The movie industry is still primarily run and owned by rich white men and it shows, right?

Generally women and girls are relegated to roles where they are to be looked at/desired or they are hell bent on getting a man. There are few roles for older women. Persons of color are often caricatures, stereotypes, and sidekicks, especially women of color. Apparently that’s how a lot of white men view us.

For this reason, I rarely go to the movies. Two of the few films I saw in theaters this year were “Fruitvale Station” and “Catching Fire.” On occasion, however, I watch movies about and written by white men for white men and I did last night when I watched “Anchorman 2” with my partner and two of his white male coworkers.

“Anchorman 2” had a few funny jokes, fewer than the first “Anchorman” film and the representation of women was way worse. Come on, did they really have to make Linda, the only black character, angry, sexually aggressive, and then apologetic to Ron Burgandy after he was racist at her family dinner?!? It wasn’t good on disability or animal rights either.

They also managed to make unfunny jokes about street harassment, sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, and murdering women. Is that some kind of record? Not only were they offensive but none of those jokes added to the plot line. I know they tried out tons of jokes during the script-writing and filming and I have a hard time believing that out of all of the jokes they must have tried out, those were the “best” ones for the film.

One of the worst moments for me was when news team sidekick Champ said (paraphrasing from memory), “Ron, do what men have been doing to women for thousands of  years, hit her,” as the audience around me laughed. Ha ha ha, domestic violence is so funny. NOT.

I have a really hard time imagining these jokes would have happened if there were more women involved with the film, especially in roles of authority where they could decide what jokes stay or go.

Increasing gender equality and decreasing gender violence in our society is such a complex and multifaceted endeavor. One element of it is changing the normalization of sexism, racism, and gender violence in the media we consume. Having more women involved in media and having diverse roles for female characters could help make that happen.

Here are resources for creating that change in media:

* Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media

* The Representation Project

Check out their video about how the media failed women in 2013

* Women, Action and the Media

* Women’s Media Center

* Women in Media & News

Today, HollaBack! and a Burt’s Bees customer named Colleen asked for the removal of a product that said, “Soak in the moisturizing seductiveness of shea butter and indulge in the scent of vanilla and rice milk. And let the catcalling commence.” The company agreed to not use it going forward! Yay! You can still sign the petition to show that you, too, don’t believe street harassment should be trivialized.

You can also sign SSH’s petition, written by our volunteer Julie Mastrine, to ask YouTube to take down the Simple Pickup’s station which teaches men how to street harass and assault women!

Find out about other successful campaigns to change company products or ads as part of our effort to change the social acceptability of street harassment worldwide!

Dear Health Magazine,

The June 2013 issue of your magazine included a blurb titled, “What Shouldn’t Make You Happy But Does,” and one of the items is, “Getting whistled at by construction workers. Yes, you’ve still got it.”

Whistling is just one of the many forms of street harassment that 80 to 100 percent of women worldwide experience regularly, often starting around puberty. Street harassment also includes unwanted sexual comments, following, flashing, and groping in public spaces.

We are disturbed that a magazine whose very title is “health” would suggest that street harassment is okay and a compliment. It’s not. Instead, it is detrimental to women’s health and it impedes gender equality.

1. It reinforces the belief that a woman’s worth is pleasing men.

A 2007 report by the American Psychology Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls found that girls are socialized by the media, parents, and peers to believe that their worth is their sexuality and ability to please men. Street harassment reinforces this belief. The report listed scores of negative effects from the sexualization, including on girls’ and young women’s physical and mental health.

2. It contributes to self-objectification, which has many negative health outcomes.

A study in the Journal of Social Justice Research found that street harassment was related to self-objectification. Multiple studies have linked self-objectification with an increase in rates of depression, anxiety and eating disorders as well as lower academic achievement.

3. It makes women feel less comfortable in public spaces.

Women never know which person whistling at them may then yell obscenities at them, or follow them, or attack them. Most women have an underlying  feeling of dread and fear when a man they do not know approaches them or sexually objectifies them in a public space. Street harassment and the fear of sexual assault typically make women feel less comfortable being in public spaces compared with men, especially when they are alone.

4. It causes women to change their lives.

Most women who experience street harassment, especially if they experience it often, change their lives in various ways to try to avoid it in the future. They may change their routes or routines or quit hobbies. Notably, of the 811 women who took a survey for a book on street harassment, 19 percent had moved neighborhoods and 9 percent had changed jobs because of harassers along the commute. Also, related to health, 24 percent said they paid to exercise in a gym instead of outdoors on at least a monthly basis and 10 percent had gained weight or kept on weight at least once as a strategy to try to avoid street harassment.

Additionally, street harassment – including whistling – impedes gender equality because it reinforces the belief that women should be pretty, not smart, compliant, not assertive, and that they should stay home instead of being in public places. Surely these are not messages you wish to support.

Instead of suggesting that street harassment is a compliment and okay, we hope Health magazine will publish an article in the future about the negative health outcomes of street harassment, why it is important for people to take action to stop street harassment, and what they can do.

Sincerely,

Holly Kearl, founder of Stop Street Harassment and author of Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women.

