Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
Our partner Safecity has just released their Safecity Mobile App! It offers resources, allows you to report sexual violence in public spaces and more. It’s available for free on the Google and Apple play stores and is available in English, Hindi and Spanish.
Watch this video to see the features of the app.
The People’s Girls documentary about sexual harassment in Egypt is available to rent or buy online!
“In the documentary, directors Colette Ghunim and Tinne Van Loon interview both harassers and survivors in Egypt to explore the root of this problem. They talk with women who have fought back and also conduct hidden camera social experiments. Before filming the documentary, Ghunim and Van Loon created a short clip titled ‘Creepers on the Bridge’, which captured the feeling of being stared at and catcalled in the streets of Cairo. It went viral, quickly gaining over 2 million views worldwide. They then created a Kickstarter campaign to fund their documentary on sexual harassment in Egypt. Over the following months, they were interviewed by many international news sources. They received contributions from over 500 backers worldwide on Kickstarter and gain a fanbase of over 11,000 people on Facebook to create ‘The People’s Girls’.”
The People’s Girls 2016 Trailer from Tinne Van Loon on Vimeo.
New Research:
A new study conducted in the MENA region sheds light on why men street harass.
A study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found strong links between women’s experience of sexual violence – including street harassment — and poor mental health.
A study in the British Journal of Social Psychology shows street harassment negative impacts how women think about themselves.
Global News:
Australian women are receiving unsolicited “dick pics” via AirDrop.
Reports of sexual harassment are up on Brussels’ (Belgium) public transport.
Pressure is mounting for music venues in Canada to address sexual harassment.
A man in China stabbed a woman on the bus after she protested his harassment.
Young women in Egypt face harassment in public spaces and restrictions at home.
In France, the Gender Equality Minister wants to outlaw street harassment.
A new survey shows harassment on public transport is rampant in Chennai, India.
A teenager’s account of harassment went viral in Italy.
A new cartoon character tells people to report street harassment in Japan.
There was a death penalty ruling in a forced public stripping case in Kenya.
There’s a new anti-harassment campaign in Lebanon, #mesh_basita.
The gang rape of a woman on a bus in Morocco led to protests and promises of action by the Prime Minister.
Stop Straatintimidatie launched a new anti-harassment campaign in the Netherlands.
A new fine and jail time will be enforced on street harassment in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
42 gay men in Nigeria were arrested simply for organizing a HIV awareness event in a public venue. Sign a petition for their release.
Combatting street harassment in Pakistan.
A senator in the Philippines will propose to criminalize street harassment.
A woman in South Africa wrote about wishing she was a man so she didn’t face harassment.
There’s a new dress code being enforced in Uganda, including against mini-skirts.
From Uganda to Tajikistan, women are fighting to enjoy the freedom of bicycling.
A Labour MP in the UK has suggested women-only train carriages – but the idea is insulting.
Women in Bristol (UK) are mapping street harassment.
“Cheer Up Luv” is a new UK-based photo series project.
Women of color in Washington, D.C. (USA) organize against street harassment.
Why street harassers speak the same language across the USA.
Latina and African American women in the USA created a choreo-film on street harassment.
A guitarist in the USA stopped his performance after witnessing sexual harassment in the audience.
American actress Ashley Judd calls out “everyday sexism”.
A high percentage of Missoula (MT, USA) patrons experience sexual harassment.
Powerful Pieces:
“My body doesn’t belong to you.”
“The thrill and fear of ‘Hey, Beautiful’”
“I don’t accommodate uncontrolled men”
“9 types of street harassment you’ve probably experiences if you’re a woman”
“After fighting off mid-run attack, she’s using her voice to help others”
Research conducted by experts at the University of Melbourne in Australia demonstrates how common sexual harassment is in the lives of women and documents the possible impact this can have on how women think about themselves. The full results were published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.
Two key findings are:
1. Women reported being the target of a sexually objectifying event once every two days.
2. Both being personally targeted or witnessing others being objectified was associated with a “substantial increase” in “self-objectification”, proving that instances of sexual harassment can have a negative impact on the way women think about themselves.
