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New Transit Ads in Boston Focus on Persons with Disabilities

November 4, 2016 By HKearl

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has launched a new wave of ads! 800 posters will be on public transit until February.

Via Boston Globe:

“The campaign is explicitly inclusive of people with disabilities, both as people who may experience sexual harassment and as people who can intervene to prevent sexual violence,” Yen-Ewert said. “National and state studies show that people with disabilities experience sexual violence at two times the rate compared to people without disabilities.”

Karen Schneiderman, the senior advocacy specialist at the Boston Center for Independent Living, said the campaign “raises awareness about the issue of sexual violence against people with disabilities and the importance of having services that are accessible to all. I also appreciate that this campaign highlights people with disabilities in the role of assisting others, not just as people who are victimized.”

Learn more at MBTA.com.

Way to go, Boston! I also appreciate how they say they can be people who intervene, as well people who experience sexual harassment, recognizing they can have agency and take action.

MBTA has a nearly nine year history of anti-harassment ads. The first wave of ads went up in 2008, the next in 2009 and then the next in 2013. I’m glad to see them continue tackling this issue. Kudos also goes to the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center for their partnership on the ads over the years.

Runner’s World Focuses on Street Harassment

October 27, 2016 By HKearl

I ran my first 5k when I was 8 years old and I began running long distances in middle school. In total, I have 25 years of running under my belt. I use running for stress relief, fitness, to enjoy nature, and to train for races. It’s also a great way to do sightseeing in a new place because you can see more than you can walking but you don’t go zipping by too fast like you might in a car. Sadly, street harassment has marred many of my runs. At least hundreds of men have verbally harassed me, a few have done worse. In my 20s, I realized this is not unusual for women runners. It’s just one more way that we lack safe and equal access to public spaces.

I am so grateful that Runner’s World tackled street harassment and runners by conducting a survey of 4,670 runners and writing a feature article for their December issue. In an unprecedented move, they released the survey results and article online last night. SSH supporter and journalist Michelle Hamilton is the author of the article.

Here is an excerpt, do read the full piece!

Two of the questions -- black is men, grey is women — *Two of the survey questions — black is men’s response, grey is women’s response*

“43 percent of women at least sometimes experience harassment on the run, according to a recent RW survey, compared with just 4 percent of men. In the vast majority of cases, it’s not life-threatening. But it is pervasive, and it’s upsetting, and it’s most likely happening to you or someone you know.

A man will look a woman up and down as she runs past. A driver will shout a come-on, laughing with his friends as they speed away. A person on a bike or in a car will follow a woman, and she might dart down a side street to escape. Even if nothing like this happens most days, knowing that it (or something worse) could happen causes stress. As the recent national dialogue surrounding Donald Trump’s sexist comments and alleged assaults brought to light, almost all women—runners or not—have endured unwanted sexual attention. And no matter how swift a woman’s pace, it’s impossible to outrun harassment….

There’s no immediate, easy solution, because sexual harassment is a complex societal problem. But open and honest conversations about the issue—ones that include men as well as women—are a step in the right direction. “Too often, street harassment is normalized and minimized,” Kearl says. “Listening to people’s stories with empathy is important because these actions signal that street harassment is a serious issue.” Kimmel encourages men to speak up when they witness sexist treatment. “If I say nothing, even though I don’t like the behavior,” he says, “other men assume I support it.” Even if female runners can’t be entirely spared of harassment, disrupting the status quo is a place to start.”

South Africa: The Safe Ride Campaign

October 23, 2016 By HKearl

Nyasha Joyce Mukuwane, Johannesburg, South Africa, SSH Blog Correspondent

taxi3 — Pictures courtesy of Sonke Gender Justice

Abusive male passengers and taxi drivers can make riding public transport in Johannesburg a harrowing experience for a woman. More often than not, a woman faces harassment or sexual abuse aboard a taxi. Taxi drivers and the queue marshals have a notorious reputation for this and there have been many recorded and unrecorded incidents of verbal abuse, harassment, physical violence, sexual assault and rape of girls and women whilst using taxis. One lady spoke to me about how some men thought it funny to poke her breast and how paralysed with fear she felt as she could not stand up and leave the taxi. The other passengers simply looked on and ignored that she was being harassed.

