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Day 1: #EndSHWeek 2014

March 30, 2014 By HKearl

Today was the first day of International Anti-Street Harassment Week!

Here are a few highlights:

PDAP held a march against street harassment in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and around 500 people viewed it.

Hollaback! Bahamas held a Chalk Walk downtown Nassau & the surrounding areas.

Project Respect in Sri Lanka hosted an Open Forum Discussion at Galle Face Green with experts and the general population. They said, “We thought it went quite well. Very encouraging turn out and they were vocal through out expressing their concerns and anger towards street harassment. Steady start for a longer journey.”

In Texas, Houston Community College held a Unity March on campus.

Citizens Against Street Harassment posted signs and distributed flyers about street harassment laws in Florida

Hollaback! Bmore hosted a breakout session on street harassment at the 2014 B’More Proud LGBTQIA Leadership Summit in Maryland. One guy said he’d never really heard about street harassment before & found the workshop really informative.

Hollaback! Boston organized a HOLLAoffline event – a time for coffeehouse chatter and movement building. They had a particularly good discussion with a male ally who wants to become more involved.

Hollaback! Houston had a “Stop Telling Women to Smile” Opening Exhibit Reception at Myth & Symbol.

And there was a LOT of awareness-raising on social media, including Pixel Project’s Google+ hangout discussion about street harassment with Hanna Lena Krüger, a ProChange Member in Germany and myself. Look for a recording on YouTube soon.

As we prepare for day 2, check out the events | get ready for a 1 p.m. ET tweet chat (#EndSH) | browse the photo album for the week!

When “goo-goo eyes” were illegal

March 30, 2014 By HKearl

Street harassment is NOT a new problem.

The Washington Post tells us:

“An ordinance enacted in 1905, though since repealed:

[H]ereafter any male person in the City of Houston who shall stare at, or make what is commonly called “goo-goo eyes” at, or in any other manner look at or make remarks to or concerning, or cough or whistle at, or do any other act to attract the attention of any woman or female person upon or traveling along any of the sidewalks, streets or public ways of the City of Houston, with the intent or in a manner calculated to annoy, or to attempt to flirt with any such woman or female person, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof in the Corporation Court of the City of Houston, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding One Hundred Dollars….”

While that law is no longer around, these laws against #streetharassment are: http://tinyurl.com/oqaxo5r

March 30 – April 5: Share Images & Flyers

March 30, 2014 By HKearl

Any easy way to participate in International Anti-Street Harassment Week (March 30 – April 5) is to share images on social media and post/distribute flyers. Here are ones you can use!

Images for Social Media:

1. Use one of these images as your Facebook profile photo from March 30 – April 5, 2014. Post the images on Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest or other social media sites. (Right click on the image to save it to your computer and then upload it.)

Facebook Cover Images (click to see larger image, then right click to save it & upload it):

Flyers to post, hand out at events or distribute in public spaces.

Side 1: “Street Harassment is…”

Side 2: “Okay and Not Okay” ways to interact with strangers in public (PDF – English) (PDF – Nepali)

Single Half Sheet Flier (PDF) | 2 Per Flier (PDF)

Single Quarter Sheet Flier (PDF) | 4 Per Flier(PDF)

10 Things To Know for Anti-Street Harassment Week

March 30, 2014 By HKearl

Safe public spaces. Freedom from harassment. The right to go where you want, when you want, wearing what you want.

This marks the start of the fourth annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week when people and groups worldwide work together to bring local and global attention to street harassment and when we collectively call for it to end. Together our voices grow stronger.

10 Things You Need to Know:

1. There are at least 150 groups in 23 countries that are participating + there will be thousands of individuals joining us.

2. Here are our events. If your action is not listed, please send me info/link as soon as possible, hkearl @stopstreetharassment.org

3. Here are ideas for action, including how to download the Stop Telling Women to Smile poster, info about a free phone app called Safetipin and details about our six Tweet Chats.

4. The tools page has updated logos in several languages and more flyers and shareable images you can use.

5. Do you want to guest blog or have a blog post cross-posted on Stop Street Harassment during the week? Let me know, hkearl @stopstreetharassment.org.

6. We’ve started to get media coverage. If your action is covered in the news or if you write an op-ed or blog post, please send me the link and I’ll add it to the list and the wrap-up report.

7. Here is the 2014 photo album. Please send photos, or links to photo albums, to me as soon as they’re taken/posted and I’ll update the album in real time. Let’s be virtually part of and celebrate each other’s events!

8.Here’s the report form where you can say how your action went (no matter how big or small). This information will be used for the annual wrap-up report and potentially for articles about the week.

9. The week kicks off in a few hours with this virtual event:

30 March: Pixel Project, based in Malaysia, is hosting a Google+ hangout discussion about street harassment at 8:30 a.m. EDT with Ursula Singh, Executive at YUWA (Nepal), Hanna Lena Krüger, a ProChange Member (Germany) & me. There will be plenty of time for Q&A!

