Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

A Message to Street Harassers

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By Kendra Corbin, SSH Intern

Via Hollaback!

As a young woman, I’ve experienced my fair share of street harassment. I’ve been dealing with it for most of my life. For a long time, I tried to blow off the whistles and “hey baby” comments as just part of being a woman. Now I know better. Despite the lackluster belief that “it’s not a big deal,” it IS a terrifyingly big deal.

My most frightening experience happened when I was only 13-years-old. My older sister was 16 at the time. She had offered to drive my friend and I home late at night. We accidentally locked ourselves out of the car in an empty parking lot. As we waited for my parents, a group of men in a truck began to drive around us in circles while they honked, whistled, and laughed. Frightened and alone, we huddled together while we waited for them to lose interest and leave.

In retrospect, it disgusts me that those men found amusement in harassing terrified children. I also find myself growing angry, but I become angrier because I recognize that my experience is not uncommon. Street harassment is a subject that most women can relate to because they’ve experienced it themselves. Whenever I bring the subject up with friends or acquaintances, the conversation seems to flood with stories that all begin with, “Well, this one time…” In honor of these stories that have been shared with me, I would like to acknowledge just a few of the harassers that either I or my loved ones have encountered.

The man that yelled, “I didn’t know they made tits that big” to me as I walked to class, then demanded that I show him that “cherry pie under there.”

The man that tried to yank up my friend’s skirt while she was visiting DC.

The man that leered at my sister, then commented on her “nice ass legs.”

The boy on my school bus who was dared to grope my breasts when I was 14 (who was not successful because I promptly shoved back into his seat).

The man that slapped my friend’s behind as she walked to the beach.

The group of men that thought it would be hilarious to pretend to masturbate as they drove by sister.

The young men that held a sign on the highway to my mother and other female drivers that read, “Show us your hooters.”

And finally, that very first man that honked and whistled at me when I was only 11-years-old.

To all of these harassers and the many others out there, we have a clear message: We are not required compliment your male ego. Your advances are not welcomed. Your words are not flattering. Your behavior is intolerable.

To every woman that has had her day interrupted by rude comments, uncomfortable gazes, unwanted touching, or any other form street harassment, you are not alone. Familiarize yourself with ways to respond to street harassers. You’ll thank yourself for it later when you’re prepared with a witty response for someone’s barbaric behavior.

Please share your story.

Kendra Corbin is senior at Shenandoah University. She is majoring in Mass Communications and minoring in Women’s Studies.

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If Beyonce Isn’t Safe, Is Any Woman Safe?

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In the midst of Beyonce’s album release, through all of the fanatic and media frenzy, one thing stuck out to me in her visual album: Harassment.

It ranged from being followed or harassed by fans when trying to take a walk and clear her mind, as seen in “Jealous” to the more abrasive, familiar form of harassment in “Blow”: being pulled forcefully by a male aggressor when walking.

This is the form of harassment that I’m most familiar with. Catcalls are definitely one form, but I’m often grabbed and pulled off my path, whether I’m walking down the street, through the transit center, or in a hallway.

This scene, less than five seconds of the video, was left unaddressed and hardly served as a major plot point. So I couldn’t help but wonder why she included it. Was it real and unprompted? Or was it so commonplace to her, the way it is to me, that there was nothing to say about it. That’s it’s just what happens?

I then remembered her having her butt slapped by a male audience member recently during her world tour. I wondered if that was related.

While she received both praise and criticism for how she responded in the moment, I wondered if and how this affected her relationship with her fans. She has been known to create intimate venues, or to get close enough to shake hands, touch shoulders or share the microphone. Did being groped while trying to create intimate entertainment impact her willingness to do this?

Yes, five seconds in a video left me with all of these questions: questions about authenticity, harassment, and traumatic experiences. But that five seconds also left me with arguably the biggest question of all:

If someone of her status and power gets groped and harassed, is anyone safe?

Rickelle Mason was the Stop Street Harassment intern in fall 2013. She is an undergraduate senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. With a major in Psychology and a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, she has a passion for feminist psychology, and using community-based participatory research to dismantle gender-based violence. She has worked for several years in the university’s Community Psychology Research Lab, which was recently the recipient of the “Outstanding Training in Community Psychology” International Award.

