Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

"Butt Slap Leads to Activism" Follow Up Article

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About a month ago, a contributor to this blog (Lauren) wrote a post about a recent street harassment experience she had where a teenager on a bike slapped her butt while she was jogging in her neighborhood. She said that as a result of that experience (and other experiences of street harassment) she was going to write an article about street harassment for one of her classes in her master’s program in journalism at the University of Western Ontario in London, ON, Canada. As part of her paper, she interviewed me and the facilitator of Holla Back Tononto. Well, she just sent me her completed paper and she’s considering trying to get it published , so check it out!  Way to go, Lauren!

Like Lauren, most of the street harassment activists I’ve spoken to became an activist because one day they said, “enough” and decided to do something about the harassment they were experiencing and/or saw other women experiencing.

If you’re fed up with street harassment, I encourage you to think about something you can do about it, be it sharing your story, writing an article, starting a HollaBack website, posting fliers in your neighborhood, making  a documentary, or starting an activist group, you can make a difference.

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“Butt Slap Leads to Activism” Follow Up Article

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About a month ago, a contributor to this blog (Lauren) wrote a post about a recent street harassment experience she had where a teenager on a bike slapped her butt while she was jogging in her neighborhood. She said that as a result of that experience (and other experiences of street harassment) she was going to write an article about street harassment for one of her classes in her master’s program in journalism at the University of Western Ontario in London, ON, Canada. As part of her paper, she interviewed me and the facilitator of Holla Back Tononto. Well, she just sent me her completed paper and she’s considering trying to get it published , so check it out!  Way to go, Lauren!

Like Lauren, most of the street harassment activists I’ve spoken to became an activist because one day they said, “enough” and decided to do something about the harassment they were experiencing and/or saw other women experiencing.

If you’re fed up with street harassment, I encourage you to think about something you can do about it, be it sharing your story, writing an article, starting a HollaBack website, posting fliers in your neighborhood, making  a documentary, or starting an activist group, you can make a difference.

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Butt Slap Leads to Activism

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Recently I was slapped on the butt by a teenager on a bicycle while I was jogging in my neighborhood. He simply came up behind me, spanked me, and furiously pedaled away. I was wearing sweatpants and my little brother’s oversized soccer jersey. No makeup, greasy ponytail – I looked like crap (though, even if I had been provocatively dressed, it would be no excuse for this boy’s behaviour).

After screaming profusely at the kid and his friends, who rode away laughing like hyenas, I walked home almost in tears, feeling so violated and frustrated with society in general. I can’t stop asking myself how somebody, especially at such a young age, would think that he has the right to act like that towards another person. It’s scary. I feel as though women over the age of 12 can rarely step outdoors wearing anything less than a parka without being jeered at by creepy men anymore. And I’m frustrated.

[As a result], I am working on a story for a school assignment on the subject of street harassment…Street Harassment is positively rampant in London, [Ontario,  Canada], and I think that my campus community would respond positively to an article like this. Hopefully, it will inspire girls in London to start fighting back against the creeps that scream at us from their cars. At the very least, it can raise awareness about the fact that street harassment isn’t a harmless game.

– L.O.

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Runner Murdered in Vancouver Park

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The absolute worst outcome of street harassment is murder.

ladner-beaudryPolice aren’t entirely sure if the murder of a 53 year old woman named Wendy Ladner-Beaudry who was running in Vancouver was random (form of street harassment) or targeted. But chances are, the fact that she was a woman running alone in a park made her assailant feel more able to or justified in attacking her…

A fellow woman runner wrote a poignant article in the Vancouver Sun about Wendy”s tragic murder and what that means to her as a female runner in that area. Excerpt:

“I know there is truth that random acts can happen anywhere at any time and that I should not be stymied and let cowardly predators win. I know this. I also know my husband will not change his habits when he runs in the park. His gender gives him the freedom to go alone at any time of the day.

This loss of a runner-in-arms has inspired fear. This loss of freedom I reluctantly accept because I love living more than I love running.

I will get a whistle. And I will purchase them for my running buddies.

I will go running this weekend with my girlfriends in the park.

I will not go in those woods alone to run.

My ears will prickle when I am there. Listening for a predator.

I will hear the woodpecker on Sasamat trail because I will not have my iPod.

I will look at the guests in the park with a keen eye.

I will not go at dawn or dusk.”

Just like the attack on a female runner in New York City earlier this year, the attacker hasn’t been found, so that certainly would add to my fear were I a runner in that area. It’s very difficult to make sense out of a tragedy like this and hard not to want to recoil in reaction and self preservation. And I think she’s right, her husband and other men probably will not alter their lives, but women runners may – if they weren’t already making such alterations – out of fear of being the wrong woman at the wrong place at the wrong time. What a shame.

Update: I found another article with more info about Wendy, including an interview with her husband:

“As well as being a high-performance athlete most of her life, Beaudry said, his wife was a dedicated volunteer, helping women at a local food bank get running shoes so they could participate in an annual charity run.

He said his wife made daily solo runs in Pacific Spirit Park.

‘She always went in there knowing she was a woman and had to be careful, and that there were risks. This was not someone who went into anything blindly.’

His wife would have been the first one to organize a run in the park after such a killing to show her lack of intimidation, Beaudry said.”

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