Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
I love Twitter! Via @FatSocialWorker, I was directed to this gem, a winter street harassment comic strip by Meredith Gran of Octopus Pie.
She writes, “New York is a city that never shuts down, and the lechers are no exception. In my time away from the city I’d forgotten just how persistent they are, even in the coldest weather. Those brave souls.”
A guy on a bus in India thinks it’s funny to “accidentally” let his hand slip to touch a female passenger. His buddies seem to think it’s funny, too. Watch what happens when he tries to touch her a second time…
This video clearly shows how a bystander can end a harassment incident and help change the social acceptability of harassment, especially when the woman experiencing harassment may not feel able to respond. The bystander did not back down and he thought fast on his feet with his retorts. (Side note: I am against the use of violence if at all possible).
What other responses do you think the bystander – or the woman facing the harassment – could have given when “Romeo”‘s asserted that his hand slip was an accident?
Lately, I’ve been inundated with e-mails and letters from every organization I donated to during their year + their best friend organizations, asking me to donate again. As much as I obviously care about most of those organizations if I’ve already donated to them, my end of year giving is going to two organizations that do anti-street harassment-related work, RightRides and RAINN. You may be interested in donating to them, too.
Right Rides for Women’s Safety: For more than six years RightRides has been giving free rides home to women and male members of the LGBQT community on Friday and Saturday nights in New York City. This free service is particularly helpful to people who cannot afford a cab and are reliant on buses and subways and feel unsafe waiting for or taking these late at night. RightRides has a page about the many ways you can become involved. A new feature is recurring gifts. $10/month can cover rides home for 12 people that year and $25/month covers about 30 people’s rides home. Any amount helps.Here are additional suggestions for organizations whose work makes public places – and the world in general – safer for women and girls. Not only could you do end-of-year giving to them, but you could make a gift out of donating in honor of family members and friends who care about ending and/or are impacted by street harassment.
Girls for Gender Equity – Support a NYC organization that empowers teenage girls and has tackled street harassment through surveys, documentaries, conferences, and booksAnd are you looking for other last-minute gift ideas? I can suggest a few:
Books:
Do you have other suggestions?
One of the worst myths I encounter in my work to end street harassment is victim-blaming.
“Well, with the way women dress these days…” “What do you expect with the clothes you wear…” “Don’t go out alone if you don’t want men to harass you…” and “What did you expect when you went out alone after dark?”
It’s such a big part of the conversation around street harassment that it takes up considerable space in my book about street harassment.
And what I find striking and alarming is the global nature of the victim-blaming, from India and Australia, to Brazil and Lebanon, to Egypt and the UK. And of course in the USA.
Earlier this year, then, I was thrilled to read about Scotland’s television ad campaign that aired during the World Cup called Not Ever, which focused on countering the idea that a woman is “asking to be raped” if she’s wearing a skirt, drinking, out late, etc. I would love to see a similar campaign in the US during the Super Bowl!
Via @thefworduk, I just found out about a similar, brand new campaign in Wales called Stop Blame. While, like Not Ever, this campaign focuses on ending the victim-blaming of rape and sexual assault survivors and victims, the commentary is largely the same as the victim-blaming that survivors of street harassment (and any form of sexual harassment) face. It is an extremely important campaign and I applaud the Welsh government for producing it.
From StopBlame.org:
This campaign asks us all to challenge the endemic culture of victim blame.
Stop blaming the victim for rape and sexual assault committed against her.
Stop handing the rapist – the assailant – excuses that serve to make his behaviour more socially acceptable.
Rape is a crime in every sense of the word- emotional, physical, psychological and legal; the most intimate violation imaginable. No woman is ever ‘asking for it’.
Rape. Sexual assault. There is NO excuse. Let’s stop blaming the victim.
Yes!
Can every government around the world please have a similar campaign? They wouldn’t end victim-blaming, but they sure would help!
Watch Objectified, a new documentary by filmmaker and San Francisco State University student Tiye Rose Hood about street harassment and the objectification of women.