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Let’s keep fighting for equality!

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If you missed it earlier this month, Amanda Hess’s essay for the Pacific Standard titled “Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet” is an important read. Her thorough article looked at both the harassment that women endure and the toll it takes on them, both mentally and financially.

Amanda Marcotte wrote an excellent response piece for The Daily Beast that connects well to the issue of street harassment. Here is an excerpt:

“If we understand online harassment to be an outgrowth of other forms of abuse of women, from cat-calling to rape and domestic violence, then the pat assertion that it’s a modern, Western phenomenon is much harder to pull off. That’s particularly true when trying to claim sexual liberation somehow causes the harassment. Countries that have a more sexually repressive culture than the U.S. —think Egypt or India—have plenty of sexual harassment and assault problems to go around. The blunt truth is that why some men harass women—or beat women or rape women—is not at all complicated. They do it because it makes them feel powerful. They do it because they want women to be submissive, second-class citizen. They want women to know our place is as servants and sex objects instead of real people, and are willing to resort to violence and harassment to get their way. This is true whether your society is feminist or patriarchal, sexually liberated or repressed.

This is not a matter of speculation. Studies show a strong link between a man’s embrace of traditional gender roles and his propensity for domestic violence. Even just exposing a man to sexist jokes is linked to that man expressing more tolerance for violence against women. Violence and harassment against women is not some inexplicable phenomenon of nature, but an expression of an ideological belief that women should be subservient. The Internet doesn’t create the urge to harass women, and it probably doesn’t even magnify it. What it does is it makes harassment more efficient and personal, all at the same time. A man who likes to abuse and harass women is limited by physical proximity, time restraints, and legal considerations in the real world. There are only so many waitresses whose butts you can pinch in a day, especially without being thrown out of restaurants or even having the police called. You can holler at women on the sidewalk, but they can move along. Online, however, a man who enjoys harassing women can attack dozens in a very short period of time. He can recruit his friends to make the attacks more intense and has a lot more avenues for attack, going through email, Facebook, Twitter, and blog comments. It’s harder for women to just walk away from your cat-calling online; they have to actively block the harasser. (Which in turn is also exciting for the harasser, who can use the blocking as evidence that he successfully got under his victim’s skin.) Following women without getting the cops called on you is much easier online than in public. If a particular woman catches a harasser’s attention in public, odds are low he will be able to figure things like her name and how to find her. But online, you not only have all sorts of details about the object of your obsession’s life, but you have multiple venues to get to her.

While these specifics can and should be addressed through technological and legal means, we also need to understand that none of this online harassment is happening in a vacuum. It’s all just a new way of expressing a very old—indeed, an ancient—sentiment, that a woman’s place is to be silent, submissive, and servile to men and that any women who disagree are to be put down with violence. The long-term solution to the problem is to fight for women’s equality, and keep fighting until the idea that a woman is anything but equal to a man is a relic of the past.”

AGREED!! Street harassment, online harassment, sexual violence and rape are largely symptoms of gender inequality. Any effort we can make to close the equality gap will lead to a decrease in these issues. How will you help?

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Street harassment in Azerbaijan

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Suzanne Rothman writes about street harassment in Azerbaijan for Eurasianet Commentary. Excerpt:

“On paper, Azerbajani women enjoy full legal equality with men. Section II of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan states that “men and women possess equal rights and liberties.” In addition, Azerbaijan signed in 1995 the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It’s also true that in some professions, Azerbaijani women have been able to build careers.

But on the streets of Baku, in everyday situations outside the workplace, it’s still clearly a man’s world. I have lived in Baku since September 2013, working as a teacher of English, and I witness on a regular basis men accosting women in a host of degrading manners. My impressions about harassment are buttressed by the stories I hear from my Azerbaijani female friends and acquaintances. The most dehumanizing one my local friends and I have experienced so far is the literal catcall. Men will beckon women with the same set of tongue clicks used to attract the attention of cats. Men here also can be very direct, often inviting women, who are total strangers, into their cars.