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In the Netherlands, Stop Straatintimidatie launched a new campaign against street harassment. Campaign founder Gaya Branderhorst shared, “The message to the public is clear: everyone should be able to walk the streets without harassment,” and “street harassment will be fined in Amsterdam and Rotterdam from 2018 onwards, and other cities are planning to follow soon.” Great!
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In the UK, photojournalist Eliza Hatch created a new photo series called Cheer Up Luv to raise awareness about street harassment. An article for the Guardian states, “Hatch found her female friends had all experienced harassment regularly, while her male friends were shocked by how frequently it occurred. Her photographs often feature women in environments in which they have been harassed, alongside their accounts. ‘I really wanted to capture the woman in her surroundings,’ says Hatch. ‘Instead of it being somewhere where she felt vulnerable, I wanted to make it a stage for her to speak out from. And I wanted you to actually look into her eyes as you’re hearing her story.'”
See more at: instagram.com/cheerupluv
Dee Rodriguez, Reading, PA, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent
I like to walk and when the warmer weather hits, I go for walks as part of my self-care routine. I also walk to work and during work. As a domestic violence and sexual assault advocate, I sometimes have to respond to calls at our local services center or hospitals so I usually walk to these places to avoid wasting time looking for parking.
Being an advocate does not protect me from being harassed. In fact, I’ve been harassed literally walking out of work by a group of men driving by in a vehicle. Another time, I was walking back from a medical facility to my job and a guy said to me, “Why don’t you smile, ma?”
On both occasions, I did not respond. I’m actually less inclined to engage when harassed now that I am an advocate because of the violence I see every day. Many of the survivors that come through our doors are women. While the violence they experience is typically at the hands of an intimate partner, I know that women experience many forms of violence; I don’t respond to harassment due to the fear of what might happen if I do.
When I returned to the offices after being at the medical center, my coworkers asked me how my time there went. I cannot go without mentioning that many of my coworkers are women and women of color, particularly Latinx, and our organization is located in a city with a high Latinx population. While I told my colleagues about my work that day, I couldn’t stop talking about the guy that harassed me on my way back. It bothered me. My coworkers’ reactions were pretty blasé and that’s probably because they too have had their share of experiences with street harassment. When I think back to how I’ve reacted when women tell me of their experiences with street harassment, I was not shocked either.
So the day I was listening to Locatora Radio’s Capitulo 004: Femme Defense, where hosts Mala Muñoz and Diosa Femme discuss their experiences with street harassment and how they use femme defense to deal with it, I was blown away. I was blown away because never in all the times I’ve discussed street harassment did anyone talk about how to respond. Locatora Radio “is a Radiophonic Novela …. Las Locatoras make space for the exploration and celebration of the experiences, brilliance, creativity, and legacies of femmes and womxn of color. Each Capitulo of Locatora Radio is made with love and brujeria, a moment in time made by brown girls, for brown girls.”
As Mala states, femme defense is not just defending oneself but one’s community and you can be any gender and be femme.
The discussion between Mala (who is a fellow domestic violence and sexual assault advocate) and Diosa (who advocates for immigrant women) really struck a chord with me. They discussed having their bodies policed by their family (as way to prevent being harassed), being aware of their surroundings, and using techniques such as the eye gouge if one must engage in physical defense. One particular piece of the discussion that really resonated with me is the “Fuchi face.” The Fuchi face is your mean face, bitch face, mean mug, or whatever you call it, that you put on when you don’t want to be approached or messed with. I used to call it my “train face” while growing up in NYC so I wouldn’t get bothered while taking public transit.
It’s funny that while out with my “Fuchi face” I was still harassed but I felt less angry about it after listening to the Locatoras because I am not alone and learned useful tips for what do in situations of street harassment.
While we are 3,000 miles apart, we share many of the same experiences. To know that there are other Latinx women out there dealing with this and talking about it, makes me feel like I have a community.
Editor’s Note: Here are suggestions for dealing with street harassment from the SSH site, in Spanish and English.
Dee is a volunteer coordinator and domestic violence/sexual assault advocate for a non-profit social services agency and works on a project to better serve Latinx women survivors. She has a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies with a focus on Latin American Culture from Penn State University. She originally hails from New York City and is a proud daughter of immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic. You can follow Dee on Instagram at @missdeerodriguez.