Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Anti-rape clothing?

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Have you heard about AR Wear? It’s anti-rape clothing.

The designers write on their website:  “We developed this product so that women and girls could have more power to control the outcome of a sexual assault. We wanted to offer some peace of mind in situations that cause feelings of apprehension, such as going out on a blind date, taking an evening run, ‘clubbing’, traveling in unfamiliar countries, and any other activity that might make one anxious about the possibility of an assault.”

Check out what SSH staff had to say.

Talia Hagerty went on Fox 5 in NYC, saying, “The challenge is to find a way to prevent people from committing rape, not to give women another reason to feel it’s our responsibility if we’re raped.

New York News

I spoke to a writer for the Washington Post, “This product places the focus on women as being the responsible party for stopping their own rape. That is highly problematic.”

What do you think?

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Philadelphia City Council Hearing Recap

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Philadelphia City Council Hearing, Nov. 7, 2013

Today, the second-ever city council hearing on street harassment was held in Philadelphia! The first was held in 2010 in New York City.

This hearing came about because Council Member James Kenney read tweets by Hollaback! Philly about street harassment, researched the issue and he decided he wanted to address it. When he reached out to Hollaback! Philly over Twitter to ask what he could do, Hollaback! Philly’s director Rochelle Keyhan requested a city council hearing. While it took seven months to get it scheduled, today it happened.

During the morning hearing in Philadelphia’s City Hall, nine people testified (some represented organizations like FAAN Mail and Women Bike PHL, others were simply there as citizens), and Rochelle played a video of teenage girls sharing their stories, since they couldn’t attend due to school. Most people courageously and passionately shared their street harassment stories during their testimonies, Rochelle presented Hollaback! Philly’s new survey data, and I put the issue into a global context and explained why it’s a human rights violation. (Stay tuned, I will post everyone’s testimonies soon.)

SSH Board Member & Philly Resident Nuala Cabral Testified

The main ask of the City Council is to help Hollaback! Philly organize community safety audits, a type of action created by METRAC, which the United Nations uses around the world and which activists in Washington, D.C. (co-led by SSH and Collective Action for Safe Spaces) and NYC (co-led by city council members and several activist groups) have already used. Hollaback! Philly needs help from the City Council in connecting with diverse community groups and churches in neighborhoods throughout the city to ensure that volunteers conducting the audit come from a range of backgrounds and perspectives.

The four male city council members who heard us were very sympathetic and strongly against the issue. This is HUGE progress. They were also interested in seeing the issue brought up to kids in schools and working with police officers to train them to know how to help with street harassment incidents.

After the hearing, Council Member Kenney met with us and assured us this was not a “one and done day,” but that he was committed to working with Hollaback! Philly and other groups to address the issue. Great!

Congrats to Hollaback! Philly, and in particular to Rochelle, for doing all the leg work and follow-up and organizing to make this happen and to make it successful!

Some of the people who testified or attended the City Council Hearing

 

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SSH Board Member Shares What Men Can Do

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Relando Thompkins

Check out this awesome interview our board member Relando Thompkins did for The Root last week!

“”One of the best things men can do to work against street harassment is talk to other men,” says Relando Thompkins, who sits on the board of directors of Stop Street Harassment. As a resident of Detroit, he talks to a lot of men who gripe about the responses they get from women, and he tries to make them understand that what she finds offensive is not up to him. “Just like a white person can’t tell me what I find offensive in terms of race relations, I can’t tell a woman what’s offensive.”

In my conversation with Thompkins, he compared men who holler at woman to police who engage in stop and frisk. Whatever benefit the New York Police Department claims from its stop-and-frisk programs, numerous studies and statistics have shown it targets men of color more than any other group, thus making an already complicated relationship between the police and black and brown communities more fraught.

“My experiences with racism have helped me become increasingly aware of others who have to deal with oppression of any sort because of targeted identities,” said Thompkins, referring to woman who are cat-called and consider it a form of harassment.

There are also other benefits to talking to other men about street harassment. Every guy I know has a story of being out with a woman and hearing another man say something to that woman. That kind of experience can probably help a man check himself. Then there’s also the benefit of being able to better understand that rejection from women happens to the best of men. Just like we mean no offense when we approach a woman, most women don’t mean any offense when they reject us. Is it offensive for women to label as street harassment every unwelcome but respectful attempt at engagement? Well, no one can tell you what offends, right? Our reaction is up to us.”

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How to Prevent Sexual Harassment?

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More and more studies are showing that sexual harassment – including street harassment – is a widespread problem that negatively impacts the lives of harassed persons. But there is less information available about why sexual harassment happens and how to prevent it from occurring.

A reporter for the International Business Times covers what IS known:

“What are some of the causes of sexual harassment? Despite popular perceptions, it’s usually not about innocent flirtation. In one 2008 study published in the journal Sex Roles, researchers interviewed 80 men from the Arlington, Texas area. They found that a man was more likely to exhibit harassing behavior if he was also more likely to suspect that women were criticizing and rejecting him.

 “These findings also support recent speculation that men’s sexual harassment of women is related to aggression rather than seduction,” the authors wrote.

When you turn to the literature to try and find scientific evidence for what interventions actually work, there’s an incredible gap of scientific evidence. In his 2007 meta-analyses reviewing 8 studies from between 1995 and 2006, researcher Bruce Douglas found that diversity training tends to have only a small effect on attitudes or behavior. Other studies also report just marginal benefits from sexual harassment prevention training.

“The lack of quantitative studies on diversity training continues to be prevalent,” Douglas wrote.

So what is to be done? There may be another avenue to help the victim that doesn’t rely on educating the harasser: all the other people in the office. Bystanders – such as people who hear about sexual harassment through the office grapevine, or directly from the harassed colleague – can also be powerful tools in combating harassment in the workplace, according to a July 2012 report from the Australian Human Rights Commission.“

For suggestions on what to do as a bystander, visit our webpage, watch “Shit Men Say to Men who Say Shit to Women on the Streets” and read our new book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers.

Our proposed national study on street harassment will survey both women and men and ask questions about if survey takers have ever been harassers and if so, why. This is sorely needed data! You can donate $10 or more today to help make this study, about the people and funded by the people, possible.

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