Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Public masturbation…not funny

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A man at a Starbucks in Chicago was charged with public indecency after being reported (and caught on video) fondling himself while staring at women patrons.

The Consumerist covered this story, and, as people who write online comments are apt to do in response to stories about street harassment, sexual assault, and all things gender-based, most people made light of this incident. They said things like “He was just practicing safe sex. Don’t hate. Masturbate.” and “As a regular starbucks customer, I am much more careful about my secret perversions & fondling.” and “Hey if someone wants to rub one out at Starbucks go for it. i wonder if that will end up as part of the froth to the next capp they serve.”

As far as I can tell, most comments were from men and they (unsurprisingly) neglected to consider how disgusted, disturbed, and even threatened a woman can feel as the recipient/target of such actions. Instead they treat what happened as a big joke. I like jokes. I don’t like men treating women in public spaces as though they exist to serve as their personal masturbatory tool. In the context of gender inequality and rape culture, I just don’t see the humor.

Thanks for the story tip, B

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A bus is not a hair cuttery

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Jared Walter, via true crime report

Okay this is weird. In at least three reported incidents, a 22-year old man in Portland, OR, decided to give unwanted haircuts to women riding his bus. The woman whose hair he cut on New Year’s Eve called 911 and he was arrested. He’s being charged with interfering with public transit, disorderly conduct and harassment (and also robbery because he’s a suspect in a string of neighborhood break-ins).

Umm creepy!

thanks to MRH for the story tip.

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Covered from head to toe, groping continues

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Women in Cairo. Image via the Boston Globe

I’m sick of hearing people blame women for street harassment by saying things like, “if only women covered up it wouldn’t happen.”

In many countries where women ARE completely covered, harassment occurs. 90 percent of women surveyed in 2009 in Yemen had been street harassed and most women wear a veil. Egyptian woman Hadeel al Shalchi wrote a great opinion piece for The National about the insane amount of street harassment in Egypt, and the following section discusses the issue of being covered and still being harassed:

“The onus in our society has largely lain on women to prevent sexual harassment. If a girl doesn’t cover her hair or wear very conservative clothing, then she’s obviously asking for it and wants the harassment, the prevailing attitude seemed to be.

As a result, more women began to cover up. The hijab and niqab became common in Egypt, not purely for religious reasons but also because women wanted to avoid the unpleasantness of being glared at by the opposite sex.

But when the harassment continued, Egyptian women knew there was something seriously wrong.

Covered from head to toe in black, they were still being groped, propositioned and annoyed. What more could they do? …

Three years ago, an amateur video of women in hijabs being attacked in downtown Cairo during a holiday event was made public. Shocked Egyptians were brought face to face with the ugly nature of harassment. Some mobile-phone images showed men tugging at young girls’ clothes. Others showed the girls being physically attacked.

This was real evidence of a very real problem. Those who had ignored what every woman knew could deny it no longer.

Women’s groups were emboldened to launch anti-harassment campaigns, teaching women that the problem was not their fault and encouraging them to persist in bringing complaints – even small ones – to the police. They were also urged to take self-defence classes and to use what they were taught on men who abused them in the street. …

In Egypt, sexual harassment will, most probably, continue to exist for a long time to come. Attitudes that allow such behaviour appear culturally ingrained. But increasingly women are waking up to this reality and beginning to reject it.

Women here are saying it loudly: enough to being groped on the subway, to being undressed with a look, to being followed to work. This must stop!“

Amen. Enough!! Street harassment MUST END and it will not end by requiring women to be completely hidden from view. Instead, men must stop harassing women and there must be cultural respect for women. What can you do? Here are a few ideas, feel free to share more in the comments.

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16 year-old attacked on subway, fights back

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Cyan Brown, via NY Daily News

One of the fans of Stop Street Harassment on Facebook brought the following horrific story to my attention, so I’m already breaking my holiday hiatus and quickly posting about it.

The NY Daily News is reporting that as many as eight men surrounded a 16-year old girl outside a restaurant in Queens and harassed her. They say there may have been “unwanted sexual advances” and the men continued them as she went into a subway station. She ran onto a subway car and the men followed her and dragged her off. During the struggle, she fatally stabbed one of the men, then ran back to the subway and got on. The men chased her but did not catch her. The stabbed man had a long list of convictions, including attempted murder, which makes the fact that they were trying to drag her off even scarier.

While the narrative of what happens makes it seem very clear that this was a hurrendous case of street harassment and she was defending herself to prevent who knows what else from happening (how would YOU respond if a group of 7-8 men tried to drag you away somewhere), but the article says a police officer only “suspects” she acted in self defense. So… is there more to the story or are they being overly cautious about naming what happened? Because this sounds exactly like self defense.

Unless they reveal a whole other situation they better not charge her with anything other than self defense. As the Facebook Fan who alerted me to this story said,

“I think it’s important that we contact the DA to ensure that charges are not brought against this woman. She was clearly a victim of street harassment. If she didn’t defend herself god knows what these thugs would have done to her.”

Read more at Holla Back NYC

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$100,000 for stoves in Sudan

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Women at refugee camps often face sexual assault from militants/rebels/fighters when they leave the camps to gather firewood to cook food and to sell. As a result of this problem, over the last few years groups like Oxfam International have been working on relevant initiatives, such as having guards accompany women and providing cooking stoves to refugees so they do not need to gather firewood. While of course ideally the goal is for all public spaces to be free from harassment and assault, in the meantime I am glad to know that this problem specific to women (given the division of labor) is being acknowledged and addressed.

This past weekend, Calling All Crows, a service organization that mobilizes musicians and fans to promote human rights, finished a year-long effort to raise $100,000 specifically to fund stoves for people at refugee camps. They donated it to Oxfam, and Oxfam will use it to provide 5,000 fuel-efficient stoves to Sudanese women. This is part of their overall goals to end violence against women.

With all the bad stories out there, it’s nice to read one that is positive and inspiring. Way to go Calling All Crows!

Calling All Crows, from their website
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