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#16Days of Activism: Street Demonstration (Day 6)

November 30, 2015 By HKearl

Nov. 25 – Dec. 10 are the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. To commemorate the week, we are featuring 1 activism idea per day. This information is excerpted from my new book Stop Global Street Harassment: Growing Activism Around the World (Praeger 2015).

Initiating a street demonstration by holding signs with anti-harassment messages, asking people to write their own messages, and facilitating impromptu conversations are additional tactics growing in popularity among people wishing to challenge street harassment in their community. These types of actions have taken place in many countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Chile, India, and the United States.

Human chain in Jordan. Image via Al Bawaba — *Human chain in Jordan. Image via Al Bawab*a

In June 2012, more than 200 people in Amman, Jordan, formed a “human chain” from Al Hussein Sports City to the Interior Ministry Circle to protest various gender-based crimes, including street harassment, the practice of forcing rape survivors to marry their rapists, and honor killings. Women and men of all ages stood in a row, each holding signs that condemned these acts and called for behavioral changes and changes to laws. Weeks later in Egypt, the Nefsi (I Hope) anti-sexual harassment campaign also organized scores of people into a human chain along a busy road in Cairo. Some of the participants’ signs read “I wish I could ride a bike without anyone bothering me” and “I wish you would respect me as I respect you.”

In 2014, Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero en Chile held an open outdoor meeting at a plaza where more than two dozen women and men of all ages discussed street harassment, passed out pamphlets to passersby, and wrote anti-street harassment messages on signs like “Mi cuerpo no es un objeto” (“My body is not an object”) and “Yo me visto para mi no para ti” (“I dress for me not for you”). They held the signs for passersby to see and then attached them to strings hung around the plaza. They also attached small ribbons on which they had written their street harassment experiences, and people walking by stopped to read them.

In Bangalore, India, members of the volunteer group Jhatkaa spent a day in 2014 walking around the streets of the city with a whiteboard and asking women to write down their experiences with street harassment. People were eager to participate and wrote statements like, “Lots of times men have pinched my breasts and made passes at me on the buses,” “Been whistled and stared at wearing a pair of jeans,” and “The creepy stare.” The organizers wrote in a summary of their event: “Many women thanked us for doing it and told us they felt lighter after speaking about it and participating in fighting against it. On seeing photos of other women and their experiences-they also felt good knowing that they weren’t the only ones. We shared these photos on Facebook and Twitter and received positive comments for the work.”

Since 2011, Philadelphia-based groups like FAAN Mail and Feminist Public Works have held a demonstration in the spring. It includes drumming, chalking, and posting flyers and signs and discussing street harassment with passersby. In 2014, they framed it as reclaiming public space at LOVE Park and hosted chalking, street theater, music, art making, and double Dutch jump rope. People could write their answers to complete the phrase “A Safe Street is …,” and several chose to publicly share their street harassment stories while standing on a “soap box.” Around 50 people participated. “This year’s action in Philadelphia was our most dynamic action yet,” wrote FAAN Mail co-founder Nuala Cabral in a report of the event. We offered several activities that enabled people to reclaim public space and address this problem in creative ways. Children were a part of the event. Male allies stood with us. It was a beautiful day.”

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“I wish good people would stop being afraid”

November 29, 2015 By Contributor

I was on my way home, walking in a very crowded boulevard, than I turned into my street, which was more empty and dark. A guy walked in the opposite direction from me, but then he stopped and started following me, saying a lot of stuff I could not really understand. All I could get is that his friends were having a party. He sounded drunk or drugged. I tried walking into a parking lot to make him go away, but he followed me in so I went out again. I started heading back to the boulevard and he caught up to me and grabbed my ass while asking something about tickles. I crossed the street and he stayed there while I passed two other men, but after that he came to me again and started telling me how he could help me relax and have a good time. By then I got to a shop and I went in. I stayed for a while and then he was gone.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

The more people out on the streets, the better. As hard as it is, I wish good people would stop being afraid and just go out, regardless of the time.

