Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Oakland Art against Street Harassment

By

This is cross-posted with permission from the Design Action Collective website.

On International Women’s Day this past March, Design Action Collective, based in Oakland, California, produced a poster to highlight the struggles against gender violence. The process of creating this poster sparked conversation within our shop about how patriarchy plays out on the global scale and and in the daily experiences of all of us here in Oakland. This lead to a heightened awareness of the way things like street harassment have become a normalized part of our daily lives.

Inspired by the work of Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, we felt that creating stickers and flyers people could post would help shift the power on our streets. Messages like “I didn’t ask for your opinion on my body” will not necessarily change a harasser’s attitude, but it would show those who experience harassment that we are not alone.

Photos of the sticker sightings were posted by Oakland Street Art on Facebook. Within 24 hours it was shared over 700 times. People added personal stories of harassment — describing the fear and frustration of their experiences. The images were also shared with encouragement and a sense of empowerment. When this issue is discussed in a public forum, male allies step up and interrupt this culture of misogyny. And those of us who experience harassment every day gain a little more confidence in raising our voices instead of staying quiet and accepting it.

To make your own stickers, download this PDF and print onto 8.5×11 label paper sheets.

Design Action Collective provides graphic design and web development for progressive, non-profit and social change organizations. We seek to contribute to building a broad and effective progressive movement and participate in the struggle for social justice. We are a majority women and people of color owned cooperative.

Share

USA: How we can take back the streets?

By

By: Erin McKelle, SSH Correspondent

We all know that street harassment is a huge problem and that we must work hard to end it. Street harassment happens to (by conservative estimates) 80% of women and because of how prevalent it is in our society and around the world, it means that the issue is that much more important and that ending it is that much more critical.

So the question is, how can we take back the streets? Not just for ourselves, but for every woman who has ever been harassed? How can we make the streets safe for everyone and create safe public spaces? It’s obviously a daunting task, so how can we go about it?

The answer lies in activism and taking an active role as bystanders. We have to be willing to not let things slide that make us uncomfortable or that are clearly sexist. It’s about going against the grain and letting harassers know that what they are doing isn’t okay.

To give a better and more thorough understanding of this, here is a list of 5 ways that you can take back the streets, whether you are the target of harassment, seeing harassment happen to someone else or are just simply wanting to make a difference.

1)    Stand Up to Harasser’s…if you feel safe, of course. The best way to do this is to use strong and assertive body language and speech. Tell the harasser directly exactly what they did that that was offensive and to stop. Keep your composure and remain cool, calm and confident. If you don’t feel safe enough to directly stand up to your harasser, report your story to Stop Street Harassment and/or Hollaback! to raise awareness and indirectly stick up for yourself. You could also report the incident to the police (although you may or may not have success with this) and take a picture or video of the harasser with your cell phone.

2)    Be an Active Bystander and help others who are experiencing harassment. If you see someone being harassed, step in and try to diffuse the harasser and also look out for the victim. Depending on the circumstance, you could use a distraction to get the harasser’s attention away from harassing (for example, asking them for directions), pull the victim aside and ask if they are okay and need help or even directly call out the harasser in front of a crowd, which will probably shock them and cause them to stop. Just be mindful of safety, the situation and use your judgment to form the best plan of action.

3)    Actively Resist and take action to create social change. Hold a march or rally to protest street harassment, create a short film or vlog on the issue or even leave information about Stop Street Harassment in public restrooms, subway cars or sidewalks. Volunteer or write an op-ed for organizations that work to end street harassment. Do something to get other people’s attention and raise awareness about the issue. Be creative and use your imagination

4)    Be an Advocate and talk to people young and old about street harassment and start conversations with friends and family. By talking about the issue openly, you are creating a safe space for others who have probably experienced the same thing and are simultaneously educating and erasing the stigma around street harassment. You could also act as a mentor to young boys and girls and talk to them about why harassment is not okay and empower young women to stand up for themselves and know that they never deserve or are inviting harassment.  Also, think about starting a town hall at your school or work to get your colleague’s talking about the issue.