Co-Signers:

Collective Action for Safe Spaces

Defend Yourself

The Best Defense Program

Everyday Feminism

Everyday Victim Blaming

Feminist Peace Network

Hollaback! Baltimore

Hollaback! Brussels

Hollaback! Denver

Hollaback! Des Moines

Hollaback! Hamilton

Hollaback! Ottawa

Hollaback! Winnipeg

MasculinityU

National Council of Women’s Organizations

One Angry Girl Designs: “International Fashion Diva”

One Less Victim

She’s Somebody’s Daughter

UniteWomen

White Ribbon Campaign

Women, Action, and the Media (WAM!) Vancouver

Women’s Views on News

YWUA

Sara Alcid

Kate Appleby

Brooke Applegate

Eleanor Ball

Claire Biggs

Elizabeth Bolton, SSH board member

Katherine Broendel

Holly Brown

Nikki Cassidy

Kori Cioca

Sean Crosbie

Mandy Damon

Shaun Day

Samantha DeHoyos

Wendy Felton

Janet Good

Angela Hattery

Kristen Holcomb

Kerri Faith Kellerman, Activist, Scientist, Poet

Alan Kearl

Serena Kelly

Heidi Lentini

Matt Lentini

Salvatore Lentini

Rachel M

Amanda Mabry

Melissa Markotsis

Ebony Marshman

Rickelle Mason

Julie Mastrine

Jasmine Mathineer

Stephanie McAleer

Bonnie McCammond, Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Advocate; survivor

Erin McKelle

Patrick Ryne McNeil, anti-street harassment activist, writer

Ece Okar

Kelly Ormsby

Tressa L. Paquette

Nabin Kumar Pati

Salem Pearce

Georgette Pierre

Emily Resnick

Linda Sarsour ‏

Katie Schmalzel

Jenn Scott

Kimberley Anne Shults

Victoria Shuttleworth

Ursula Utsaha Singh

Tammy Stauffer

Larissa Dalton Stephanoff

Amber Stewart

Julia Strange

Lauren Taylor

Adrienne Tremain

Nikki Ummel

Patricia Valoy

Pavlina Valovitz

Jennifer Wallis

Beckie Weinheimer

Anna Whaley

Emily Williams

Abe Louise Young

_________________________________________________________

I submitted a Letter to the Editor and I sent a copy of the above in letter form to people at the magazine.

Take Action:

You can write your own letter to them too and also, here is a suggested tweet: Dear @goodhealth, #streetharassment is not a compliment, as implied in June issue, but detrimental 2 women’s health! http://tinyurl.com/pqmpml3

NOTE: I was originally told the blurb was found in Women’s Health Magazine, but on June 25, I learned it’s in the June 2013 issue of Health Magazine. Apologies to Women’s Health for this error.

H/T to @CuratorOfCuriosities

A few weeks ago, when I launched the “Companies that Trivialize Street Harassment” webpage, SSH community member @DaniParadis alerted me to the Skirt Chaser 5k, where women begin the race before men and the tagline is “Chase. Catch. Party.”  She and I both felt the “chase and catch” language and name sounded creepy and predatory and also could be triggering to women who have actually been chased by men while running.

I e-mailed the company about my concern, blogged about it, Danielle wrote an article about it, and several of us posted information on social media.

Nicole Molzahn DeBoom, the founder of the race, and the founder of Skirt Sports, was responsive and asked to set up a call to discuss it. Today, SSH board member Elizabeth Bolton (a runner) and I (another runner) talked with her by phone.

During the call, I told her more about the work of SSH and what street harassment is and why this issue matters. Then she gave us background information about her, the company, and the race.

She was a pro-triathlete for a number of years and then she founded Skirt Sports in 2004. The idea behind the company was to offer women more clothing options with the hope that if they are wearing something they like and feel good wearing, they will be more likely to feel comfortable exercising and actually exercise.

Nicole founded the Skirt Chaser 5k in 2007, in part to move extra inventory by giving participants skirts and also to create a fun race connected to the brand. People in relationships who run it often wager with their significant other about who will beat the other (with women starting first) and people who are single can get stickers on their bibs to say they’re open to meeting someone at the race. This key component of consent was something I didn’t see in the messaging online, so I was very glad to hear this. Nicole told us that about 70-75 percent of race participants in most of the Skirt Chaser races are female and that the race is so popular, there are many copy-cat races across the country.

Then we talked about the race name and marketing. She noted that this year they had a new team working on the promotional materials and that, once we brought it to their attention how predatory/creepy the new tagline sounded (“chase, catch, party”) they agreed.  They’ve already removed that tagline from the materials for all of the races and they removed the word “chase” from copy about the race (except from the race name). She is open to hearing ideas for how to promote the race with language that is truer to what the race stands for and what actually happens at it (consensual fun).

Also, SSH board member Liz rightly pointed out the heteronormativity of the race with its assumptions that people are straight, that women are slower than men, and that only women want to or should wear skirts. Nicole said that LGBQT people and relationships are welcome and that anyone can choose to or not to wear skirts.

While I would love for the race name itself to be changed, I understand that would be much harder to do, especially since it’s become a brand that has been around for six years and few people have complained. Changing the tag line and trying to focus more on the consensual fun that takes place at the race is significant and I’m grateful that Nicole took the time to listen to our concerns and acted on them. Hopefully the additional new messaging that is being crafted can emphasize consent and can also be more blatantly inclusive of LGBQT people/relationships.

Do you have ideas for a tagline or messaging?