– Anonymous

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

#16Days of Activism: Painting Murals (Day 5)

November 29, 2015 By HKearl

Painting murals and spray-painting graffiti against street harassment is a type of political art and communication that has been used in many cultures since ancient times.

*Circle of Hell mural in Egypt. Via the Art Newspaper*

During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, graffiti art and murals were used to voice political opinions. Some women used these to speak out against the sexual harassment and violence many women protesters faced. Artist El Zeft nad Mira Shihadeh, for example, painted a mural called Circle of Hell depicting dozens of leering men surrounding one woman like a pack of wolves surrounding its prey.

One graffiti stencil from that time period was a blue bra accompanied by the caption “No to the stripping of people” and below it was the outline of a foot that said, “Long live the revolution.” It references a 2011 videotaped beating of a female protester by police during which all of her clothes were stripped off, which revealed her blue bra. Some messages were defiant. One graffiti stencil created by Hend Kheera featured a woman with the caption, “Warning! Don’t touch or castration awaits you!” A stencil created by Mira Shihadeh (featured on the book’s cover) showed a woman standing tall and holding a spray can to spray away tiny men. The caption read “No to sexual harassment.”

Egyptian anti-street harassment activists with the group HarassMap have also used graffiti to bring attention to sexual harassment in public spaces. In 2013, for example, a team of mostly male volunteers in Giza wrote messages on walls like “Be a man; protect her from harassment instead of harassing her” and “No to harassment” while a team in Alexandria covered up sexist graffiti that promoted violent harassment by painting a mural that said, “LOVE.”

Anti-street harassment activists in Nepal and the United States painted murals in 2014. In Kathmandu, ten young women and men from the group Astitwa painted a huge mural with a street, a “stop” hand and their logo. The main message in green block lettering was “We Are against Street Harassment,” and each person placed her or his hands in red paint and added their hand-print below it.

On their U.S. mural, People’s Justice League (formerly Hollaback! Appalachian Ohio) wrote the messages “Bobcats against cat-calls” and “YOU have the power to end street harassment” (with their logo) and drew a map of uptown Athens with red and green dots showing where people had reported being harassed (red) and where they reported intervening in harassment situations (green).

Help fund our work in 2016, donate to our end-of-year giving campaign!

Asian American Women Share their Stories

November 29, 2015 By HKearl

Note: Last year, SSH released a national study on street harassment that includes the results of a 2,000 person nationally representative survey and 10 focus groups with under-represented voices. As I have the opportunity and resources to do so, I will continue holding focus groups. Focus group #11 was with Asian American women in Boston, Massachusetts earlier this month. Below is a two-page summary from it, which is also now included in the research report (see pages 59-60). Thank you to the women who participated and to Sarah Chang for inspiring it and hosting it.

Asian American women in the SSH focus group in Boston, MA.

Asian American women’s harassment experiences are often overlooked. Thus, in November 2015, nine women with nations of origin from varying East Asian and Southeast Asian countries came together in Boston, Massachusetts, to document and talk about their experiences.

Participant Pam said, “I appreciate talking about identity and race. I think a lot of times in data and research, the Asian American voice is not included, which unintentionally leaves us silenced and reinforces the stereotype that we are silent.”

In sharing their stories, men following them, blocking their path, or engaging in repeated harassment emerged as common themes.

A man followed Catherine for approximately 45 minutes until she was able to lose him in a grocery store that had a back exit. She talked about her feeling of paranoia and fear. “All you want to do is shut down but you have to somehow keep going or something bad may happen.”

Eight white men harassed Jenn as she entered a subway station, then followed her and sat all around her as she waited for the subway. Then they surrounded her on the subway. “At this point I’m terrified,” she said. “I’m like what if they follow me to the stop? What if they get off at the stop with me?” Finally, before her stop, they got off.

Angela was in her car in an empty grocery store parking lot and as she was getting ready to leave, a man in a black SUV pulled up behind her, blocking her in. He came over and tapped on her window. Thinking he needed directions, she rolled down her window only for him to then tell her she was beautiful and hit on her. She rolled up her window and yelled that she needed to go. Fortunately, he drove away and let her.