Constant street harassment creates an atmosphere of intimidation. Men do not restrain themselves to making comments and sounds, but often follow women around after being ignored. Not too long ago, I walked away from an older man who tried to speak to me, and instead of leaving me alone after his advances were flatly rejected, he followed me down the street until I walked into a shop. This all happened in broad daylight, and it happens a lot according to my Azeri female friends who regularly endure similar experiences.

The problems for women intensify after sundown. A woman walking outside alone at night is often perceived to be a prostitute, regardless of what area she is in, what she is wearing, or her demeanor. Men in vehicles are apt to bluntly approach women and offer them money for sexual services. My friends and I walked in the opposite direction after receiving such a proposal, only to realize the driver backed up in the street to follow us. Such predatory behavior is typical. A local colleague relayed that after returning home late one night a man followed her to her building, asking “how much?”

This pattern of male behavior creates an environment that compels women to stay at home after dusk. Though legally they are free to do as they please, women choose to remain housebound due to the harassment they know they will endure by going out.”

This is not okay.

The good news? Last year, Jake Winn, a Peace Corps volunteer and a youth development facilitator in northern Azerbaijan, worked with male students who made an Anti-Street Harassment video. The title, “Ay Gardash! Kishi Ol!”, can be translated to, ‘Hey man, be a gentleman!” They are distributing the video throughout the country, along with a lesson plan and discussion questions for other volunteers to use with their own students: Street Harassment Lesson Plan (English) | Street Harassment Lesson Plan (Azerbaijani)

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Meet Our New Blog Correspondents!

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After a successful first year in 2013, I’m excited to announce the first Blog Correspondents cohort of 2014!

They will write monthly articles about street harassment in their community & activism efforts through April.

Andrea Ayres-Deets, San Francisco, CA, USA

Andrea is interested in four things: intersectional feminism, checking privilege, cats, and space. Okay, so there are a lot more things she’s interested in, but there’s only time for so many. Originally from Chicago, she recently moved to San Francisco with her husband and cat. Before writing for SSH, she worked as a politics intern at PolicyMic and field organizer. She currently consults with startups in the SF area on content and how to better engage users. You can follow her on twitter: @missafayres or check out her website ayres-deets.com.

Rocío Andrés, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Rocío holds a Bachelor´s degree in Audiovisual Communication, History of Art (both Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) and a Master´s in Education (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain, 2010). She has six years experience as a TV and advertising producer. Most recently, she has been working as an English, Spanish and Secondary teacher in different countries. Today, she is based in Edinburgh as a nursery teacher and collaborates with an online magazine. Her interest in sexual harassment started through personal research on the Egyptian Arab Spring and then through profound and careful readings of gang rapes in Tahrir Square and its media coverage. She will soon write a thesis on it. She has a great passion for Egyptian women´s fight against sexual harassment and, extensively, for all women around the world against sexual violence. Since then, she also wants to fight. Follow her on Twitter, @ioandres.

Heather Frederick, Austin, TX, USA

Heather has been dedicated to working for the human rights of all people since she was in high school. While earning her BA in Women’s Studies, Spanish and Linguistics at San Diego State University she was active with the National Organization for Women and VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood. At the UN-Mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica, where she earned her MA in Gender & Peacebuilding, Heather participated in the Vagina Monologues and organized the university’s first Clothesline Project to raise awareness of gender-based violence. She currently works to end IPV as a Supervisor for The National Dating Abuse Helpline, www.loveisrespect.org. Her passions include intersectional feminism, reproductive justice, languages, travel, blogging at www.FeministActivism.com (@FeministSNVA) and bringing an end to human rights abuses.

Pallavi Kamat, Mumbai, India

Pallavi is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Commerce Graduate from the University of Mumbai, India, with around 12 years of experience working in the corporate sector. Currently, she is working in the Credit Department of a new generation private sector bank. She is passionate about life, books, movies, music and friends. She is proud to declare that she has been a feminist as far as she can remember. She can be found blogging about various issues, specifically books and movies, at www.pallosworld.blogspot.in. She openly rants about issues on Twitter, @pallavisms.