5)     Use Social Media: Tweet information, facts and statistics about street harassment on your Twitter or Facebook page. It’s a very easy way to get a lot of people to engage with this issue and to make others aware of what street harassment is and how to end it. If you want to tweet your harassment story, include the hashtag #streetharassment or #hollaback and it will be added to the @Catcalled @ihollaback and/or the @StopStHarassment Twitter thread.

Remember, no action is too big or too small and any and everything you do to take back the streets brings us one step closer to ending street harassment for good.

Erin is an e-activist and blogger based in Ohio. You can find more of her work here and here.

Share

SSH is Hiring a Summer Intern!

By

SSH began as a website in 2008 and last year became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We are growing more and more each month and we are now ready to have our first ever intern!!! The intern will work closely with me on projects.

Here’s the info —

Internship Overview

This is a part-time (about 15 hours/week), paid ($10/hour) summer internship. The person can work remotely from anywhere in the U.S. as long as they have access to a web-camera for a weekly check in meeting via skype or Google+ hangout. The starting date would be around June 3 with an end date 10 to 12 weeks later.

The summer intern will work closely with SSH’s founder (me) on two main projects: 1) managing the social media accounts and blog and 2) doing research for a new project, a “Know Your Rights” toolkit.

Roles and Responsibilities

– Help manage the SSH social media accounts and work with the SSH social media volunteers.
– Write articles for the SSH blog.
– Conduct legal research for a “Know Your Rights” toolkit that will be a compilation of the laws and city ordinances in major U.S. cities that are relevant to street harassment.
– Assist SSH’s founder with other projects as they arise.

Desired Experiences and Qualifications

– At least two years of college.
– At least one legal course or other experience relating to researching/reading/understanding laws.
– Experiencing working on gender or women’s issues (such as college coursework, volunteer experience, or previous jobs/internships) and familiarity with gender violence issues.
– At least two years of experience using social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube.
– A self-starter who is reliable and comfort with working on projects with limited supervision.

How to Apply:

Applicants should send a cover letter, résumé (include a list of social media accounts you manage or have managed), and two writing samples (they could be a blog post or article or an 800 word excerpt from a school paper) to me, Holly Kearl, hkearl@stopstreetharassment.org.

Application materials are due by May 25, 2013.

Share

New Jersey: Remember Sakia Gunn

By

“MAY 11, 2013 MARCH TO REMEMBER SAKIA GUNN: Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of the murder of Sakia Gunn, a 15-year-old straight-A student who identified as a lesbian, and was stabbed to death by two men after rejecting their sexual advances and cat calls at a bus stop in Newark, New Jersey.

We will join our allies from the Liberation in Truth Social Justice Center at the corner of Broad and Market Street in Newark, the site of Sakia’s murder, at noon, and we will march to the LIT Social Justice Center, which will be re-opened as the Sakia Gunn Memorial Social Justice Center, where community groups and leaders will create a safe space for all youth in Newark. Following the march we holding a community conversation on street harassment and ways to take action.”

More info: lenahan@gardenstateequality.org

Twitter: @GSEquality

 

Share

“No one has the right to invade my space”

By

College students at the University of Southern California put together a great video about street harassment, sharing why it’s a serious problem.

“It got to a point where I was active in my invisibility, I was active in creating my own invisibility and really adamant about being invisible to all men around me. I think that’s probably the most devastating thing about catcalling is that it affects every single part of your life even if it seems like it’s just a simple, fleeting moment. It affected my entire behavior of how I walked to school and how I dressed every day, so it’s a profound phenomenon and it’s not going anywhere until we address it.”

Female students shared stories about street harassment and the impact it has on their lives and male students talked about what their sisters have experienced and how their friends tried to pressure them into harassing girls.

Their conclusion? “We need to fight back and protest!”

USC: Take Back the Night – “Cat Calling” from Hunter Elijah Bryce on Vimeo.

Share