A man engaged Cassie and the woman she was dating in conversation outside a club. Then he escalated to harassment, following them inside. He only left them alone once a bouncer ejected him from the club.

A man followed D. from the post office nearly all the way to her office. Finally he got the hint that she was uncomfortable

A man harassed Sarah three different times near her home, including telling her to “suck my dick.” She filed a police report.

Like women in other racial groups, many of their experiences with street harassment are racialized. They all agreed it is common for men to yell “Nǐ hǎo” or “Konichiwa” (“hello” in Chinese and Japanese, respectively) at them. Notably, this happens no matter the woman’s nation of origin.

When Catherine was reading on a park bench, a man repeatedly said “Nǐ hǎo” and “Konichiwa” to her, but then he quickly escalated to sexualized epithets. “Things like, ‘Oh your pussy must be sideways,’ and ‘has anyone ever fucked you?’” she said.

Various men have asked the women what they are. Katie said, “Instead of hello, they say what are you? Are you Chinese?”

Every woman said most, if not all, of her harassers have been non-Asian men, some of whom seem to be fetishizing them. Pam mused this may be because “There is this special race power element of ooh you’re this little Geisha who won’t talk about it.”

Several of them noted that the harassment tends to be worse when they are with another Asian American woman who is either a romantic partner or a friend.

Pam said, “It’s like some sick white man’s fantasy that there are two Asian American women together. It excites them even more.” As an example, she shared this story: “I was on the train with another Asian American female late at night and there were a bunch of white frat dude types and one was like, ‘Oooh who wants to eat Chinese food?’ and they just started getting nasty. You could tell they were so excited to see two Asian American women together.”

Cassie shared that “If I’m out with a woman [I’m dating], especially an Asian American woman, it’s usually like it’s really hard just to be out [because of harassers]…It feels really complicated in terms of race. I want to date people who look like me. But I feel safer with white people because they’re usually the ones I feel the most scared to be around. So if I’m with a white man, I feel like I have this pass… But it feels shitty.”

Many noted that the harassment began around puberty, usually by older men. N., for instance, said, “I have memories of my childhood and being in my teen years when people would harass me.”

Jenn began walking home from the bus stop around age 10 and she was often harassed, including by older Asian men. “That’s when I learned that my body was a sexual object,” she said. “I was a child learning that I would never be safe in my own body.”

When Diana was in middle school, she had to take the subway to the library alone in the afternoon. One day on the platform, a man repeatedly touched her lower back. She’s always tucked in her shirts ever since.

Several women noted that they try to drive or bicycle everywhere as a way to avoid harassment. Most women agreed they are never or rarely harassed when they are with another man, either a romantic partner or friend. N. observed from her experience, “If you don’t use public transportation, if you bike around, if you don’t interact with people, you don’t really get those catcalls.”

A few women shared how they feel they must be rude or stern in public because as soon as they are smiling, pleasant or engage in small talk with men, it escalates into harassment. Katie said, “I feel like any time I’ve just been pleasant out in the public space, I’ve been approached.”

Numerous women shared how their family and friends normalize the experiences or see it as a compliment. Angela said in her family it was seen as “boys being boys.” Now, she shares how she feels scrutinized and unsafe to explain why it’s not okay.

These were their ideas for change:

Changing the normalcy of street harassment and ending the perception that it’s a compliment.
Having boys and men listen to women’s stories so they can understand the effects of street harassment.
Teachers talking to their students. Katie has had success asking her male students if that’s how they’d like their sister or mother treated.
Men who get why it’s not okay talking to young men and boys.

