Thank You for Making International Anti-Street Harassment Week a Success!

UPDATE: Here is a thorough report about the activities of Meet Us on the Street 2012.
Day 7 wrap-up of International Anti-Street Harassment Week is still to come….but before any more time passed, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who participated.

You helped make the first-ever week of awareness and collective activism against street harassment a success!

The Internet, the streets, the classrooms swelled with discussions, messages, stories, and reclamations of public spaces. I read numerous accounts of young women who said they were so glad to see a movement on this issue and how it made them feel no longer feeling alone and gave them the courage to stand up to harassers. They really touched me and I know their awareness of this issue was due to our collective efforts, our amplification of the issue to reach people outside our immediate networks and social bubbles.

Thank you for making all of this possible, for spreading the word, engaging your networks, blogging, creating posters, holding events, and speaking out. You made history…and from here, our efforts will continue to spread further.

I’m still working to collect/document everything that happened, but it is clear that this was truly a global effort with a big impact.

* There were over 100 co-sponsoring organizations and groups from 21 countries
* There was a fair amount of media coverage (a list in progress)
* You can view more than 250 photos of activism worldwide.

Here are just a few highlights of the week:

* UN Women listed the week of awareness on their calendar

* Women in Cities International in Canada launched a new publication called “Tackling Gender Exclusion,” based on the findings and experiences of the “Gender Inclusive Cities Program (GICP),” funded by the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women.

* Hollaback launched a bystander street harassment campaign

* A group of men and women in NYC created a 2 minute video about bystander responses men can have to men who harass women on the street. In the one week since its launch, it’s been viewed 45 times shy of 200,000!!

* Thousands of middle and high school students and college students across the USA participated in classroom and community discussions about street harassment

* Rallies on the issue of street harassment took place in Delhi, India; Philadelphia, PA, and New York City, NY

* Sidewalk chalking took place in Brussels, Belgium, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Maryland

* Film screenings took place in Turkey, Croatia, Canada; and numerous cities across the USA

* Creative action like street theater, monologues, art exhibits, handing out “red cards,” and mud art occurred in numerous cities worldwide

* The Women’s Media Center made their Wednesday #SheParty discussion about street harassment on Twitter. Visit Twitter and read through the #SheParty thread to see all the tweets about street harassment during the 2-hour online discussion

* The Pixel Project created a new section on its website about street harassment

* B Safe created a translation of Stop Street Harassment in Norwegian

* Breakthrough/Bell Bajao in India launched a be a hero bystander campaign

* Lots of online campaigns occurred, including several blogging series.

* Discussions and conversations about street harassment included many focused on the intersection of racism (in the USA) with sexism as well as homophobia/transphobia and how that impacts people’s sense of safety in public places. The week coincided with many rallies in the USA in protest of the killing of Trayvon Martin, a young African American man who was shot simply for “looking suspicious” while wearing a hoodie, walking home from a store with a bag of candy in his pocket. In Washington, DC, a huge rally in protest of the recent attacks on two gay men and a transwoman also happen to occur during the week. These are all inter-related issues and for many people, all forms of discrimination they face in public places. I hope these conversations continue.

Real-time updates about the week:

* Go back in time on the Stop Street Harassment blog for write-ups and blog round-ups about the activism that occurred each day.

* The Meet Us on the Street Facebook page has lots of updates you can check out from the week

* Read the hashtag #EndSHWeek and #streetharassment on Twitter to find lots of tweets about street harassment, sent throughout the week

Several groups involved in the week will send guest-blog posts about their action…so look for more updates on the week of action in the coming days. And otherwise, back to the regularly scheduled program of highlighting street harassment in the news and posting stories submitted worldwide. And the planning for next year begins soon…. :0

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