Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
“Sam Pepper, a very popular YouTuber, has posted a string of videos violating and sexually harassing women on the street. The videos have racked up nearly 20,000,000 views.
Please consider joining the 20K+ people who have cosigned my open letter to him on tumblr!”
Stop Street Harassment signs.
I entered the train, and the guy on the left of me pretended to “help” me into the train by grabbing my lower back and grazing it saying, “Here you go, sweetie.” My shirt on the back had a certain pattern that showed a bit of skin and his hands literally made contact with my skin.
When I told him, “Please don’t touch me,” he proceeded to insult my body, saying “There’s not much to touch,” and laugh with his friend and make insulting comments about my race loudly so everyone on the train could hear. Both he and his friend continued to make harassing and provocative remarks throughout the train ride, hoping I would react verbally. I didn’t.
Instead, I turned around and took his photo. His eyes stared right into mine as I did it, looking surprised. Guess he didn’t expect that one.
Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?
Keep taking photos of harassers if you feel it is safe to do so. Keep documenting every time you’re harassed. If they know they can’t get away with it, they may be less likely to to try again next time.
– Anonymous
Location: New York 6 Train
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea
Today is a big day for everyone who has been working for years — and many for decades — to see sexual violence prevention taken seriously in our country. And I mean real sexual violence prevention, not giving women (only) rape whistles and lectures about the buddy system, but prevention that focuses on education, bystander intervention, and changing cultural norms.
White House:
“It’s On Us” is the White House’s “new public awareness and action campaign designed to prevent sexual assault at colleges and universities, change the culture on our campuses, and better engage men in this effort.”
“The campaign is being supported by partners who plan to help spread the message, including the NCAA, several collegiate athletic conferences and media companies with reach among students. The NCAA plans to promote anti-assault messages on screens at their championship events. Video game maker Electronic Arts will encourage fans to sign up to pledge to support the campaign through its online platforms. And media giant Viacom will promote the messages on websites, including for music channels MTV, VH1, BET and CMT.
Visitors to the website are asked to turn their social media profile pictures into the shape of the campaign logo. They are asked to use their name, email address and zip code to pledge “not to be a bystander to the problem, but to be a part of the solution.” The information is collected by Generation Progress, the youth arm of the liberal Center for American Progress advocacy organization with close ties to the White House.
The event comes as students are settling in for a new year on campus and follows other White House efforts that have been helping raise awareness about the problem that typically remained in the shadows. Research has shown most victims know their attackers, alcohol or drugs are often involved and only 12 percent of college women attacked report it to police.”
NFL:
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center announces a multi-year partnership with the National Football League to address the far-reaching impacts of sexual assault and domestic violence. The NFL has pledged financial and in-kind support to the NSVRC for distribution to support state and local sexual assault hotlines. The NFL is also pledging support to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
“We applaud the NFL for taking sexual assault and domestic violence seriously. We look forward to partnering with them and think it is a great model for influential organizations to support the work of sexual assault victim advocacy programs at state and local levels to ensure safety for survivors,” NSVRC Director Karen Baker said.
As part of the partnership, the NSVRC will contribute resources that will be distributed to all NFL teams. The collaboration also will create ongoing opportunities to support people affected by sexual assault.
In August, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell publicly announced the league’s new policies regarding sexual assault and domestic violence. “We clearly must do a better job of addressing [domestic violence and sexual assault] in the NFL. And we will,” Goodell said.
“By partnering with experts in the field of sexual assault and domestic violence, the NFL could become leaders in changing the pro sports culture by promoting equality and relationships that exemplify respect and consent,” said Delilah Rumburg, CEO of NSVRC.
“The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides domestic violence victims and survivors access to a national network of resources and shelters. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in 170 languages. Goodell noted that the hotline received 84 percent more calls from Sept. 8-15, and the organization said more than 50 percent of those calls went unanswered because of lack of staff.
The hotline will add 25 full-time advocates over the next few weeks that will result in an additional 750 calls a day being answered”
Katie Bowers, NY, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, creator of the “Stop Telling Women to Smile” public art project, has taken her show on the road. The campaign features piercing portraits and a quote from women who have shared their stories of street harassment with Fazlalizadeh. Originally Fazlalizadeh pasted the posters on walls around her Brooklyn neighborhood, but after a successful Kickstarter, she has been traveling across the United States (and some of Mexico) to hear stories about how harassment changes with geography.
It was in New York City that I first thought about how transportation and geographic differences influence street harassment. I was listening to a coworker describe an unexpected bit of culture shock she encountered when she left Los Angeles for New York.
“When I first got here I was like, ‘What is wrong with men in New York? These men get in my face and harass me everyday. That just doesn’t happen to me in California,” my coworker said. “But then I realized I have to walk a lot more here. In L.A., we drive everywhere.”
As we talked about what street harassment looks like in a city steeped in car culture versus one built around public transit, lightbulbs lit up as I thought about how harassment has changed with each city, suburb, and rural county that I have lived in.
In L.A., my coworker explained, someone might yell at you from their car, but often the person being harassed is also in a car. I’ve driven down multilane parkways and seen men make obscene gestures or shout degrading comments through closed car windows. While still rude and uncomfortable, being in my car provides a sense of security and escape that isn’t there when I’ve been harassed on foot.