USA: Intimidation is a Currency of Power and Control

November 29, 2015 By Correspondent

Hannah Rose Johnson, Arizona, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Michel Foucault writes in Discipline and Punish (1975) that discipline is used to control entire populations through organizing space and the self-policing of individuals. For instance, he writes extensively about the panopticon—an architectural design of a prison, where a tower sits high in the middle of a circle of cells and while guards can see out of the tower, prisoners cannot see in. Without telling if a guard is or isn’t in the tower, prisoners are forced to police their own behavior and the behavior of others because, what if the guard is in the tower and watching? The architecture of communities plus the management of people is a way in which power is exercised. Power is a producer of reality that includes objects, rituals, examinations, individuals, “norms” and truths. He says, on the panopticon: “Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals which all resemble prisons?” (p. 228).

Is it surprising that sexual violence resembles white supremacy, compulsive heterosexuality, heteronormativity, neoliberal economics which all resemble sexual violence? (Please refer to my previous article Police Violence is a Form of Street Harassment). We live in a culture of discipline, watching ourselves and others, which is shaped by an architecture of domination. Sexual violence and oppressive systems are about power and control.

This month I have been thinking about intimidation in public spaces. On the Power and Control Wheel, which is used to identify patterns of physically and sexually violent behavior within intimate partner violence, there is a section for intimidation. Wheels differ from varying degrees, but generally intimidation highlights: placing partner in fear by looks, actions, and gestures; smashing things; destroying property; displaying weapons; sending frequent, unwanted messages and expecting the partner to respond immediately; and stalking. What I’m interested in exploring is the link between intimidation, control and power. That the use of intimidation, the behavior, is a performance of control and shaped by experiences of domination.

When I think of public spaces, I think of streets, I think of the commons, parks, I think of state and county buildings, I think of school systems and universities. I think of signs and lights and billboards and advertisements. I think about how power is exercised in ways that allow communities to organize themselves based on interlocking systems of oppression. When I think of public spaces, I think about the social contract that binds most of us together.

Social contract theory refers to the things we give up in order to come into public spaces; moral and political obligations, like agreeing not to take matters into one’s own hand and put faith in a legal system. Social contract theory explains how some people are locked away from public space and other people are not recognized even though they are here all the time, on the basis of race, gender identity, class status, sexual identity, HIV+ status, and unregulated labor.

I’d like to explore reproduction coercion within the context of intimate partner violence and expand the conceptual understanding. Reproductive coercion is forcing a partner into pregnancy when they do not wish to be pregnant, or forcing a partner to have an abortion when they wish not to. Reproductive coercion includes the murder of Native women during colonization so that an entire race of people would be wiped out. It includes the raping and forced pregnancies of Black women during slavery in the US to birth an entire disposable and exploited labor force (please read Incite! Dangerous Intersections).

And then there is reproduction in the performative sense- the reproduction of social roles and systems. In this instance, intimidation. If you play the intimated, you are the role that is the reason of power and control. Intimidation is white supremacy, compulsive heterosexuality, heteronormativity, and neoliberal economics. These systems of oppression feed an exercise of power, from anti-abortion billboard messaging to construction of the welfare queen—the image of the sexually immature Black mother who is both draining government assistance and creating poverty. Reproductive livelihoods are constantly threatened and queered.

In public we are surrounded by intimidation and it is a tactic of sexual violence. In the expanded understanding of imperfect victims (again, please refer to my article Police Brutality is a Form of Street Harassment), we see that not only is street harassment bound to sexual violence, it’s also dependent on reproducing instances and interactions of intimidation. So that when some people can control other people by a look or a gesture, or a certain kind of eye contact, power is running through the exchange. And actions, looks and gestures exist between partners, strangers, and the public/private. The look/gesture is the panopticon of intimidation.

It is the self-policing and submission for survival in violent relationships and interactions. Intimidation is a currency. It is intertwined with reproducing fear—in the context of street harassment it is the fear of harassers, from catcallers to police officers. Fear instills control, a conduit for power. And power, of a sexually violent nature, is sustained through systems of white supremacy, compulsive heterosexuality, heteronormativity and neoliberal economics.

Hannah Rose is writing from Tucson, Arizona and Lewiston, Maine (US) as she transitions from the Southwest to the Northeast for a career in sexual violence prevention and advocacy at the college level. You can check her out on the collaborative artistic poetic sound project HotBox Utopia.

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