YouTube: http://is.gd/ISHWPixel
Google+: http://is.gd/ISHWPixelG

10. My thanks for your hard work to prepare events and actions so that this week we can join forces and demand public places that are free from harassment!!

USA: 29 Things Men Can Do (and Not Do) to Challenge Street Harassment

March 28, 2014 By Correspondent

Joe Samalin, New York City, NY, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

March 30th – April 5th is Anti-Street Harassment Week so come out and Meet Us On The Street!

Can’t make it? Don’t know anything about street harassment? Don’t know what to do? Not sure how to make a difference? There are limitless ways to make a difference. Here are just a few to start us off…

1. Learn how often street harassment actually happens (spoiler alert: it happens a lot. Informal studies and more formal research show that the overwhelming majority of girls and women experience it often.)

2. If research and numbers are not your thing, try this. Ask three women in your life (three women you trust and who trust you) about their experiences being harassed in public. If they don’t mind sharing you can ask where it happens and how often, what is said or done, how they react (if they do), and how the harassers react back. Ask them how this affects them, and how they feel about it. But don’t forget to…

3. Listen to their answers, without judging, disagreeing, or arguing. Just listen.

4. If you do not get harassed regularly, think about what that means for you. Recognize that as a privilege we have. And then choose something else on this list and do something about it.

5. Challenge myths about street harassment.

6. For example, don’t bring up your one female friend who likes street harassment to show that it is ok to harass women. It is a slap in the face to the millions of women who don’t like it. And you can’t tell who might like it by looking at them anyway, so it’s kind of a moot point to begin with.

7. And ask that friend who likes it if they always like it, or if it depends on context.

8. Talk to (male) friends who don’t harass women. Ask them if they ever notice it, and what they think about it. Ask them what they do or can do to challenge it. And what you can all do together! Remember to challenge myths (see #5 above) and don’t defend it (#27 below).

9. Understand that street harassment and other forms of violence in public are common against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people and people of color, as well as women and girls. And understand too that all those categories are not mutually exclusive.

10. Support organizations like Girls For Gender Equity, Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, Stop Street Harassment, Hollaback, Center for Anti-Violence Education, Anti-Violence Project, RightRides, and others working to support those affected by street harassment and other related forms of violence.

11. Safely and respectfully intervene when you see harassment in public. Be creative!

12. Practice practice practice what you can say to friends, co-workers, teammates, classmates, and family members when they harass women:
“Cut that out, it really makes me uncomfortable.”
“Don’t do that in front of me….or at all. It’s not right.”
“You really shouldn’t do that. It’s disrespectful and it is called harassment.”
“(Insert witty line here.)”

13. Practice what you can say to strangers when they harass women
“Hey man I heard what you said to those women and it’s really not ok.”
“Don’t do that around here.”
“Can you please cut that out? People are just trying to get through their day and you are bothering them.”
“It’s not a compliment.”
“Don’t tell women to smile – they can feel however they want to feel.”
“(Insert another witty line here.)”

14. Print up tee-shirts with messages like ‘her name isn’t baby’, ‘it isn’t a compliment, it’s harassment’, ‘respect women and girls in public’, and more. Give them to men you know. Or sell them and give the profit to organizations addressing violence against women.

15. Join/support/get trained by agencies promoting healthy non-violent masculinity – Men Can Stop Rape, A Call To Men, Men Stopping Violence, Coach For America, White Ribbon Campaign, and others.

16. Contact men in leadership positions (coaches, politicians, business owners, teachers, etc.) and get them to make public statements against street harassment.

17. Figure out fun creative ways to interrupt street harassment on your block and in your neighborhood.

18. Practice your ‘hell no’ look for when other men turn to you in public and try and get you to harass women and girls with them, or to have your back when they get called out for it.

19. Film and release your own hometown video about men challenging street harassment to try and match the coolness of NYC , California, Northern Azerbaijan, and Egypt.

20. Use art, theater, music, or whatever else you are good at and enjoy doing to raise a little awareness about men challenging street harassment.

21. Join us for anti-street harassment week this year and every year.

22. Actually, make every week anti-street harassment week.

23. Think of one thing you can do today that would challenge street harassment, and then…

24. Do that thing, and then…

25. Share that thing you did with others, so they can try it too.

26. Add to this list and share it with others – at home, at work, at school, at church, at practice, everywhere.

27. Don’t defend it.

28. Don’t ignore it

29. Don’t do it.

Joe Samalin has been addressing gender-based violence for over 15 years, including as the Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator for Men Can Stop Rape. He is currently the Outreach and Training Manager for the Disaster Distress Helpline and is examining among other things gender-based violence in the aftermath of disasters. Follow him on Twitter, @joesamalin.

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