Growing up, in a small Upstate NY city, I knew in addition to harassing fellow motorists, drivers will also accost pedestrians. When I am walking I hear a yelped “I’d hit that!” from a car passing by at 30 miles per hour, I roll my eyes. When I hear about friends being slowly followed home by cars with tinted windows, I get worried. When a taxi driver suggestively asks, “So, pretty lady, are you married?” I clutch the door handle and grip my phone. Looking at these scenarios, it is easy to recognize how transportation can deepen the power divide between harasser and harassed.
Perhaps nowhere is this difference more impactful than on public transportation. Some of the worst harassment that I have experienced has happened on the subway. Unlike pedestrians, drivers, or cyclists, public transportation riders have no real control of how quickly they can escape an uncomfortable situation. If you hop on the express train from 59th St, it doesn’t matter if your harasser is leering, commenting, groping or even masturbating – you’re stuck with them for the entire length of Central Park.
As more research is created around sexual harassment, programs and laws are slowly being created to address unique needs in different parts of the country. Collective Action for Space Spaces launched a strong public awareness campaign in the Washington, D.C. subway system, L.A. has adopted an anti-harassment law for cyclists, and activists in Lancaster, PA have erected anti-harassment billboards near roadways. This, Fazlalizadeh says, is exactly how it should be.
“It’s important for me,” she says on her Kickstarter page, “to learn about these differences and create work that will resonate better within a particular community.” Step by step, mile by mile, Fazlalizadeh is shining new light on the age old problem of street harassment – and in some communities, it looks like things are finally starting to change.
Katie is a social worker and community educator interested in ending gender-based violence, working with youth to make the world a better place, and using pop culture as a tool for social change. Check out her writing at the Imagine Better Blog and geek out with her on Twitter, @CornishPixie9.
Menusha Gunasekara, Matale, Sri Lanka, SSH Blog Correspondent
Sri Lanka has been known to many outsides as a land full of natural beauty, serene smiles and helpful people. However, as a Sri Lankan I am not free to explore the beauty easily as a woman.
When it comes to street harassment, we often receive the advice from our parents, aunts, and others that men are men and mind your own way. The Wariyapola incident was an historical turning point in Sri Lanka in showing the power imbalance in the gendered phenomena of street harassment.
Let me draw your attention to the Wariyapola Incident. First, what was happened! A girl who was waiting to take a bus to Colombo was subjected to comments of a man. Briefly, if I listed actions involved in the situations, those were included commenting that her dress has more holes, following her and asking her phone number, and publicly demonstrating signs of masturbating and asking to have sex with him. The result was she slapped him repeatedly and a video was released in the social media that only captured the part where she was slapping. Yes, the video went viral on social media sparking huge amount of comments.
This post is to look at the incident from different views.
First, I identified the focus on the woman provoking the sexist comments by men. Since the video of her slapping was shared, people said the man was “noble enough” to stay silent without hitting back the girl. It’s sad that the reporting on harassment to civil society comes through media in Sri Lanka. Many newspapers, radios shows and online newspapers were reporting the incident based on the portion which was recorded in the video clip. They were insulting the woman without realizing she was the victim first. They were forgetting the responsibility of investigating the truth and reporting it. I was surprised by this sexist journalism and found only few articles that supported the woman’s side.
The next interesting fact was comments about her dress. If she was dressed up appropriately, which means saree, people said she could not subjected to such harassment. Let me analyze this sexist argument. The saree or the Sinhalese Kandiyan Osariya which exposes back of shoulders, neck and waist of the body is much more appropriate than a wearing jean with a long sleeve blouse. The hidden point in so called appropriate dress is the amount body exposure to outside. However, I am quite sure the Sinhalese national dress exposes body more than any other casual dress. On the top of this, please keep in mind that women used to dress topless for many centuries in Sinhala society. So please do not tell me I can wear the national dress 24/7 and it will be the harassment- proof tool.
Next, the action of the victim, the girl, was unappropriated too according to many men and women in this country. If one asked why it was inappropriate, the answer is that she could have handled the situation without drama. She could have complained to the police and remained silent. Really? Should she?
I have been subjected to several incidents of street harassment each and every time I have used public transportation in last two months. I have exercised the minimum power in such situations as directly looking at the person but if I had the same incident that occurred in Wariyapola, I would not be different because I am aware my body and my dress is not for you entertainment and I am a person not a piece of meat or a sex object. What was the problem of hitting the perpetrator? Neither was it violating the law in the country or harming human rights, but the exercise of the power by the woman which is not the expected role in Sinhalese culture.
Looking at the incident as a whole, it is clear that nobody tells men in this country that you should not cat call, verbally harass or comment on dresses, or engage in any other form of harassment. It is illegal, shameful and not an act of real men. This is not taught in schools neither in religious institutions. I firmly believe that unless you identify these activities as illegal and that they really do exist behind the serene smiles of men in the “land like no other,” it will not absorb in to the general consciousness.
We need to make it visible and show that women are harassed every minute in Sri Lanka regardless of their age, dress code and outlook.
Menusha is a recent graduate of Asian University for Women, Bangladesh and holds a B.S in Public Health. She is an advocate for Peace and Human Rights, Women Issues and Environmental Protection. She can be reached via LinkedIn.