Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

#DoYouKazoo Anti-Street Harassment Action by #BreakthroughCatalysts

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Prepare Inc. - Debunk Myths 5A committed group of people, brought together by Breakthrough Catalyst trainings, strive to use collective knowledge, energy, connections and commitment to end/reduce street harassment through cultural change. Breakthrough Catalysts and friends want to help raise awareness and promote a culture shift that discredits common street harassment myths and provide easy and effective responses to invalidate them with our posters and social media. We stand in solidarity with other organizations and individuals during Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Anti-Street Harassment Week, from April 10th to 16th, 2016.

Prepare Inc. - Debunk Myths 3We chose the symbol and sound of a Kazoo to promote the idea that tools work best to call out rape culture and myths about gender violence, not to prevent it. The use of the Kazoo is inspired by a joke by comic Cameron Esposito, who wishes for a rape Kazoo instead of a rape whistle, in the hopes that its sound is more appealing and will garner help if she is attacked.

Prepare Inc. - Debunk Myths 4Key concepts:

  • Reinventing the “rape whistle” as a Kazoo
  • “Sounding the alarm” about the issue of street harassment
  • Changing culture through positive humor (vs. put-down humor) as Kazoos are often thought of as whimsical, fun, non-serious musical instruments anyone can play. Kazoos have a history of use as tools of social protest.

Feel free to use and share these images with the hashtag #DoYouKazoo!

Prepare Inc. - Debunk Myths

Karen Chasen is the Vice President of Prepare Inc.

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Video: Let’s Talk about Street Harassment (Montreal)

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What is street harassment like in Montreal, Canada? Women in Cities International, in collaboration with Lucie Pagès and Noémie Bourbonnais, took to the streets to find out over International Anti-Street Harassment Week. Here is the video highlighting what they found out, in both French & English!

Parlons du harcèlement de rue//Let’s Talk About Street Harassment from Women in Cities International on Vimeo.

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Guardian Tackles Online Abuse on Their Site

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Most people, especially women, who write about feminist topics like street harassment and rape culture have dealt with unpleasant and even harassing comments, tweets and emails in response to their piece/s. I know I have.

Fortunately now there are many efforts underway to address online harassment, and one of the latest is at the Guardian. Earlier this month, they started an initiative to make their comments sections better:

“We need to do more to facilitate respectful discussions and constructive debate everywhere on the site, as well as to protect our staff from the abuse and harassment that has become a routine part of writing for the internet for too many people….

We are going to be implementing policies and procedures to protect our staff from the impact of abuse and harassment online, as well as from the impact of repeatedly being exposed to traumatic images. We are also changing the process for new commenters, so that they see our community guidelines and are welcomed to the Guardian’s commenting community.”

The Guardian also examined their 70 million comments and found that 2%, 1.4 million, have been blocked for violating the Guardian’s community standards. Among the other findings (full info here), they found that articles written by women consistently attracted a higher proportion of blocked comments than articles written by men.

I find their efforts really encouraging and I hope other outlets follow suit. My dream is that one day, we will not have to fear reading the comments section.

Related:

1) How some women are tackling online harassment;

2) Eight things not to say to someone facing online abuse.

 

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Survey about African American Women’s Experiences in Public Spaces

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4/29/16 UPDATED: Women ages 18-40 may take the survey.

Attention African American women ages 18-35 years old, female African American researchers at Yale University are studying YOUR experiences in public spaces and would love to hear from you.  The survey will take 22-25 minutes of your time. The researchers believe that everyone has a unique story to tell, and they would like to help tell your story. Get updates via the Sidewalk Culture Facebook page.

sidewalkposter

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#NoEsMiCultura: Latin America join forces to launch the first continental campaign against Street harassment

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Mapa-OCAC-LATAMThe following was provided by OCAC Chile.

En el marco de la Semana Internacional Contra el Acoso Callejero, Latinoamérica se une por primera vez para lanzar una campaña de alcance regional contra el acoso sexual en espacios públicos. La campaña #NoEsMiCultura es organizada por la red de Observatorios Contra el Acoso Callejero (OCAC) de Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua y Uruguay. Su objetivo es concientizar y visibilizar el acoso callejero como un problema que se sufre en todo el continente.

Durante la Semana Internacional Contra el Acoso Callejero, las sedes de OCAC Latinoamérica realizarán actividades para educar, sensibilizar y erradicar la idea que el acoso sexual en espacios públicos es parte de un folclore y típico de los países. La idea es transmitir que, más bien, es un problema transversal. Esta premisa se difunde en un video y en contenido en las redes sociales de la red de Observatorios.

“Queremos que en cada país se deje de justificar el acoso callejero como parte de la cultura local, queremos que se sepa que el acoso sexual callejero es un problema global y que nos afecta como región. Sabemos que nuestras voces unidas tienen más fuerza, por eso trabajamos articuladas para aprender unas de las experiencas de las otras. Hacemos entre los OCAC y también buscamos hacer redes con otras ONGs a nivel internacional”, señaló Alice Junqueira, Directora de Articulación Internacional de OCAC Chile.

Además de esta primera acción conjunta, en los últimos meses, cada Observatorio ha realizado acciones a nivel local. Junqueira destaca el proyecto de Ley contra el acoso callejero aprobado por la cámara de diputados en Chile, la campaña entre Action Aid y OCAC Nicaragua, la caja de herramientas que prepara OCAC Colombia, los talleres municipales de OCAC Uruguay, la articulación por una ley contra el acoso callejero de OCAC Costa Rica y los videos de sensibilización de OCAC Bolivia y OCAC Guatemala.

In English

In the context of the International Anti-Harassment Week, Latin America joined forced to launch the first regional campaign against sexual harassment in public places. #NoEsMiCultura [#NotMyCulture] is a campaign organized by the Observatories Against Street Harassment (OCAC, in Spanish) of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Uruguay. Its aim is to raise awareness and make street harassment visible as a problem in the whole continent.

During the International Anti-Harassment Week, the six OCAC branches developed activities to educate, create awareness and eradicate the idea of sexual harassment in public places as part of folklore or as a typical expression of each country. The idea is to communicate that street harassment is a transversal problem.

“We want each country to stop justifying street harassment as part of their local culture. We want the people to know that street harassment is a global problem that affect us as a region. We know that our voices together are stronger, so we work organized to learn from each other’s experiences. We do that as OCAC Latin America and with other NGOs all around the world.” said Alice Junqueira, International Coordinator from OCAC Chile.

Additionally to this first joint action, in the last months, each Observatory has done initiatives in a local level. Junqueira highlights the bill “Respeto Callejero” [Street Respect] against street harassment in Chile, the local campaign between Action Aid and OCAC Nicaragua, the tool box that OCAC Colombia is preparing, the municipal workshops held by OCAC Uruguay, OCAC Costa Rica’s activism for a bill against street harassment in the country, and the videos to raise awareness by OCAC Bolivia and OCAC Guatemala.

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