Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Enough is Enough!

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I am nineteen years old, and I moved to Chicago about four months ago for school. I have consistently been harassed at least two or three times a week on the streets. I don’t wear skimpy outfits, I just dress normally and I am going on about my day when strange men come up to me and harass me.

I was waiting for a bus the other day when a guy pulled up in his car and started calling me “blondie” and kept asking me to party with him. He kept his up for at least five straight minutes, until my bus came. I had a man come up and whisper “hey pretty lady” into my ear a few weeks ago. One man went off on me on a bus, calling me horrible names when I ignored his advances. These sort of things happen all the time, and I am so sick of it. Honestly, it scares the hell out of me, especially when I’m alone at night. What makes me mad is that I’m too afraid to say anything to the men, or to do anything other than completely ignore them, because I’m afraid they’ll hurt me. Every single one of my female friends in Chicago have had similar experiences, mostly on public transit. We all ignore it, because we are all afraid that these men will physically harm us.

It makes me especially angry when people are all around and do nothing to stop it; my friend and I were on the train this winter when a drunk man proceeded to lay on the ground in front of us and stare openly at our breasts while yelling nonsensically. The train was full of people, and none of them did anything to help us, even though we were clearly uncomfortable and freaked out.

Now that it’s summer, I would love to go out in shorts or cute dresses, but whenever I do, I get even more harassment from men. It’s just become a rule to never walk alone at night, to never look at people in the eyes or talk back.

I love Chicago, but the government absolutely has to do something about this problem, especially on the L (the train). That is one place where they could keep women safe, where they could send out security to patrol on a regular basis. Yes, they have a “press for emergency” button, but how long will it take help to get there? Most of the time, the men are gone, or women are too afraid to make a stand. This has to stop!

-Liz Anderson

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Street Harassment Round Up – June 7

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Stories:

  • On this blog, a male ally submitted a story about street harassment he observed on a vacation in New Orleans; a female contributor shared a story about being followed by a man in NYC and having him touch her from behind with his penis (!)
  • You can submit your stories via Twitter now on Holla Back NYC. Tweet from the street with #hbnyc! Your tweets will be retweeted through @emilymaynot and posted to HollabackNYC!” Here’s their first entry sent this way, from @ElizabethKoke: a dude turned to look me up and down, called me “bitch” and said that it looked like I had a long day but still looked good.
  • On Holla Back CHICAGO a contributor tells how a man in a truck took photos of her butt as she walked home from running at a park and then he had the nerve to call her a pervert for “wearing see-through pants.”

  • Holla Back DC! has several new contributor posts this week. They also have a post about talking to WMATA about sexual harassment on DC public transportation. Way to put on the pressure, ladies!

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem!

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Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

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Street Harassment from NY to France to Japan

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Exploring the blogosphere, I came across the following street harassment post on the blog Pomp and Circumstance:

“Heat and mating season make New Yorkers let it all hang out. I am pro sex yet have always had mixed feelings about street harassment. A woman whose weight fluctuates from average to a little extra, a globe trekker approaching 30, I’ve developed an international view on the issue.

Growing up in Philly after I lost my baby fat and had a growth spurt I got a lot of attention on the block. I chuckled, flinched sometimes. After a few years, I took “White is right!” “Can I get a ride? and “Pssst, snowflake” for granted. Yet I was always self-conscious, wearing overalls over my miniskirt to waitress one summer.

In France, I starved myself more to almost French size, sticking out only to my matronly host who said I was a little plump. Still, I was the victim of both friendly Bonjours and a teenage ass grabber.

I moved to Japan and gained 20 pounds. My teenaged students shouted ‘I love you,’ and girls grabbed my breasts in clubs. I was the victim of chikan-subway molestation. A crime so common authorities told me to carry hatpins.

I moved to New York five years ago. In the big city, women and men, cultivate the blank, sidewalk face, which I wear more often than I’d like. Sometimes, a ‘God bless you, beautiful’ is a relief.

-A”

An interesting and global take on street harassment, huh? Do you feel glad to hear from people on the street sometimes?

I’m also interested in how she perceives the role her weight plays in the kinds and volume of street harassment she experiences. Have you ever felt your weight impacts the type or volume of harassment you experience?

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Dogs Deflect Street Harassers?

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If I go out alone at night in my neighborhood I get an average of 3-5 “hey baby” type comments per outing. If I go out with my dogs, I get roughly the same number of people, from roughly the same age/gender range asking me friendly questions about them, which is a kind of interaction that I enjoy. Somehow the presence of the dogs, even though they are not at all scary looking, completely changes the way men interact with me on the street from upsetting and sexualized to pleasant and neighborly. I am completely baffled.

-anonymous

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Toronto Event Tommorrow for Young Women!

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If you’re in Toronto and care about addressing street harassment & other violence against young women, check this out, via Shameless Magazine’s Blog:

Making Noise Media Camp for Young Women
For young women ages 14-25
Saturday May 30
rsvp: michelle cho, 416-703-6607 x 3
michelle@urbanalliance.ca

“Summer is almost here, and rates of violence always go up in the summer…we’re tired of being hollered at the in the streets and feeling unsafe, but want more creative ways of challenging gender violence.”

“We’ve organized a media camp FOR THIS SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2009, to start to bring young women together to plan a summer campaign to challenge street harassment in Toronto using media they’ve created themselves. We want to talk about how violence is experienced differently by women of colour and how it is made invisible by the media or sensationalized to be solely about being because they do not fit into the “mainstream”.”

Sounds great!

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