Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Chemical Castration for Sex Criminals?

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Manuel da Cruz kidnapped Marie-Christine Hodeau while she was jogging near a forest, 30 miles south of Paris, France, last week. She was able to call the police from the trunk of the car and gave them the make and registration of the vehicle. Cruz killed her before police could help (she actually escaped at one point when he stopped to change cars but he caught her again). The articles I read did not say if she was sexually assaulted too; it does not seem like it. The information she provided led to his arrest and the police recovered her body in the forest.

This is the extra kicker: Cruz, a father of four, had been sentenced to 11 years in prison for the kidnap and rape of a 13-year-old girl in early 2000s, but he was released seven years later (and he returned to the same place where his victim lives)!

Rightly so, this case is generating an outcry against the French judicial system.

It’s also generating pressure for the “hardening of a law introduced in 2005 which allows sexual offenders to volunteer for so-called ‘chemical castration’ – the use of anti-hormone treatment to reduce or destroy the sexual appetite.” This is already used in Germany, Belgium, and Denmark.

Last week, the justice minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, said that “she would propose a draft law by the end of this month to toughen the existing legislation. She said, however, that chemical castration would remain ‘voluntary.'”

I know very little about this topic, but I’ve found out that chemical castration is reversible and is used to diminish or switch off the libido/sex drive, but that only lasts as long as the treatment. This legislation and mindset suggests that rapists rape because of an uncontrollable sex drive – but aren’t issues like power and control more at play? And if so, will chemical castration really help?

What do you know/think?

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Girls in Illinois face assault on the streets

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This breaks my heart.

Many girls in Chicago and Illinois “face serious violence in their lives,” including physical and sexual abuse, threats and injury in school, and assault on the streets, according to a new study called the “Status of Girls in Illinois.”

A Chicago Tribune article about the study included the following story:

“Eighteen-year old Chelsea Whitis tries to forget what happened that night two summers ago. While walking near her family’s home in southwest Evanston, a man grabbed her from behind and dragged her into a nearby alley. He ran off when a car turned into the alley.

Now a senior at Lane Technical High School in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood, Whitis keeps memories of the attack bottled up inside. She hasn’t had any professional assistance to help her cope.

‘I just feel like I’m never going to be safe,’ she said. ‘I’m so close to my house and I get attacked. … I never feel safe.'”

Young Womens Action Team members
Young Women’s Action Team members

Now Whitis  is a member the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team and working to raise awareness about street harassment and domestic violence.

During my book research, I’ve come across too many women who similarly never feel safe. One of my chapters is devoted to women’s fear of attack in public and all of the ways they alter their lives to try to avoid it. It’s really important for people to understand that street harassment isn’t complimentary or harmless. For one thing, it reminds women over and over that they are vulnerable to attack and it seriously impacts their mobility and sense of safety. And for another, the harassment can include or escalate into assault and even murder. So yeah, that’s not harmless at all!

The Illinois study recommends that policymakers pay closer attention to the stories that girls share about their experiences so they know how to better address their needs, their fears. I agree 100%. Street harassment is rarely discussed outside of feminist and womanist circles as being a problem and it must be understood as such on a wider scale before we can really work to end it.

So, do you have any stories you want to share?


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My turn to dish out some harassment

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Samantha Krotzer wrote a great street harassment opinion piece for The Temple News Online. She discusses how much she dislikes men’s “catcalls.”

“It was at that moment I decided this: I have had it. I am a female, not a feline, and the “catcalls” men make are offensive and a form of sexual harassment.”

She talks about what’s behind their actions.

“What they say is meaningless,” said Laura Levitt, director of the women’s studies program at Temple. “They use the power of the anonymous guy to make comments to you.”

Of course, not all men disrespect women in this manner, but Levitt said some men feel they have a heterosexual masculinity privilege that gives them the right to say offensive things to women.

“It is some sort of entitlement for men,” Levitt said. “It is really not OK.”

Krotzer experiments with catcalling at men to show how stupid it is.

“As men walked by, I held nothing back. I whistled at a middle-aged man, made indecent grunts at teenage boys and even snuck in a “nice butt” to a man in a business suit.

Guess how many positive reactions I received. Zero. Instead, I received looks that screamed, “Are you insane?” And a couple of men even told me I was being rude and immature.”

And she shares some ideas for how women can take back some of the power harassing men try to take from them.

For example, after a man catcalled her, she asked him where he was going to take her for dinner (since he must just be simply enamored with her to harass her on the street). He was surprised, stuttered for a few minutes, then said “Olive Garden.” He clearly wasn’t expecting to take her anywhere.

One of Krotzer’s friends says it’s safer to stand up to harassers by ignoring them. Levitt suggests whistling in the faces of men who harass you. Krotzer closes by saying, “Maybe blowing a whistle in these guys’ faces will help them realize how annoying their comments are.”

Have you tried any unusual tactics to challenge harassing men?

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Speed Chase Heroes?

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A man in Ottawa, Canada, picked up a woman who needed a ride and then demanded sexual favors. She managed to escape and called 911. While she was on the phone, crying, and still escaping, two men in a car narrowly missed hitting her. When they stopped to check on her, they heard her talking to the 911 dispatcher. When they found out that the man in the car nearby had tried to attack her, they told her to get in the car. They began a high speed chase of the attacker, while working with a police dispatcher over the phone. After 20 minutes, they managed to chase him into a police barricade and the police arrested him.

The high speeds they traveled have caused some people to denounce their actions (and question the dispatcher who knew they were driving at an extremely fast speed and did not tell them to stop), but others are hailing them as heroes for providing the woman with a safe place after being attacked and for doing all they could to ensure her attacker would be caught.

With all of the depressing stories on this blog, I think it’s nice to know there are guys out there who not only won’t take advantage of a somewhat vulnerable and unknown woman but also will help bring justice against a would-be assaulter.

Thoughts?

(My thanks to daily reader mrh for the story tip)

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Egyptian women fight street harassment with karate

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“What should be a leisurely stroll through Cairo’s streets, for some women has become more like a gauntlet run… Campaigners say the male-dominated society leaves women feeling vulnerable and unprotected by traditional forces like the police.

Al Jazeera’s Amr el-Khaky met one group in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, who are taking the fight into their own hands: they are taking lessons in karate.” – AlJazeeraEnglish

I’ve written about street harassment in Egypt a lot across this past year. To add to the list — here’s an interesting video called “Egyptian women fight harassment” on the AlJazeerEnglish youtube channel that’s definitely worth a look. Many related videos show up after the end of the video clip if you’re interested.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb3x39Ud7cI]

 

 

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