Fortunately, there is a new campaign to change this.

Sonke Gender Justice is a NGO working across Africa to strengthen government, civil society and citizen capacity to promote gender equality, prevent domestic and sexual violence, and reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. On the 17^th of August 2016, they partnered with the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO), with support from the Danish Embassy, to launch the Safe Ride campaign. The goal of the campaign is to prevent and respond to the abuse of women and girls at the hands of taxi personnel, including drivers and queue marshals.

The Johannesburg launch of the campaign was the beginning of a year-long programme that will traverse the country to educate the taxi community about how they can help prevent and stop harassment and sexual violence against women and children. Over the next year, supported by funding from the Danish Embassy, the Safe Ride campaign will host events with taxi drivers, queue marshals and commuters in all nine provinces. They are also planning a few three day intensive training sessions for drivers and their assistants on gender-based violence, how to report such incidents and where survivors can go to for help.

This is one of the most innovative campaigns in Johannesburg to challenge patriarchal beliefs, change the way that taxi drivers deal with street harassment, and promote active citizenry against street harassment.

Nyasha is the public awareness coordinator at the Nisaa Institute for Women’s Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the main goal is counselling and sheltering survivors of domestic abuse. She has edited two books by survivors that are available to download for free from the website www.nisaa.org.za.

Trump’s Locker Room Banter is Our Life

October 11, 2016 By HKearl

A recently released 2005 recording of American presidential nominee Donald J. Trump engaging in what he calls “locker room banter” about forcing himself on women has prompted many people to speak out against his behavior and his excuse of his behavior.

For instance, famed Anita Hill wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe today saying,

“Trump’s language, which he and others have tried to minimize as “locker room banter,” is predatory and hostile. To excuse it as that or as youthful indiscretion or overzealous romantic interest normalizes male sexual violence….Today’s conversation that must extend far beyond the presidential election. We have made strides in how we think about sexual violence but we’re nowhere close to done.”

The most visible response is happening over Twitter. On Friday night, author Kelly Oxford tweeted, “Women: tweet me your first assaults. They aren’t just stats. I’ll go first: Old man on city bus grabs my ‘pussy’ and smiles at me, I’m 12.”

By Saturday morning, as many as 50 women tweeted their stories per minute of first-person accounts of sexual violence with the hashtag #notokay. By Monday afternoon, nearly 27 million people had responded or visited Oxford’s Twitter page.

Incredible, but not surprising. A 2014 study we commissioned GfK to conduct nationally in the USA showed that nearly 1 in 4 women had experienced unwanted sexual touching by a stranger while in a public space.

I can add to that number. When I was 18 years old and standing on the sidewalk in front of a cross country teammate’s friend’s house a few blocks from my college campus, a group of men walked past me. A man at least twice my size reached out and grabbed my crotch, then laughed and walked on. You don’t ever forget the humiliation and fear and disgust of something like that happening. And at the same time, I always feel “lucky” that I have never had to live through a more severe violation.

These are the kinds of stories women everywhere have lived through. To us, it is not locker room banter. It is traumatic, upsetting and memorable. We remember. Our bodies remember.

Anyway, I am really glad to see this huge response to the really alarming evidence of what we many of us suspected: Trump is a dangerous, entitled misogynist who does not respect women (nor persons of color, immigrants, etc). Surely now he will never be president. Surely now the American people will put women’s rights and respectability above any other characteristic they deem presidential about him. Surely.

Two Hours of Walking as a Woman in Costa Rica

October 4, 2016 By HKearl

Here’s a new video about street harassment from Rene Montiel Bonilla, a Costa Rican filmmaker, who filmed a woman (Laura Leon) walking through San Jose for two hours.

Bonilla explained that 61.7% of the 2.4 million women in Costa Rica have reported being victims of street harassment and that she “decided to make a short documentary to do something about it,” according to QCostaRica.

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