Kriti Khatri, Bhaktapur, Nepal

Kriti is student of MSc chemistry. She is engaged in different social organization in Nepal and has undertaken different responsibilities for conducting projects like awareness campaign on menstrual health, women literacy and entrepreneurship etc. Currently she is working on anti-street harassment issues in Nepal with the Astitwa Foundation. She enjoys expressive writings and works as a web content writer as a profession. She writes and researches stories for astiwa.com where she emphasizes women’s voices which are suppresses by social prejudice. She loves the idea of volunteerism and she envisions a society where every human being, despite their gender, social and racial identity, can be able to live a prosperous, equal and respectful life as a global citizen. Find more of her writing on her blog.

Katie Monroe, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Katie is passionate about the intersection between gender equality and active transportation (biking and walking). A graduate of Haverford College with a BA in Anthropology / Concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies, she works to create inclusive spaces within the bicycling movement. She founded the Women Bike PHL campaign at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia in 2013 to make riding a bicycle more fun and feasible for Philadelphia women of all ages and backgrounds. She also works at the Philly nonprofit Gearing Up, which gives some of Philadelphia’s most marginalized women – those in transition from incarceration, addiction, and/or abuse – the opportunity to ride bicycles for exercise, transportation, and personal growth. She loves biking and walking in Philadelphia and hopes for a day when street harassment isn’t such a daily part of the experience. Follow her on Twitter, @cmon_roe.

Brittany Oliver, Baltimore, MD, USA

Brittany is a recent graduate of Towson University and holds a B.S in Mass Communications with a focus in Public Relations. She is an advocate and thought leader for civic and societal issues related to feminism, social justice and civil rights. Brittany works in the non-profit communications sector and supports local anti-street harassment advocacy through Hollaback! Baltimore. She is also an organizer for One Billion Rising 2014 and is an avid volunteer within in community. Her goal in writing for SSH is to educate people about the harassment that takes place on the streets of Baltimore, which she’s experienced her whole life. Her offline activities include salsa dancing, arts & crafts, reading and attending local community events. She blogs at brittuniverse.wordpress.com and publicly rants on Twitter, @btiara3

Jeanette R, Irvine, CA, USA

Jeanette is a recent university graduate with a lifelong passion for social justice and change. She is particularly interested in issues of gender, human rights, race, equality, and immigration. She has had a lifelong love affair with writing as not only a creative medium, but also as a powerful tool for socially transformative change and advocacy. She is very excited about helping advance the mission of SSH in creating safe, harassment-free spaces for all people.

Joe Samalin, New York City, NY, USA

Joe Samalin has been addressing gender-based violence for over 15 years, starting as a student activist. Based in NYC, he was the Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator for Men Can Stop Rape, a trainer for the Anti-Stalking Program at Safe Horizon, co-facilitated a program for abusive teen partners, and lived in Japan for four years and examined gender-based violence and rape culture there. Additionally he has been an assistant chef, professional archaeologist, and made origami window displays for local shops at Christmas-time in high school. In March 2012 he co-created and directed ‘Sh*t Men Say To Men Who Say Sh*t To Women On The Street’, a YouTube video modeling men interrupting street harassment of women and girls which subsequently won a CDC award for Injury and Violence Prevention. 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.

Sandria M. Washington, Chicago, IL, USA

Sandria is a writer, health/wellness ambassador and community activist. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate (B.S. Advertising, ’02) has a passion for empowering girls and women, philanthropy and her personal development (i.e., constantly doing or learning something to help live her best life EVER!). She is a longtime volunteer with several local and national organizations and has facilitated programs/workshops for The Metropolitan Board of the Chicago Urban League, Young Women’s Leadership Charter School and Illinois Caucus of Adolescent Health. During 2012-2013, she served as a GirlTrek Harriet Tubman Trailblazer Fellow and continues to advocate for the health of Black women and girls as a Chicago City Rep. Sandria is a concert junkie, award-winning natural hair model, loving mommy to two kittens she rescued in the park – Dharma and Cozy – and certified yoga teacher. Read her ChicagoNow blog and follow her on Twitter @SandriaWrites.

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