tromano #1 reason I do not miss living in nyc? continuous sexual harassment on the street. continuous http://hollabacknyc.blogspot.com/
  • RENEGADE_C Working downtown equals street harassment. #LeaveMeTheFuckAlone
  • ShelbyKnox Reps from @ihollaback talking about street harassment. Male rep: ” I lived in a different city than female friends…it was a power dynamic”
  • Hkearl Connections between street harassment and sex work http://tinyurl.com/26f7b36
  • KiangaEllis @iHollaback I’m different since reading about you. I believe together we can change the culture. Women will go froth harassment free
  • Chris__Richards Washington ladies: Does DC have the worst street harassment in America? Seems insanely over the top here.

Resource of the Week:

  • The website “A Woman in Cairo” (focuses on public sexual harassment in Cairo)
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